As promised last month, here is the Best of 2009 from Talk Cinema's Harlan Jacobson.

Ah: the Olympics. I recall being so inspired by the '72 games (and being too young to understand what all went on with the Israeli team) that on commercial breaks I'd go outside and run laps around the house, dreams of future glory running through my 7 year-old brain (competing for space with my schoolboy crush on Olga Korbut). The Olympics have come a long way since then, for better and for worse. Certainly the hyperventilating commercialization of the games pleases me very little. But there are still pockets of glory that remain the province of endeavor unsullied by thoughts of profit. One of my personal fave events is skeleton. Skeleton: barrelling face-first down an icy track at speeds of 50-75 miles per hour, lying on your belly atop a sled about 30 inches long, only inches above the hurtling ice. Egads!

Maybe I'm imagining things, but it seems to me that skeleton attracts a certain sort of participant: marginal athletes who have enough crazy packed away upstairs to pursue this exceedingly narrow and dangerous discipline with no thought to fame or monetary recompense. At least extreme bungee-and-base-jumping enthusiasts can get famous on YouTube. The skeleton devotee? Well, spending months every year throwing yourself down the iced-up track at Lake Placid probably doesn't lead to a rich and varied social life. Maybe it's the pie-eyed romantic in me, but there is something moving about athletes who compete in sports that are so insanely solitary. Then suddenly, after years of hardcore training, these folks are thrust into the white-hot spotlight of public attention and -- should they excel -- given lauds which ring around the globe. Yes, you might be a socially maladjusted adrenaline junkie who never finished high school and stocks shelves at the Stop'n'Shop, but with enough discipline and a smile from Lady Fortune, you could end up on a Wheaties box triumphantly clutching the teensy sled which -- at highway speeds -- you rode to victory as you hummed "Ride of the Valkyries" to yourself -- off-key and on endless repeat. If that ain't romantic, I don't know what is. It's one of my core beliefs: if a thing gets me excited, I don't care what anybody else thinks about it (or my devotion to it). First cousin to that thought is "Dance like nobody's looking." But I'll save that screed for another time...

Ellen picked this stretch up in physical therapy after her hip replacement surgery. In her own words:

"This is a great hip flexor and Psoas stretch, especially helpful if you sit or drive alot (and we should know!)

Sit close to the edge of a high bed or bench. (It has to be high enough so your leg won't touch the floor.) bend one knee into your chest and let the other leg dangle until you really feel release in the muscles in front of the hip on the dangling-leg side. Then switch sides. Do not use any effort in the leg that's dangling. Just let it stretch. That's it...easy!"

Any one else out there get the winter blues? I'll bet I am not alone on this one. It seems to happen every year at around this time. My surgery experience really punctuated this feeling for me because I thought that I would be a different person when I healed from my surgery. I thought that while I was recovering I would use my down time to dig deep into my soul to change things in myself that no longer served me. But you know, all I could do when I was recovering was recover. My body needed all my attention and there where no profound thoughts, only endless hours on the lounge chair watching movies and well, recuperating. I judged myself for not being that different person I thought I would become, for not being more, better, enough, bigger, wiser, more motivated, etc... Winter blues to the umpteenth power!

Meditation to the rescue! I have been resisting a meditation practice for a long time. My impatience and anxiety didn't want me to slow down, but it is exactly those things that pushed me into sitting each morning and focusing on my breath for 10 minutes or so. We cannot intellectualise our feelings. We can feel them and give them some attention and move on without the old stories that usually go along with them. That is what meditation does for me. I see how my mind wanders, chatters, and judges but I don't engage in coversation with it, just notice it and go back to my breath or my heart.

There is no right or wrong way to meditate. The important thing is that you can sit comfortably without disruption for a short period of time (you can start with 2 minutes so you don't feel overwhelmed, and add on slowly -- I use a timer so I don't have to pay attention to time) and that you focus on something...breath going in and out, a candle flame, your heart or third eye so that when you notice your mind wandering you have something to go back to.

