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

[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.