Yesterday's snow made it an ideal day for soup.  Fortunately, I had some stew meat in the freezer and a selection of vegetables.

I browned the meat, added the beef broth (I haven't tried to make my own stock, one day I will.), then searched the freezer for the package of mixed vegetables.  I couldn't find them, so I did the next best thing and used the green beans, corn and carrots I had on hand.  I added some crushed tomatoes and just let it simmer all day.  About an hour before I planned on eating, I added some barley.  Some day I'll tell you about my brother's adventure with barley, but that's a story for another day.

I had a Pillsbury loaf of French bread in the refrigerator, so I set it up and baked it.

A meal this hearty called for a glass of good red wine.  I chose a merlot from the Raphael Winery on Long Island.

While I was eating, I remembered another snowstorm.  It was really more of a dusting, but the sidewalk had to be shoveled.  I took my boys, Bill was about 4 1/2 and Jimmy was about 2.  I let them play in the snow while I worked.  When I was finished, I told them we would go in the house and have a blizzard party.  I made hot chocolate for me and warm hot chocolate for the boys.  We had some cookies and enjoyed our blizzard party.  Little did I know that the next week we would have another storm, this one was  bigger.  After the shoveling, Bill asked for another blizzard party.  I learned that if you do something once with a child, it becomes a tradition and must be done again.

Such happy memories of the times when my boys were little.