The recent Wednesday evening 7-on-7 men’s soccer semifinals were played in frigid weather, though the games were hotly contested.

This soup has existed about as long as farming has in western civilizations. It is the mainstay peasant soup of France and can be used as the founda­tion for any number of other vegetable soups. In restaurants this soup is near­ly always pureed, but in the old-fa­shioned country version it is not — the vegetables are simply cooked to near disintegration. My version is a compro­mise because it is intended as a main dish and somehow a pureed soup never seems to make it — the hungry mouth needs something to chew on, I guess,

Serves four.

The numbers are good in all of East Hampton High School’s winter sports, which begin this week, and the Bonac girls cross-country team does well in frozen Plattsburgh.