I’m on my fourth cup of tea, and I’m still cold. I don’t mean to complain, except my knuckles started hurting this week, the day the temperature turned south. I’m 35. Too young for arthritis. Time to move.
But alas, we like our friends, our family and our house. Plus, we have jobs.
I’ll have to settle for soup and tea. Lots of it. This yellow split pea soup was a hit this week. I ate three bowls of it. And I’m still cold. Sorta.
YELLOW SPLIT PEA SOUP
1.5 cups yellow split peas, rinsed (you can substitute green ones, but the yellow ones smell like flowers, and that’s just cool)
3 whole carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 chopped onion
3 minced cloves of garlic
4 roughly chopped celery stalks
2T olive oil
8 cups water
2t salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
Saute the onion in olive oil over medium heat (while stirring) until light brown–approximately 8 minutes. Add the garlic, carrots and celery and stir some more (2 minutes). Add the water, split peas, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and let simmer about 45 minutes, until the split peas are soft. Blend with an immersion blender, leaving some of the carrots and celery chunks big.
granoladox.com 
1. Ginger tea– brewed strong: as strong as you can stand it.
Anti-inflammatory for the joints, and warms from the guts outward, so it’s more system-wide.
2. Any type of grain you have on-hand (rice, oats, what-have-you), pour into a sock or the end of a pillow case, and tie off. Microwave for a minute or two (start w/ 1 minute, and work your way up ’till it’s hot, but don’t burn it, or it will smell like burnt popcorn). Wrap in a towel to keep it from burning your skin, and hold it on whatever part is cold at the moment.
addendum:
Put a second heating pack on your guts. This will mobilize the natural mode of eliminating lymph fluid from the rest of the body (especially the achy joints you’re holding against the other heating pack.