Furry Friday: Shedding Into The New Year

I did a deep clean for the Christmas party, and boy, howdy, why do I have so many animals? The fur! It is everywhere.

Two Great Danes and their house panther on the couch

This picture makes me smile. When Sully, my house panther, came to live with us, he had never been around other animals. He was a four-year-old, owner surrender. Not sure why, he has NO bad habits. I didn’t know much, except he’d been an only child and was afraid of loud noises (that’s a story for another day, LOL).

New Menu Monday: It’s Soup Season

Frigid temps arrived this weekend. No snow here, but plenty up in the mountains so the view should be pretty once the clouds disperse. I spent the weekend cooking and packaging meals so I wouldn’t have to do much during the week.

Tax time is my busy season, and I still want to put in a few hours of writing each day, so prepped meals give me a bit of extra time each day. It is definitely soup time. I made a nice Spinach-Tomato Soup and will probably make this recipe mid-week.

Spicy Potato Soup (Zuppa Toscana)

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 yellow onion, diced
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne
  • ½ lb spicy ground sausage (or ground beef)
  • ¼ tsp crushed red pepper (opt)
  • 1 bay leaf (remove before serving)
  • 1 tsp crushed garlic
  • 32 oz chicken broth
  • 6 potatoes, well scrubbed, unpeeled – cubed or thinly sliced
  • 2 cups milk
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 8 oz shredded cheese – I like parmesan myself)

saucepan or instant pot