I'm nursing a head cold. Time to make ginger tea (chukku coffee and tea in India I found out from rauf when I posted this recipe in February 2007). On his way home from school Wednesday Don rescued me by picking up fresh ginger.
Ginger Tea
3-4 thin slices fresh ginger (unpeeled is fine)
juice of 1/2 - 1 full lemon
1 garlic clove, peeled and cut into 2-3 chunks (optional)
1 dried red pepper (optional)
honey to taste
hot water
Garlic has healing properties, and I love the taste, but leave it out if you don't like it. Dried red pepper helps clear congestion, but again, just ginger, lemon and honey are wonderful. Lemon with its vitamin C is great for a cold (maybe helps the cold end more quickly, well probably not in this small dose - but it can't hurt, and it tastes good!), honey is soothing on the throat, and ginger is nice on the tummy when you get all that yucky drainage. Lesley introduced me to this tea as a cold remedy last winter, and I fell in love with the flavor, even when I didn't have a cold. Now that colder temps and cold viruses are upon us (well, not in Australia, Letitia), it's time to share the comfort again.
32 comments:
I have yet to taste this heavenly drink, Ruth, since hearing about it over a year ago! But I have the recipe and maybe will use it if the need arises. So thanks for the reminder. I DO hope you will get better soon!
Feel better! I'd add whiskey and echinacea to the mix.
That sounds wonderful! Everyone in my home had a cold last week but I swear I avoided it with my ginger kombucha, ginger chews, and home made chicken soup (made from fresh home made chicken stock). :)
Hope you are feeling better!
Thanks, Boots. I have a feeling you would love this. Were you there at the cottage when like 10 people tried it all at once? And that was in the summer!
Thank you, Loring! Hehe, whiskey, eh? In the morning, before work? No, maybe before bed. But bleh! Whiskey tastes yucky. I hadn't thought of echinacea, good idea.
Denise, that is very good, too bad about the family though. Thank you, even though I didn't feel like going to work today, I think it's good to get up off the couch. I did watch a good movie yesterday on the couch though . . .
First of all, don't dismiss the taste of whiskey until you've tried single-malt scotch. It's like flowers bursting on the roof of your mouth.
Second, when GLHS was on split shifts in the 1970s and seniors started at 7 a.m., we used to call 6:30 a.m. Schlitz Malt Liquour the breakfast of champions. Thankfully, I've mellowed since then. Rarely anything before noon, though as Alan Jackson is wont to say, it's 5 o'clock somewhere.
Wow! You're reading Maus! Nothing separates the dense tomes like a good adult comic book ("graphic novel") every now and then. Just started Neal Stephenson's Anathem, myself. (not-a-comic)
neti pot time! it'll flush out all the yuckies.
Loring, yeah yeah yeah, you, my husband, my son, and my future son-in-law, jeesh, I'm surrounded by single malt scotch bros! I've tried it, and it's more like the rocket's red glare on the roof of my mouth.
Oh my goodness, what a preacher's kid didn't know didn't hurt her. I was in that split shift, but I didn't know about the breakfast of champions that wasn't Wheaties.
Yes, MAUS, and I love it. In fact, I need to quickly pay some bills so I can get back to it. I read it, and then some Fugitive Pieces, both of which are about Nazis.
Anon., is that you, Peter?? Why didn't I think of the neti pot Peter gave me for a gift!!! I'm gonna go do that before I pay bills and read MAUS! Thanks for the reminder, Anon.
Yes, Ruth, I was at the cottage but somehow didn't speak up quickly enough to get in on the action. My loss!
Yowsa that sounds like a potent tea! Is it strong? If it doesn't kill ya it'll cure ya right? I'm a lightweight when it comes to tea so I'll have to stick with my old chamomile and green teas.
Now, my coffee better be strong enough to put hair on yer chest!
When I first looked at your picture of tea - I tried hard to make it look like a hotdog, and some kind of mashed potatoes or something. ha ha - although it turned out to be far different, I still liked it. I arrived via Robin - via black box. Nice place, nice post.
Oh, too bad, Boots. It went quickly as I recall. Please do make it, even if you don't get a cold (god forbid).
No, no, Amy! It may sound potent, and maybe for you it would seem that way if you tried it. But to me those ingredients come through very subtly, warmly, and make just the right comfort. It doesn't knock you out like, say, whiskey. ;)
Me too, I like coffee STRONG.
tsduff, haha, that's funny. Yes, I can see that. I could have first posted the picture and asked people to guess what those floaties were.
