I’m anxious for it to be better. But it’s just going to run its course. Nyquil, Dayquil, and Mucinex. I’m getting real tired of that cocktail. Last night we just decided what-the-heck and ordered pizza, which we also had for breakfast. A thin-crust small pizza isn’t too far off our diet: only the tomato sauce and the crust are sins. And neither of us was up to cooking last night.
Hanging in…the crud is at least no worse.
by CJ | Nov 12, 2013 | Journal | 36 comments
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When you’re sick you just do the best you can.
Get well soon, sooner and soonest.
I’ve read doctors don’t think Mucinex and its kind are effective. I’ve also read of licorice as a demulctant. One wonders though if licorice candy has enough. I have some cough drops called “Fisherman’s Friend” that certainly do have enough in them! 😉
Mucinex is just guaifenesin if you want to save and buy generic. I’ve always found it to work, that is, it’s an expectorant: my fluid discharge does go way up. For a demulcent (throat protector/soother) I’ve found N’Ice best, once even Ricola is irritating.
If you have the makings for lemonade, try hot lemonade. Make it then nuke it. It sounds weird, but it’s pretty soothing, the warmth is nice, and it gently cuts through the phlegm.
Oh, and my ex-internist, full professor of medicine at UC Irvine would probably never forgive me if I didn’t pass on his Rx for the flu: take aspirin; drink fluids.
Get well soon, please!
Guaifenesin is effective up to a point, but it’s not a curative, just helps you get rid of the nastiness. Drinking fluids. Lots. Thank goodness for SodaStream Root Beer—at last, a soft drink I like. Tastes like you used to get from the soda fountain or the root beer parlor. Modern soft drinks to me taste like a cross between black pepper and limestone rock (yes, we had to taste rocks in my geology class)—too much carbonation. With the SodaStream you can control the level and come out with something much gentler.
Get well soon, folks.
Sometimes, one must obey the call of the wild pizza.
One can claim it has veggies, meat, grain, and dairy, at least, in a conveniently tasty package. One doesn’t have to cook it oneself, and one may eat it hot or cold, or for breakfast, if one so chooses. Generations of college students and single guys and girls would so attest.
Today and tomorrow, both days and nights, are predicted the coldest we’ve had since last winter. It’s looking very overcast and dark out, though there was no prediction for precip. It’s good weather to be in and curl up with a good book or video or music (or all three, not simultaneously) and a feline or canine or other companion. Or that certain someone, should one have a certain someone handy. 😉 (Two cats, no special someone, here.)
Good weather for hot soup too. Ramen if you like, others if you’d rather.
—–
I didn’t have time to get to the guitar store today, did my other errands, but have scheduled it for Thursday. Good news, the recommendation from AbigailM had others who agree on it, and it’s not too far from me. Though I’m not sure of the grand total, I estimate this will be nicely affordable so I can enjoy learning the guitar. My thanks to AbigailM and all here who had such good advice.
It occurred to me too, to ask about miking the guitar for possible audio recording, at least for practice, though I’m not yet ready to buy a new mic. I’d expect either a mic on a stand or else a clip-on mic would be fine. I’ll ask at the store.
Yes indeedy on the hot soup or stew. Over the weekend, our friend who usually hosts our gaming group made a vat of beef stew that had cooked until the beef was reduced to tender shreds among the vegetable chunks. He had few leftovers. For giggles, one suggests searching The Intarweebs for a recipe for Mr. Spock’s favorite, plomeek soup. There are several recipes out there; they seem equally split between a squash base and a carrot base, with ginger and cinnamon for kick. I still have cheap chicken legs, which may end up as chicken long rice, or maybe Oriental oxtail soup, with cilantro, star anise, and ginger. I have a bag of lamb chunks and a recipe for lamb stew with pearl onions and red wine; maybe CJ can substitute apple chunks for the onions, if one wants to try?
