SNOW TODAY

This is the street in front of our home. We woke to snow and it is still coming down. It is pretty but has put a hitch in my morning plans. I was going to go to the mall early this morning and onto a couple of specialty stores in the city to finish up my Christmas shopping.......hmm. Now that will have to wait as I do not want to be sliding around on the freeways. So I will try for tomorrow, may be worse or better who knows at this point. The storm is still coming in and the mountain passes are getting a load of snow. 
I am sure I can find things to occupy myeslf today. I wish I could bake my Christmas cookies but it is a little early for that. The ones I make, my Grammy's recipe are best when fresh and not over a couple of days old. They are a soft sugar cookie made with brown sugar. These cookies have been a staple in our family since I was a babe in arms. My daughter and granddaughter now make them as well as many friends and other relatives that I have shared the recipe with. They are good plain or frosted. I surely prefer the plain cookies. My children when they were young loved them either way and I always made two very large gingerbread men for each of them. They would save those gingerbread men until after all the other cookies were gone. Then they would relish them, taking a bit of a leg or a arm always saving the head for last. It was quite a game for the two of them as neither wanted to finish their cookie first. So I will be making those tasty family treasures this coming Sunday.

The snow flakes are really large now, covering the ground quickly if this keeps up no one will be going anywhere.It is so pretty to watch them float down from above as I sit here by the window in our office.

I made a very red rich pasta sauce last night. I tried something a little different. I used one jar of my tomato sauce from our garden tomaotes that I had frozen. To that I added a large can of good quality whole roma tomatoes. I crushed the tomatoes with my hands as I added them to the tomato sauce. I then added a good splash of merlot wine and Italian seasonings, salt and pepper. This is what I normally do but to the pot this time I also added green pepper and onion slices that I had slowly caramelized in butter and olive oil toward the end of the caramelization process I added two cloves of garlic minced. I added this mixture then to the pot of other ingredients and then added the small meatballs I had made and let all simmer for a hour or so. The sauce had a lot of depth, a red rich color and intense flavor. We loved it.
Tonight it is leftovers once again. We have to admit in this household we adore spaghetti and meatballs.

I have let this post set for a while and now it is several hours later. The snow has stopped and the street seems just wet with slush at this point so I am going to go to the market for my ham and other meats I need. At least I can then cross something off my list for the day.
When I get home I will make another batch of applesauce. I made up a couple quarts yesterday afternoon. I put a variety of apples in together seems tasty enough but not as good as gravenstein apples for sauce.......they are honestly the best for pies and applesauce.

Well I am off out into the cold. I will wear my warm black wool coat. I was telling hubby the other day as I putting it on that I have had that coat for fourteen years now and it is still a current style and in good shape. If something works why replace it? That is my motto.
Bye for today.