Kindle Reading: The Basics & Free Books

I've had a Kindle now for two years, and I've seen the interest grow quickly during this time. What is all the fuss about? How do they work? Are the books cheaper? Can you borrow books from the library? This week I'm going to answer all these questions in a series of blog posts. Why now? It's a great time to be a kindle because they are cheaper than they've ever been!

Let's start with the basics.

I have a Kindlewith the keyboard below the screen. The closest to this now is the Kindle Touch, which comes with the Wi-Fi instead of having to use home internet.

When the Kindle arrives it's empty. Plug it in to charge, and while it's charging go to the Amazon website and register your reader. You'll receive an email that is for use with your reader which is useful if you shop at other websites and need to "send" it to Amazon who forwards it to your reader. We'll get into that later. As you create your account for the Kindle you'll need to set up a payment choice. This is sort of like their "1-click ordering", but everything involving your Kindle is in "Manage Your Kindle". It's separate from ALL other ordering on Amazon. This was rather confusing to me at first. Since you're dealing with digital material that is instantly delivered it's set up on it's own account. You can still order physical items like you did before but you go through the shopping cart where you enter payment etc. just like before.

How Do You Load Books on to the Kindle?

Once your account is set up, click on "Kindle Store", then "Kindle eBooks". This is the main page for the digital e-Books. To the far right you'll see a Bestseller list divided into two parts: Top 100 Paid, and Top 100 Free. Go down to the bottom of the list and click "See all Best Sellers in Kindle Books". Now you'll see a page with both list on the same page. The one to the right is the list of FREE digital books that are the most popular. Far to the left of the page are the categories. If you click one of those it will give you the top 100 in that genre.

When you want a free book, you click on the title, decide if you want the book, then click the "Buy now with 1-click". You WILL NOT be charged as long as the Kindle Price under the book title is $0.00. It does generate a "thank you" and an email just as if you purchased it, but no money is taken out of your account.

Repeat until your fingers are tired, or you have all the books you need for your first day or week of owning a Kindle:)

Why are Books Free?

Sometimes book stay free for all time. They may be classics that are past copyright and have been made into digital volumes. Other times publishers are giving you a "taste" of an author by offering one of their books for free. Sometimes they are free for a few days, a week, a month or some unknown amount of time. Once they go back to a paid version, you still have the free one on your Kindle and in your archive for all time, as long as you "bought" it while it was free.

I LOVE reading, and I'm a fast reader. I'm also very eclectic. I'll read an Amish romance one day and the next day read a paranormal romance with werewolves. I also download free cookbooks, reference guides and nonfiction for research.

If you have any questions ask in the comments. Even if this is an old post I'll answer questions.

~Brenda

Flexible Recipe: Sausage and Pasta Soup

I came up with this soup because I wanted to use items I bought on sale. Our local Save-A-Lot got in a shipment of sausage, which included mild and hot varieties. The cashier told me she'd bought it and made sausage gravy the other night and it was very good. Why was I surprised? The sausage was $1.00 for a pound roll. I ended up buying 8 rolls and putting them in the freezer. This soup used two rolls, plus I had cabbage in the vegetable bin, beef broth I had bought on sale, store brand Northern Beans from the pantry that I keep on hand, crushed pureed tomatoes, also from the pantry. Lastly I had bought Barilla Piccolini, a healthy, fiber rich mini rotini that was .99 a box on sale. I threw this all together (the recipe is below) and came up with a thick, hearty soup that we served with French bread.

Sausage and Pasta Soup

Ingredients:
2 pounds hot sausage
1/4 cup chopped sweet onion
1 cup chopped green cabbage
32 ounces ready to serve beef broth
3-4 cups water
1 cup pureed crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. garlic pepper
14.5 ounce can Northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup mini pastas (rotini, shells etc.)
Optional: Parmesan cheese

Brown the sausage, adding the onion when it's partical cooked through. Continue to cook until the sausage is no longer pink. Drain the grease if necessary. Add all of the ingredients except the pasta and the cheese. Cook for 15 minutes until the cabbage is soft. Add the pasta and cook on a medium heat until the pasta is tender. Remove from heat. Serve with Parmesan cheese if desired.

Notes: Obviously this is a very flexible recipe. Made as is, it's pretty spicy. Use a mild Italian sausage for a less spicy soup. More cabbage is fine-- even 2-3 cups total if you like that much-- spinach can be used instead too. Other vegetables can be added, but you may need to increase the broth or water if it's too thick.

~Brenda

Leaf-Kicking October

Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter. ~Carol Bishop Hipps





Ah, remember those days when chasing milkweed seeds and jumping in the leaf pile was all it took to laugh with joy?

~Brenda

Shortcut Ribs on a Gas Grill

Slow cooked ribs are amazing, especially cooked over charcoal or wood. Cooking them on a gas grill simply takes too long without a few preparations. My husband picked up a rack of ribs because they were on sale for $1.99 a pound and he felt the urge to grill.

First he placed the ribs in a large stock pot, and covered them with water. He added to the pot:

1/2 of a large onion, about a tablespoon of seasoning salt, a teaspoon of Adobo seasoning and a teaspoon of garlic pepper. The ribs were boiled for about 20 minutes to partially cook the meat. Remove the pork from the water and season lightly with the same seasonings used in the water.

