I was feeling better, and then back-slid a bit. Perhaps it was all the yackety-yacking I did yesterday but after I made dinner (lacinato kale sauteed in olive oil with some garlic and served with chopped preserved lemon on top along with green garlic omelets that while I was making them I forgot I was making omelets so we really had green garlic scrambled eggs) my head was pounding and my throat felt like a tiny elf had crawled down my gullet and scraped it with steel wool. When a cold or sore throat hits I turn immediately to honey lemon ginger tea. It cures everything. The honey coats your throat, the ginger warms you up and clears out gunk (or at least that’s how it feels), the lemon gets some vitamin C in you and smells great and works some more clearing-out magic. And if you add a shot of bourbon (or other whiskey or brandy) it might also help you get to sleep in time-tested hot toddy fashion.
Lemon honey ginger tea – for one
Put about 1 tablespoon freshly shredded ginger in a tea pot or other steeping vessel. Pour 1 cup boiling water over it and let steep 2 to 3 minutes. Meanwhile, squeeze the juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon, depending on juiciness and your love of lemon, into a large mug. Strain ginger tea into mug. Add honey to taste – you want to use a lot to help coat your throat. During the day, sip to soothe. At bedtime, add a shot of bourbon or whiskey or brandy or cognac if you like.
Of course, you don’t have a large gray mug with a blue stripe around the top that a college roommate once gave you for your birthday that survived the mass mug-culling of 2004 (the year we decided we didn’t really like to drink our coffee out of mugs but preferred these things called “coffee cups” which we find oddly better suited to the task with their thinner rims and whatnot, but that’s us and we’re sort of dainty and persnickety like that) that you kept specifically for when you are sick and need honey lemon ginger tea but that always makes you a wee bit nostalgic and wondering what ever happened to that long-lost friend.* But you probably have some sort of mug or cup around which you can wrap your fingers to warm them as you slowly sip this elixir.
* I just used the google-machine and found her in a snap. Somedays I just love the internets.
Ginger Supplements and Joints | 04-Mar-09 at 2:08 pm | Permalink
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