sicko: cold remedy drinks

On Sunday night, I walked out in the middle of a blizzard to see The Exiles. The movie was great, but as no buses were running because of the weather (heavy, wet snow), I walked back home with soaking wet boots and a wet coat. When I got home, I could wring out my socks. Not good. I woke up the next morning with a sore throat and a fuzzy head. Since I'll be in Victoria tomorrow, I had to come up with a couple of cold remedies quick. So I looked in my pantry and made a couple of drinks that I found online. I can't remember where these were found, so I apologize in advance to whoever created them.

I can't say they work since my head feels like a balloon this morning, but I'm giving them the ol' college try. I know I promised banana bread, but that will have to wait until I return. Instead of yummy banana bread you'll get 2 cold remedies. These aren't guaranteed at all, but they're worth a shot. And they don't taste bad at all. In fact drink #2 is actually super delicious. Really. If you've got some secret family cold-fighter cure, let me know in the comments! Cuz baby, it's time to HEAL.

Oh, one more thing. I have a new post up on the Food Network Canada site. Check it out!

cold remedy #1
2 c hot water
1 inch knob ginger, sliced
4 dashes cayenne pepper
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 lemon, juiced
1-3 T honey

Boil water in a small pot along with the ginger, garlic and cayenne pepper. Pour into mug and stir in honey and lemon juice. Sip don't gulp. Seriously. Makes 2 mugs worth.

cold remedy #2
2 c hot water
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T lemon juice
1 T honey

Boil water and add in the remaining ingredients. Pour into mug and sip. Makes 2 mugs worth.

it's halloween: vampire soup

I'm not one for kitchy names, but I had this soup for dinner last night and it's one and only purpose was to get rid of a cold. I woke up feeling under the weather and I didn't want to get sick, so I culled all the vegetable remains in my crisper along with a little bit of bacon and got to work. While chopping the vegetables, I decided that instead of just a few cloves of garlic, I'd add in the whole head. Perfect for fighting off vampires and nasty bugs. And just to add in a bit of Eastern European flavour, I threw in 2 different kinds of Hungarian paprika. The soup was good and hearty and today I woke up feeling much, much better.

I'm not going to give you the recipe because while the soup was good, it's a good example of taking random ingredients and making dinner without a recipe. So instead of a recipe, you'll get just a minimal guide and hopefully a kick in the pants to get you started to make your own soup. Soup is easy and usually ends up turning out well if you just remember to taste as you go along. For this soup, I had half a parsnip, 2 strips of bacon, a quarter head of red cabbage, half an onion, a couple stalks of celery, a can of chickpeas, a near empty bag of pasta, along with some homemade turkey stock. These ingredients were chopped, sauteed and the liquids reduced before I had my first taste. It needed more, so in plopped a large squirt of ketchup for zing and after tasting it again, I added in a large spoonful of sweet paprika and another large spoonful of a smoked hot paprika. Now I was getting somewhere. I added in half the garlic at the beginning and half near the end. For me it was important to really taste the garlic and have it fresh so it could kick start it's fighting powers. The ingredients themselves don't inspire very much on their own, but put them together in a haphazard way, tasting as you go along and boom! You've got some mighty fine soup.

And yes, I'm giving this vampire soup all the credit. This soup warded off the evil and now I'm ready to make some caramel apples and watch horror movies all night with friends. Happy Halloween!!

Want a recipe for soup? Check out these winter-warming recipes from my archives:
African Yam & Peanut Soup
Black Bean Pumpkin Soup
Cabbage Potato & Chorizo Soup
Italian Minestrone with Beans, Pasta and Chard
Red Lentil Soup with Lemon
Winter Vegetable Soup