[CottonBall]

Awesome links! I always have to set aside a few hours to go through all the neat stuff you post. Thanks so much!

I’m not sure if I’ll get around to posting a ping today. You are more than welcome to - the list is on my homepage. I hurt my hand gardening yesterday. I’m OK with just putting up random posts on my phone, but if I’m going to ping a lot of people I want to use the main computer, which would require typing. I can see what I’m doing a lot better there! Less typos, etc. Hopefully my hand will feel better real soon and then I can get back to it all. It’s like I pulled a muscle in the middle of it. Really weird.

[V K Lee]

:-) Hope these are seen and there will be something interesting or educational to be found therein.

Gardening his torture for our hands. Pulling weeds is painful, not only for the weed but our wrists as well. After an afternoon of ‘weeding’, wrists become so painful just to lift a plate is darn near impossible. You never know when pain will strike - the glass could easily be dropped and soon found in hundreds of pieces on the floor. Suffered Carpal-Tunnel/Syndrome for years and when it shows up once again, typing is a challenge at best.

Busy week this week. Will be ‘out’ more often than not. Give your hands/wrists some TLC. Take care!

[Albion Wilde]

Easy comfort food recipe while watching your weight. I have been losing weight by eating mostly veggies and mild fruits, with minimal meat and dairy. I love this flavorful soup whenever I get a craving for potato chips, fries, hash browns, etc. It has fewer calories than fried but satisfies potato cravings! I make an entire bag of potatoes and divide the soup into pint containers for the freezer, or share it with friends.

Genovese-Style Potato Soup

INGREDIENTS

5 lbs (1 bag) Yukon Gold potatoes
32 oz (1 box) chicken broth
1 cup milk or yogurt
1 large carrot
1 small to medium yellow onion
3 stalks celery
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 stick butter
2-3 tsp salt, to taste
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 C dried chopped parsley (or 1/2 C finely chopped fresh Italian parsley)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

PREPARATION

Peel the potatoes and cut in half. Boil for 20 minutes or until a fork inserts into the center of the largest chunk.

Meanwhile, warm the chicken broth in a saucepan until almost boiling. Add milk (yogurt) and stir; turn off heat.

Drain the finished boiled potatoes, then return them to the pot. Add the broth mixture and mash by hand (or in a mixer bowl or food processor and return to pot) until almost smooth.

Strip the heaviest strings off the celery stalks; peel carrot and onion. Chop to small dice.

Warm the olive oil in a skillet; chop garlic to fine dice and add to olive oil.

Increase heat to medium and add the diced celery, carrot and onion. Sauté, stirring frequently, until dice are softened.

Add all the sautéd vegetables and oil to the mashed potato mixture in the pot. Add salt, black pepper and butter; stir thoroughly over warm heat until butter is melted. Finally, stir in parsley and remove from heat.

Divide into servings for table or freezer. Sprinkle a pinch of cayenne on top of each serving.