He placed the ribs, plus 4 pieces of boneless pork we bought after finding out we were going to have our three kids plus one extra teen for dinner. We wanted to make sure there was enough for everyone. I served them with baked beans and corn. The picture below is the meat after it was turned once.

We always baste our pork when grilling. The bottle he's holding is a Frank's Hot Sauce glass bottle we washed out when it was empty. It works great for basting since small amounts come out when it's shaken as in the picture. Add 1/2 white vinegar and 1/2 water to the bottle then add Adobo (We use the GOYA brand), seasoning salt and garlic pepper. If you don't have these spices you can use any spices that will go with BBQ such as chili powder, cayenne pepper, Cajun Seasoning etc. The ribs will end up seasoned three times: in the boiling water, before grilling and now with the basting liquid. That's why they will be so tasty.

Baste the meant frequently as it cooks, turning often. Depending on your grill and how low you can turn the flame, you may need to do as we did to keep the ribs from burning. There are two burners, which were both turned on low to start. About halfway through my husband turned off one of the burners and set the ribs off to the side. The boneless pork was finished first so he removed that to a platter while the ribs finished cooking. He kept the lid closed and the ribs continued cooking even though they weren't directly over the flame. I didn't time how long it took to cook, but I know it was about 20-30 minutes.

When the meat is almost done, brush with the BBQ sauce and cook a little longer on each side.

Remove the meat, cool for 5 minutes or so, then cut into serving size pieces.

Frugal Note: Use the broth that was left from boiling the ribs for soup the next day. It's great for minestrone or bean soup. Strain out the onions before using.

~Brenda

The Little Things

Life can be stressful, but in today's economy it can be frustrating and stressful on a daily basis. Making the decision to stay home with our kids 18 years ago wasn't an easy one. We made it though and have stuck with it. Fortunately I had my writing to fall back on, but it had been many years since I'd actually made a living at it. We've had good years and bad years as far as money goes, and somehow we managed to keep our sense of humor and our sanity. Everyone has a different way of coping, but for me it's a combination of digging in my garden, taking walks and reading. It's important that each person find the little things that will their mind. Without times of quiet we become grouchy, restless and circumstances seem much worse than they are.

We lived in the city for over ten years, and now we live in a rural area. Whether you live in the country or the city you find your own quite place. It may be sitting in a favorite chair while reading a book, or taking a walk in your yard. When we lived in the city I would sit in the backyard on a quiet day and listen to the birds. One way you can leave the stress behind of a bit is to focus on the textures and colors in nature. I used to do this on a walk in a city neighborhood, and now I do the same thing on our property in the country.

I love milkweed because it's such a pure white, and is so soft. How cool is the way it broadcasts it's seeds? The wind takes hold of the fuzz and scatters it far and wide.

Milkweed is also one of the plants that attracts butterflies. Watching monarchs or any variety of butterfly is guaranteed to relax the most stressed out person. It's hard not to smile when watching these colorful, dainty insects.

Jewelweed is an amazing wildflower and hard to miss if you aren't paying attention. It tends to grow in moist areas and hummingbirds love the flowers. In this picture it has dew on the leaves which reminded me of jewels:)

As I was walking I could hear rustling in the leaves, and realized I was hearing grasshoppers jumping into the field. I managed to get a picture of one on a leaf this afternoon. They are quite alien looking.

This fungus was growing on an old dead oak tree we have on our property. My daughter observed that it looked like roasted marshmallow.

Lastly, I loved this weed that had went to seed because it reminded me of fireworks. After my walk I felt refreshed and calm, which I ended up being a good thing since later in the afternoon I ended up in the middle of some teen drama.

I hope you find your "little thing" that can bring you peace and calm when things get stressful.

~Brenda

A Walk in the Fall Pasture

We have ten acres, and most of it is pasture with a small wooded area, and a small wetland spot near the road. Over the last week I've been walking and taking pictures. The leaves are just beginning to turn color, but you can tell Fall is in the air. I thought you'd all enjoy a picture tour of a Michigan pasture.



















~Brenda

Easy Breakfast Dinner

I try to make as much as I can from scratch, but when there's a good sale I'll stock up on things like Hamburger Helper, pancake mix, cake mixes and other things I can store in the pantry.

Hamburger Helper was on sale for $1.00 this week, so I picked up a box of Cheesy Hashbrowns. I already had pancake mix in the cupboard, and I bought a pound of breakfast sausage. Walmart had 1/2 pecks of Ginger Gold apples on sale for .98 cents per pound which I bought for eating and cooking. What did I do with all of these items? I made the hashbrowns with breakfast sausage instead of ground beef, following the instructions on the box.

I also made apple pancakes, which are extremely simple. I use an entire box of the complete type of buttermilk pancake mix that only needs water added. I use 4 1/2 cups of water per box, and to me it's the perfect batter. I slice the apples thin, and simply lay them on the batter. When it starts to bubble, I flip the pancake, and the other side cooks the pancake and the apple. Sometimes I dip the apple in cinnamon sugar before adding them to the pancake.


I served the pancakes with syrup, and had enough leftover to warm up for breakfast in the morning before the kids go to school. This was a quick, easy dinner and it was inexpensive since everything I used was bought on sale.

~Brenda