I usually have a sense of clarity and calmness aftewards and it is a wonderful way to start the day (although any time of day will do). I am not a different person than I was before my surgery or before I started to meditate but I have a tool that reminds me of something closer to the truth of who I am. I can find it hard to reach that part of me any other way during winter -- or any other season!

Yours in inner peace -- Ellen

I have been making up for lost time and loving being in the kitchen again. It's been hard to narrow my choices down to just one recipe so here are two!

split pea soup with smoked ham hock:

2 smoked ham hocks
2 quarts chicken stock or water and stock mixed
3 carrots
2 onions
2 cups split peas soaked for a few hours (your peas may be a bit hard if you skip this step)
1/4 cup lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Sauté carrots and onion in olive oil for 5-10 minutes till soft, then add all ingredients to soup pot and cook over medium heat for about 1 hour or more till peas are soft.

Remove ham hocks and let cool slightly before removing as much of the meat as possible. Chop into fine pieces and throw back into the pot.

Using a hand blender or Cuisinart, blend soup together. If you want to you can remove the carrots with a slotted spoon and blend the rest separately then put carrots back in pot.

Garnish with lots of fresh parsley .

Enjoy this hearty, healthy bowl of soup with crispy croutons or a thick french bread with butter! It will keep you warm and nourished for relatively few calories and low fat.

Here's another recipe that I made recently and it came out deelish!

crock pot beef stew

1 lb. or so of beef for stewing
2 potatoes -- cubed
1 large can of tomatoes
3-5 carrots -- 1/4 inch pieces
3 stalks of celery -- sliced
1/4 cup flour ( I used spelt)
2-3 large bay leaves
1 quart or less of beef or chicken stock (It will be more flavorful and rich with beef stock)
2 heaping teaspoons oregano
4 cloves or so of garlic
1/4 cup of worcestershire sauce
1 heaping teaspoon of nutmeg

Basically, you throw all the ingredients in the crock pot and put it on low heat for 8 hours in the morning -- and by the time you get home you will have a delicious nourishing beef stew. I served it over quinoa pasta with a sweet and sour red cabbage with feta cheese. So much flavor in so little time!

As always, because I am a creative cook my measurements are not exact. I recommend that you start with less of a flavor ingredient and taste as you go along and decide if it needs a bit more of this or that. May your creativity flow and your appetite be satisfied.

In good health -- Ellen

This month's question comes from L.L. in Chappaqua:

Dear Seamus: Ellen and Tim are saying that they will be raising chickens this coming Spring. How do you feel about that, and what do you think of their chances of success?

Dear LL (your last name isn't 'Cool J' by any chance, is it?): I had this ever-so-witty reply all penned, replete with phrases like "I've been egging them on," "I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but..." and "Now I know for certain whether the egg or the chicken came first," but reading back over it just made me want to swat myself on the behind with a rolled-up newspaper. So --

I'm totally psyched about the chickens! Clearly I've been languishing at the bottom of the pecking order (sorry!) in this family since I arrived, and the thought of the better part of a dozen exceedingly soft, dim-witted and easily manipulated additions to the pack comes as good news. I immediately go from bottom of the organizational chart to somewhere near the top of middle management. YES! There will no doubt be some internal conflict for me vis-a-vis the question of How Delicious Is Fresh Chicken vs. If I Eat Them All I'm Back At the Bottom (although if the odd disappearing chicken can be blamed on local coyote hooligans, and the chicken population maintained with fresh additions, there might be a nice angle there for me). But such ambiguity and moral hazard (e.g. being made to sit and lie down on my belly before receiving a rawhide treat)is part and parcel of my existence and I have become quite adept at living with their sting. As for Tim & Ellen's chances of success? I think their chances are quite good...assuming of course that fresh chicken is not in fact even more delicious than, say, bacon...or a nice tuna niçoise.

Down on my belly,
Seamus