Pick yourself up, dust yourself off & start all over again

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire once sang a duet about picking yourself up, dusting yourself off and starting all over again (music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Dorothy Fields:
http://www.reelclassics.com/Teams/Fred&Ginger/lyrics/pickselfup-lyrics.htm .) At some point, both of them have recorded the song and I've been thinking about it today for a couple of reasons:

1. My Health

Anybody who knows me knows that I'm a dedicated coffee drinker.  I didn't start drinking coffee until I was 25 but I quickly made up for lost time -- I was head over heels.  So I'm the first person to extol the many benefits of coffee, but I'm also a realist.  I know that it spikes my mental and physical energy levels and then there's a crash that ultimately needs to be assuaged by another coffee fix.  And tea drinkers are no better -- though some think they are!  I've discovered though, that green tea gives me more level, even-keeled if you will, energy.

Where am I going with this?

I'm still recovering from this crazy flu that's taken North America by storm (and from the sounds of it, parts of Europe too.)  Whenever I'm sick I lose my appetite for coffee and I begin to crave clear teas (grean teas, and the Earl Grey family.)  I figure it's my body's way of rebuilding its immune system -- I suspect the way I drink coffee is a bit taxing on my metabolism ;-)

2. The Employment Scene 

Before Before the break I made what a considered to be one of my best pitches yet for a project.  I followed up  yesterday and found out that they decided to award the contract to somebody else.  So I spent the day yesterday developing another pitch for a work project competition that I've decided to join.

As Ginger sang to Fred: Nothing's impossible I have found, for when my chin is on the ground, I pick myself up, dust myself off, start all over again!



JANUARY SPLIT PEA AND HAM SOUP

Recipe: JANUARY SPLIT PEA AND HAM SOUP

 1/2 lb ham; 2 medium yellow onions medium cut into sized pieces; 1 tbsp butter; 1 large clove crushed garlic; 4 c. chicken stock; 3 carrots cut into slices; 3 stalks celery cut into slices; 2 c. dry yellow split peas; 2 green onions cut into small pieces; sea salt to taste pepper to taste. 

In a dutch oven fry the vegetables and ham until they're soft. Add garlic.    

Add stock and the peas plus one cup of water and bring to a boil.(skim off foam, use medium-low heat ) Simmer until the peas split & break down.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

What could be easier?  enjoy!

a good soup recipe is mandatory for January

I woke up this morning to a cold and quiet house.  We're now officially into our first week of 2011 and the memories of the holidays are fading into the background.  Everyone's getting on with the start of January and regular life -- as it should be.
One of the hardest things about this month for me are the long dark days -- less daylight.  A very close second is the bone-chilling  cold weather.  Today the temperature read only -12.4 degrees Celcius, but if we include the windchill (which is a VERY IMPORTANT FACTOR IN MANITOBA!), the weather reached -20 degrees.  It gets colder here, but once we're at -20 it's shades of ugh to me.  Time to bundle up in the wool inside and out. 
The other staple survival skill is to learn how to make a really good winter soup.
 ESS  and  I  celebrated  January 2011 with a new split pea and ham soup recipe that 's pretty much the
best version of the soup I've ever tasted.  Chunky, vegetabl-y, lots of ham and yellow split peas -- it does the trick and warms the bones :-)