“Hot and Sour Soup”, that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it! But it needs to be the classic recipe with lily pods, “Precious Clouds’ Ears”, lots of vinegar/lemon/pepper, in a heavy beef broth.
The family recipe for beef stew: a small roast. Salt. Pepper (black: we add quite a bit.) Pepper: cayenne. We add about a tsp per crockpot. Pepper: chipotle, about a teaspoon. Sage, about a teaspoon. Basil: tablespoon. Oregano: teaspoon. Dark red Chili powder: 2 tbs. Thyme: teaspoon. Sear beef in hot pan, then to crockpot. Add potatoes. Celery to taste. Tomato paste: 1 small concentrate can. Add carrots. Add water. Add canned beans, any type. Cook, oh, 4 hours. Serve with fresh bread. Reheat: add a little water. And as meat gets scarcer over the course of several days, add cooked pasta.
Enjoy it for us. We’re still on the diet.
I’m a bit grouched. Well, not really, I can get it another time. But I didn’t locate beef stew meat at the grocery store today and had wanted to get a couple of packages to stock up. Probably just as well, as what I did get has now overstocked my fridge for a bit.
I have a pan of cooked chicken drumsticks, so some of those may make it into a pot of soup instead. I did get a bag of mirepoix Cajun style (it claims) and veggies for gumbo also claimed à l’acadien, but typical Southern veggie blend from what I see there. 🙂
That pot roast recipe sounds terrific. I was going to say the pepper sounded like a lot, until I got to thinking how much food was going in there and what a spice blend is probably like.
Task: Locate my inherited crock pot and start using the fool thing. A slow-cooked one pot hot meal like that, mmm, very good for winter or for (ahem) someone who wants to be doing other things besides the kitchen for a chunk of day or night. (I like cooking, but I do it in spells.)
I’ve decided, though, that I’ve gotten too lazy about that, and would be healthier and enjoy more by cooking ahead and freezing serving portions.
Darn, no squash on hand. But squash or carrots or some of both, with cinnamon and ginger, sounds like a fine plomeek soup. Will have to look that up for fun. If it weren’t for a soup, I’d likely try a little orange juice with that. Still might work.
Think I’ll put squash on the Thanksgiving grocery list. I remembered to buy a pie crust for mince pie. I forgot peanuts and cashews, just wanted the cashews for snacking or cooking. Going to take it easy on the menu this year, since afaik, it’ll be the cats and myself and no guests expected in. (If cousins visit from Norman, they’ll as usual wait until about an hour before and surprise me. But not expecting them this Thanksgiving.)
I’ll dp the family stuffing/dressing recipe, but a half batch this time.
Buy the least expensive roast and get the person behind the counter to cut it up for you. That is usually less expensive and better flavored than stew meat.
Absolutely Tommie.
Tonight I’ve got some leftover chili which I’ve dumped into an oven-proof dish and added cornbread batter to the top. It’s in the oven as I type.
Thanks, Tommie. Why didn’t I think of that? Sounds way better than what my store usually sells for stew meat cuts. And for some reason, I must’ve never paid attention to what my parents or grandparents got.
Tulrose, that sounds good. When did I last fix cornbread, Easter? I’m overdue.
I’ve found that it’s almost as easy to stick the roast in the freezer for a couple of hours until it’s partly frozen. You can then use a good knife to cut it up into neat chunks of whatever size you want, including pan-fry slices, then use or put them back in the freezer.
I’d do that too, but I keep forgetting it for a couple of days once it’s in the freezer.
What to do with acorn/Hubbard squash, or most any hard squash: split longwise, remove seeds and surrounds, turn face down on lightly greased foil in pie plate, bake in oven at 350 degrees until a fork goes in easily—don’t poke all the way through. Flip it over, salt it, add a pat of butter and a spoonful of brown sugar in the hollow where the seeds were. Put it back in until the brown sugar/butter is a brown liquid and the surface of the squash has tried to brown a bit. Serve as a side.
