The blizzard of the century has hit.  And gone.  It was a quick storm.  It left almost a dusting of snow.  Almost.

But the hype…..

PennDot is salting roads.  The official snow-fall accumulation in Bryn Mawr – just a couple of miles from us – was 1/10th of one inch.  That’s right – a tenth of an inch.  How do you even measure a tenth of an inch of snow?!?  It boggles the mind.

TV news folks live for disasters.  In the freezing nether-regions, they’re the ones who harp on the totally meaningless “wind-chill factors” to make the weather sound worse than it actually is.  Out west, it’s the TV crew at the 7-11 trying to find the one knocked-over bottle of ketchup after a 2.3 earthquake.

But snow or no, it has been cold the last few fays and a pot roast seemed to fit the bill for warming us up.

I had the other part of that top round I used for pot pie the other night so we had our start.

Pot roast – like soups and stews and the like – really don’t have recipes.  They come together based on what’s in the house.

Tonight, I started by browning the beef in a bit of bacon fat.  I cut a small onion in 8ths and browned it a bit.

I then added a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste and cooked that up for a few minutes and then stirred in about a half-cup of red wine.  I cooked that for a minute and then added about 2 1/2 cups of beef broth and a pinch of salt and pepper.

I covered it, owed the heat, and let it all simmer for about an hour.

I then added one potato cut in 8ths, 2 carrots and 3 stalks of celery.  (I virtually never peel vegetables going into soups and stews.)  I cooked that for about 45 minutes, removed the meat, and then thickened the broth with a bit of cornstarch.  I usually use flour, but the cornstarch was handier tonight.

Served with a couple of thick slabs of the homemade bread from a few days ago.  (If there’s any left in a day or two, it will make for a great bread pudding!)

Victor just lit a fire in the fireplace so it may be time to grab the Kindle and curl up with something fun to read.

The maniacs from the township just salted our street.   Looks like I won’t be able to call in to work tomorrow “snowed in.”