I’m SICK! Sore throat, congestion, cough, aches, blah, blah, BLECH! But, I have to admit, I feel pretty decent now that I engaged in a little home remedy dabbling.

HOT MEDICINAL SOUP (recipe adapted from here)
Makes 1 serving

1 large clove garlic
1 T olive oil
1 tsp sliced ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric
cup chicken broth
egg
salt to taste
(Optional: get really fancy with the herbal-osity and add shitakes.)

1. Press garlic into your coffee cup. Leave for 5 minutes. Some of the most healing bits about garlic only happen when the allicin gets to develop. It will be STRONG after this.

2. Use garlic press for the ginger. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir. (OR not, I happen to like poached eggs in my soups, like when I get nabeyaki udon at Fuji Cafe.)

3. Nuke for a few minutes to make sure that egg is done.

4. Remove and stir. 5. Realize that you were supposed to SAUTE the ginger and garlic in the oil, but shrug it off cause asking a sick person to saute is criminal.

6. Be shocked at how incredibly hot this stuff is and make the recipe below while it cools.

HOT MEDICINAL TUBBY
Makes 1 tubby

1/4 c epsom salt
1/2 T baking soda
1/2 T dry mustard
handful of rosemary sprigs
3 drops eucalyptus or tea tree oil

1. Toss your handful of rosemary in the micky and nuke for a couple of minutes. Leaves will now easily brush off the stem. Nuke it one more time till crumbly.

2. Pulverize in coffee grinder (~ 2T).

3. Combine with rest of ingredients in a hankie, except forgetting the eucalyptus/tea tree oil cause your sick. Tie off poorly with random crochet thread you found on the counter.

4. Tote sad little sachet and not-so-screaming-hot cup of medicinal soup to the bathroom.

5. Remember eucalyptus/tea tree oil just before you turn the water on.

6. Fill tubby with hottest water you can stand, running it through the tubby bag.

7. Ponder the green tint for a second cause it’s weird.

8. Close the shower curtain (outside the tub) and enjoy a 15-20 minutes soak, sipping soup and squishing that little bag in the water.

EDIT 11/18: This is not NEAR enough bath salts et al for my deep tub. The rosemary was plenty, but I tried it again with extra tea tree oil and an extra CUP of epsom….MUCH better. I was out of dry mustard for the second round and squeezing french’s in there just seemed ewww. But, I think one would need at least 1/4c to reach the right level of mustard to have the whole hyper-circulation effects talked about here. See this recipe and this recipe and answer #4 on this post also.

HOT NAP

1. After all of that, you will be HOT. But still bundle up, get in the bed, and sweat it out for a bit…hoping for a snooze.

2. Hear toddler destroying something in the other room and get up.

3. Realize that there’s no way on God’s Green Earth that you are going to get a nap out of this.

4. Make more soup.

Ivory