Hearty Beef Barley Vegetable Soup

This is soooo good on cold winter days. My dad created this recipe and I chowed down on it like candy whenever he made it. Do it in the crock pot to make your home smell amazing all day (can also be done on the stove top for a few hours).

• Fresh beef: stew meat pieces, or a nicer piece of beef to chop up if desired.
• 3 large onions, chopped
• 4 ribs of celery, chopped
• 3 carrots, coined
• 1-2 leeks (produce- they look like huge green onions, 1-2 inches in diameter)
• 4 beef boullion cubes
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup barley (or up to 2 cups if you love it- I do)
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• pepper and salt to flavor

***In skillet, chop and brown your beef in small amount of oil. Put all ingredients in large kettle on stove top (medium heat), or in crock pot for several hours. Barley will take a couple of hours to "puff up" the way it's supposed to. The longer this stews together, the better it gets, so I usually throw it all in the crock pot sometime in the morning and keep it on low all day until dinner.