We always added cinnamon to the butter and sugar on the acorn squash. Mmmmm
I was brought up eating pumpkins and squash as savory rather than sweet. So no brown sugar or cinnamon for me.
Spaghetti squash is truly a weird veggie. It does pretty well as a base for all sorts of sauces.
What to do with baking potato: Heat oven to 375, wash potato, do not peel, puncture potato skin with fork (so it won’t ‘splode) and rub all over with olive oil, then salt the potato liberally. Place potato (no foil) in a rack or other device that doesn’t let it lie and sweat in a pan. Bake til done. (A done potato can be squeezed, and a fork penetrates easily)
Quick corn on the cob: heat olive oil in skillet, add salt, pepper, raw ears broken in half (fits skillet better)…lid and cook, letting steam help…on moderate heat. Keep rotating the corn ear as it browns. This also works on a barbecue grill.
We call those Salt Baked Taters. We usually use a solid oil, like butter, shortening or bacon grease, but you can use a liquid or a spray too.
Huh, I’ve never fixed a potato, sweet potato, or yam that way. I’ll try that. That skillet method for corn on the cob sounds tine too.
The method I learned for those was to clean the potato or yam, apply a little oil to the skin or leave it plain, wrap individually in foil, and place on a baking sheet or pan in the oven to bake until tender. This combined almost the old campfire method with a sort of steaming effect, and when done, the skins can be removed easily and butter and salt applied to the insides. Mmm.
LOL, corn on the cob was about as simple: shuck the corn (remove corn husks and corn silk, simple job), put in largest stew pot of boiling water, cover and let cook until the corn is done, remove with tongs, apply butter and salt to each ear as eaten. Do this quickly before everybody eats it all! — Note, I’ve never fixed tamales, but anyone who does would save those corn husks, wash and dry and baggie them, cut into rectangles for use to wrap the tamales when prepped. South American friends say they sometimes use banana leaves, rather than corn husks. Both methods and the tamales came from Indian (Native American) cooking, of course.
Squash: Prep for squash depends on the kind. Yellow summer squash and zucchini are cleaned and cut, thin slices, with an optional chopped onion, oil or butter and salt, pepper if desired, water to cover scantly or a bit less, lid to cover the pot, heat to boil, then lower heat to simmer ten to fifteen minutes, stir to be sure it doesn’t stick, turn off heat and let it continue another five to ten minutes. The idea is to have little water and let it cook down, but never overcook. The squash should retain its color and be al dente, but you’re supposed get close to a squash casserole consistency, or a bit more broth. This varied in practice, as to water content, but that was the goal.
If it’s a large, thick squash like acorn squash or butternut squash, then essentially, it’s as CJ wrote. The hardest part being to cut up the squash, halves or quarters, peeled before cutting into cubes. For halves or quarters, I think my grandmother used a metal roasting pan lined with foil, though she might have used a Pyrex or Corningware casserole dish with a cup of water and lidded, a time or two, not sure. Salt? I don’t know. But yes, butter or margarine (Oleo, she’d tell you about adding the food coloring during WWII rationing) and brown sugar (Imperial brand was local to Sugar Land, TX), cinnamon, a little nutmeg, and I think that was it. (She wouldn’t have objected to ginger or orange zest and might’ve liked that.) I think for the metal pan, she kept the squash face up, but I don’t recall if she covered it in foil. Likely, she let the butter, sugar, and spices do their caramelizing and softening magic with the squash, with the oven on a low temp. Let roast until done, checking a couple of times to be sure it’s progressing. — But I only recall seeing her do this a couple of times. Usually, she’d cooked it that morning or the prior day. My mom and dad? I can’t recall them ever cooking a large squash, maybe once for a holiday meal. But for a few years, this was something my grandmother loved to do, we all liked it, though finally, she declared it was too much work cutting the squash, for her hand strength. (I later helped with that, though, while we were living together in her later years.)
