Today is one of those mornings, rare in Baton Rouge, where I set my alarm a full half hour before I wanted to get up to turn on my space heaters. Racing across the chilled floor (it was below 50 in my apartment) in bare feet, I aimed for the heating pad warmed flannel sheets, down comforter, and 2 quilts that kept me warm if not hot all night. My first action upon actually rising was to crank my apartment-sized gas oven to 300 and crack the door a bit. These old apartments are cold and drafty.

The chill in the air doesn't quite provide enough motivation for me to crawl out of my warm nest. But, since I have places to be this morning, I had prepared for this last night, when I laid out the fixings for a nice hot bowl of matcha (powdered green tea leaves. Shown here: Kama Matcha from matchasource). The steaming slightly sweet, slightly bitter green tea was just the elixir I needed to fry my way through an egg plus an extra yolk, toast up some leftover millet, and simmer last night's carrot ginger soup with coconut milk and - you guessed it - a dollop of coconut oil.

I hope this is enough nourishment to get me through my morning, which begins with a test for a part-time library job I think I want for some extra income. (I'm feeling a bit of guilt for Christmas gifting myself a shiny new Kitchen Aid stand mixer, which is due to arrive today).