ideas?

[elmstreetbaby.livejournal.com]

I am home sick and it's raining (boo!). Does anyone have any good homemade cold remedies to offer? I don't want to walk to Starmarket in the rain, and I have no chicken soup here.

Comments

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Depends on the kind of sick. Stuffed noses and general congestion get a lovely treatment of something with lots of capsaicin--hot pepper, baby. Chicken soup, usually--adding cayenne, chili peppers, maybe wasabi or black pepper for good measure. Clears you right up for a bit. Maybe you could add it to something else, though?

Another favorite, if you feel yourself starting to get a sore throat (and this does sound unpleasant, but isn't really that bad): pour yourself some orange juice, and sprinkle cayenne pepper on it until you get a thin layer covering the top. Toss it back like it's a shot. Not sure what the hell it does, but it seems to help.

[cnoocy]

A hot toddy? Tea + honey + booze = sleep and healing.

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. My grandma makes these for me when I'm sick.

[catbird.livejournal.com]

Water and rest.

I also like this when I'm sick, and _only_ when I'm sick!

2 splashes of apple cider vinegar (white vinegar is nasty don't use it!)
liberal dose of honey
hot water

Hope you feel better soon.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I do hot water + honey + lemon juice -- same idea.

[etana.livejournal.com]

the lemon juice doesn't contain the properties that the apple cider vinegar does - but that does help if you have a mucus-esque throat

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Oh? What sort of properties? I assumed it was all about the acid.

[etana.livejournal.com]

nope not so much - if you do a quick search (I'm too lazy to type it all out) on apple cider vinegar you can read all about it's homeopathic remedies. That's why you've got to use acv instead of any other type of vinegar. It's got a million amazing uses. You can purchase it in pill form (called Mother acv) but it's not as affective.

[etana.livejournal.com]

for sinus infections/allergy-related colds: make the honey organic and from a local hive - contains local allergens :)

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Long hot bath. And I mean HOT. Drink lots of water before, during, after. Then take a nap.

If you've got fresh ginger on hand, I like to simmer a chunk of chopped up ginger in some water for 15-20 minutes, then drink it as a tea. It's especially tasty if you add honey and lemon to it.

Call a Chinese delivery place and ask for hot and sour soup.

[teratomarty.livejournal.com]

Tea, tea and tea. Pee those viruses out of your system! If your throat is sore, you can put a heaping tablespoon of salt in a glass of hot water and gargle with same. I believe that the salty water, being hypertonic to your system, draws off the excess fluids that have swollen your tonsils. If your sinuses are stuffed up, you can dab a very sparing amount of Vapo-Rub, Icy Hot or Tiger Balm under your eyes (be careful not to get it in your eyes). The fumes will make your eyes water so bad that your sinuses will sluice clean. This is better than nothing.

[dawneliz.livejournal.com]

Recipe 1: Witches Brew

fresh lemon juice (a good amount)
about an inch of peeled, sliced ginger
a mint tea bag
a cinnamon stick
honey to taste
a healthy sprinkle of cayenne

Add all of this to some water (2-3 pints) and simmer on the stove for a bit. Drink it all up.

Miso Soup

1 chopped carrot
cubed tofu
torn kale
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1 inch of peeled, minced ginger
miso paste

Boil some water. Add garlic and ginger and simmer a bit. Add 2 T miso paste per cup of water (at least I *think* that's the ratio I use...crud). This is made easier if you put the paste in a mug or bowl, then spoon some of the boiling water into it to smooth out the paste. Anyhow, dump it into the boiling water, add the veggies and simmer til the carrots and kale are done. Eat lots.

And I also swear by the Hot Toddy, but mine is a shot of whiskey, juice of 1 lemon, a tablespoon of honey, hot water. Very comforting and helps to knock you out a little. :)

If you are nearby where I live, I'll swing some soup by your way (was gonna go food shopping anyhow). I'm near Ball/Powderhouse...

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Booze.. a shot of the hardest you've got.. my old greek roommate swore by Uozo (or however you spell it - it's nasty as hell though)

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Plus! Ouzo turns an interesting cloudy color when you add water to it :) (Which is how you can make it more palatable.)

[rozasharn.livejournal.com]

Garlic, lots! The fresh kind, not the powder. Good against many types of bacteria, stimulates immune response, can inhibit nose-running for half an hour after eating. Stirfry with other food, use to make soup, or if you're really desperate just peel several cloves and cut the wide ends off, microwave under close supervision until the center shaft sticks out (this amounts to micro-wave roasting: they get mild), and eat plain.

The idea behind chicken-noodle soup was water + electrolytes + carbs + protein + antibacterial/immune-enhancing spices (garlic, hot peppers, ginger, cloves, etc.) Depending on what you have in your cupboards you may be able to put together an equivalent.

I often make egg-drop soup for this purpose: water, tomato paste, garlic and dry spices, cook pasta in the resulting broth, beat an egg in a bowl, then stir it into the soup and take off the heat.

[rozasharn.livejournal.com]

And stay warm. What hrafn (http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/1038395.html?thread=9619003#t9619003) said. We're not just talking "warm enough to not feel cold"; sick people run fevers because at high temperatures your immune system works better and germs work worse. But there's an upper limit to how much heat your brain can take: that's why sitting in a hot bath drinking water, maybe with a cool compress on your neck or forehead, is a good idea.

[elements.livejournal.com]

Boil water, stick it in a big mixing bowl, cover it with a towel, and put your head under the towel. (sort of an intensive ateam thing)

[amethystmoon.livejournal.com]

If you're still looking - slice a small onion really thin, boil in a couple cups of water until the onions are totally transparent, drink the water with honey as a tea. Sounds disgusting, but it's really not, and it seems to work. Throwing some garlic in to boil with it would probably be a good idea, too, but I haven't tried it so I can't speak for whether that makes it taste worse or better.