Snow day

Yesterday was the second snowy day we've had here, and I have to say, I'd forgotten how much I love snow. I remembered loving it, but didn't remember that I could happily spend the whole day looking out the window. Which I almost did. You can see in the picture that it wasn't really snowflakes wafting down to earth, since they'd clumped together to form "megaflakes."

The only appropriate food for a day like yesterday is soup. (Well, to be fair, scotch, hot chocolate, warm chocolate chip cookies and pancakes also make the cut, but who EVER turns those down?) So I had this sausage bean soup. (Leftovers from last week.) I've made a few changes since I started making this recipe last year, including:

• Sometimes I add spinach (I think the recipe says fresh, but frozen works fine)
• Switched to using shell pasta -- it's cuter
• Add celery. I have this thing for cooked celery. Weird, I know.
• More onion, more canned tomatoes, more carrots.
• Crushed red pepper, since the sausage I use now isn't as spicy. This is a great spicy soup.

I love using it when we're having people over for dinner since it makes the house smell so good. Soup, fresh bread and salad make a perfect wintry fall dinner (or lunch).