The black box idea is cool! Thanks for your nice, breezy visit.
oh Ruth, i never tell my friends that i am sick with sumptin, my sisters too, i get flooded with remedies and suggestions and they get angry if i reject any of them. they just don't suggest and leave, they stay and see that i take their remedies. So i start begging no.. no...no i am fine .. i am fine nuttin wrong wid me. Thank you thank you
Worst is rubbing oil on my head. i don't even ask what are you doing with me ? i will not be surprised if some friend cuts me open and performs a surgery on me.
One friend fell in love with my neighbour, the entire neighbourhood knew about it except me. One day the girl asked me to talk to her parents. They were very friendly with me but the girl's uncle threatened me that he will cut me open and spill my guts all over the neighbourhood
i asked him, do you have a degree in surgery ? how dare you cut me open without a degree and without anesthetics ? i was serious the thug uncle couldn't believe what i said. now my friend and the girl are happily married for twenty years and have 3 kids. And i am still in possession of my intestines.
Hahaha! Oh sometimes, rauf, you slay me. So many images of you dancing in my head. I think I could write an entertaining graphic novel about you, based on your stories and adventures. I am reading MAUS - which is a graphic novel (a fancy sophisticated comic book basically) that is amusing, even though it is about Nazis and Jews. I laugh out loud often, like I did at your comment.
Well, I would not force you to drink this ginger tea concoction. I'd slide it in the door and run.
I've just spent the last 4 weeks seated between two people with raging and recurring colds!
Touch wood - I have so far emerged unscathed.
(although I did have a delightful little cold at the beginning of our winter).
I attribute my health to copious amounts of eucalyptus oil wiped over every surface shared by the three of us.
For some strange reason(!!) my colleagues are deeply offended by my rejection of their germs.
I'm sorry you are feeling miserable - colds suck.
All your older type folk in town have been touting their remedy as fail proof - 'Vicks Vapour Rub' on the soles of your feet, then socks before bed.
Go on - give it a go - you know you want to!
(oh - and I love the photo of Booker T)
I have the same head cold! I had the worst bloody nose the other night, gross!!!
Your tea concoction there actually sounds and looks delicious.. I think I would try it any ol time ... sick or not.. sure wouldn't hurt!! Now get yourself all cozy with a good book, a kitty and a fuzzy blanket.. hey maybe even plunk a small log on the fire..
.. Now that you are all snuggled up there.. I think I'll go make some of that tea... take care!!!
Oh dear, I've never heard of Vicks Vapor Rub on the feet! We always put it on the chest when kids are little. Hmm. There is something inside me that wants to try it. Melaleuca oil is something all the rage for disinfectant purposes. But eucalyptus oil must have similar properties? Well it sure seems to for you, Letty.
Anet, oh dear! Let's do what Gwen suggested and cozy up with a book (and you can have kitties, mine stays outdoors). I think today I just might be on the upswing. My head didn't fill as soon as I got out of bed.
Thanks for the recipe and hope you get better soon. I rarely get sick, but when I do I'm a wuss, need all the help I can get,lol.
Well then, Bob, either you or your wife should have this recipe, depending on how wussy you are.
I hope you're recovering. It's too beautiful outside to be ill. Your recipe sounds wonderful. This reminds me of my husband's family's cold comforter - hot Vernor's! The ginger in the Vernor's and the fizziness are very soothing when you have a head cold.
I have copied your tea recipe and it sounds so good I'm not going to wait till the next time I'm sick to try it. Thanks and take care.
Thank you, Anon., I feel tons better today - a clear head - AAAHHHHH. I was able to enjoy the sun, breeze and warmth of this almost last day of summer. I hung out 3 loads of laundry on the line.
I hope you like the tea as much as I do, G'ma Faith.
Hot Vernors! That must be a Michiganinan. Maybe a little Vernors in the tea would be good. Although I'm leaning more to Loring's idea of Scotch or something in that neighborhood.
The sun did you some good today!!
I was waiting for you to chime in with a Scotch comment. Yeah, Vernors!
Oh I hope you're feeling better. The cold has only hit one in our family so far.
the tea sounds great.
Thanks, Sandy! I felt better in time to enjoy the gorgeous weekend, so yay!
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