In Praise of PEA SOUP
After a bad weather Monday, yesterday, this blog would be wise to stay nice and dry today. But lessons are there to be learnt and as a final comment ( a free pee ) on yesterday let me respect those old poets of the past who knew what to say and where, when and why. In the old trains, before the 1970s in the UK, there would be posted an official notice on the wall of the toilet. It read : " Refrain from urination when the train is in the station". Much better that than today methinks. Today? "Piss only when running". No mention of the wind direction or ...... Anyway let me get serious again. Learning procees.

In praise of PEA SOUP.
Pea Soup is one good Finnish tradition. It used to be, not so long ago, that pea soup was always on a Thursday. Alas that has mainly gone now but the pea soup thing remains still strong. It is not good to try and blog yer way into stardom but I must claim a certain expertise here. In the 1980s, in Finland, I was featured on TV because of my pea soup recipe. Nearly 40 minutes of fame ( beats that 15). But the main point is that pea soup is a saviour. If you do not believe me then just ask Finns.

December 6th in Finland is Independence day. It is a celebration of those men and women who went against the might of the Soviet Union and Stalin. Finns had the guts to say a very BIG NO. That history remains in many hearts of folk even young folk today. To fight against a huge army and to basically win ( with many pay-back consequences ) is still today respected as a tradition. December 6th also is a memory of winter warfare. With no disrespect here I ask those that are interested to look at the history books and stuff. But just think what even living in winter is like at minus 25 or 30 or even 40 degrees centrigrade? Then an idea of survival and "will" is slowly forged into mind.

One of the basic foods for survival was PEA SOUP. Not however the pea soup that I displayed on the TV because that was namby-pamby stuff fit for spoilt aristocratic brats like myself in contemporary times. No this pea soup for survival was with the minimum of peas and the maximum of hot juice. It was rumoured that Finnish soldiers would search with their spoons for the peas in the soup. Fate was the master of this act ( just like finding dry salt packets in UK Crisps or finding a salt packet at all in those good old UK days) but the juice remained. Finland battled on against the might of the Soviet Bear from the East and pea soup helped the victory.

Today whenever I feel a little down and out I can help myself with pea soup. OK I add a few bits of mint and i add a few chuncks of meat and a few slices of carrot but the feeling remains good. No I will not give you my famous pea soup recipe that was on TV before cooking programmes were just the thing for cheap broadcasting.
I know it is Tuesday but I celebrate pea soup today anyway.

Pea Soup Rules OK