My grandmother was a firm believer in health foods, vitamins, raw honey, vegetable salt (a brand called Vege-Sal was a favorite) and natural foods, plenty of veggies. She didn’t cook sauces much because she thought they were high fat. She learned to cook from her mother, wood stove, farm methods, and all. She had evidently had a cooking class or two when she moved to the city as a young newlywed (17 and after), and in the 50’s after a bout with her health (pushed herself so hard she got seriously exhausted), she began sticking to health foods, vitamins, and all. So this very traditionally raised woman with a fierce independent streak learned some very modern ways (even took up yoga, haha, imagine, a grandmother doing yoga in the 60’s and 70’s) and stuck with most of these habits lifelong. She was the kind who was the sweet little old lady, very elegant and proper, who learned way past her farm upbringing and high school education. But if you had done something wrong, she wouldn’t yell or hit. You would instead get a lecture delivered mildly and reasonably, and you would know in no uncertain terms what you’d done and why it wasn’t right, and you’d promise not to do that again! (Or, at least in my mom’s case growing up, you’d sit in the corner very literally.) Yes, I grew up with that, minus the corner, as a kid visiting, but (haha) I’ve also seen it applied to others who crossed her path. — Not like Ilisidi, and yet a very strong, independent woman, who had learned to stick up for herself and for women’s rights. (Her husband, my biological grandfather, had an affair and left them when my mom was 15, and convinced *her* to divorce *him*, a scandalous thing in the 40’s, to be a divorced woman. She developed a real backbone (and a sore spot about men telling women what to do, which unfortunately later applied to the grandson) and later remarried my (step) granddad. — So although she’s far from the iron-willed lady Ilisidi, they probably would get along famously. Two of my grandmother’s friends were opposites: a sweet little old lady who’d never cuss, and a salty, outspoken lady with whom you always knew where you stood, and who could cuss like a sailor, yet was respected and a church elder, haha. Both of them were a hoot when they were with my grandmother, also the never-cussing type. — I tend to think of the saltier woman or of women like Elizabeth I or Catherine the Great, in thinking of Ilisidi, along with my grandmother and mother and a few other strong-minded, fiercely independent women, when I picture Ilisidi.
Huh, cookng, grandmothers, women’s rights, and Foreigner, all in one rambling post! See, ya get a little bit of everything around here! 😀
The holiday season has me nostalgic, but in a good way this year so far.
I think I came down with whatever crud others have been getting. Monday night it hit all of a sudden, like someone had opened a window and turned off the heat. I couldn’t get warm, and by the time I got dinner cleaned up and leftovers put away, I was shivering so hard I couldn’t hold on to anything.
I went straight to bed, turned up the mattress pad thermostats, and fell asleep once I got warm again. Terrible nightmares all night, though, and then spent most of yesterday in bed, too. Lots of decaffeinated tea, a couple of pieces of toast, and some plain water.
I wonder how much of this is stress over Birdie? That certainly hasn’t helped…..
Oh dear. Please stay warm and get better; one extends that to good wishes for your cat as well. One has reports that Ohio is getting snow, up to 3″ close to the lake. Brrrr!
Thursday, November 14, 4:50PM EST, I put her to sleep. She went peacefully, quietly, and is free from pain. I didn’t bring her back into the house, so the other three don’t know where she is, but I had a grave dug for her in the back yard this afternoon before I took her over to the vet’s.
My own crud isn’t much better. Digging the grave almost put me back to bed, and I just don’t have any energy. I suppose eating nothing but toast and tea for 3 days will do that to you.
🙁 I grieve with thee.
So sorry for you, Joe. Sad news, and just when you’re feeling low from being ill yourself. Best wishes for your recovery.
Oh, Joe, so sorry. That’s the absolute worst, something like that when you’re sick. It was well done, bravely done. Thinking of you.
Joe, so sorry to hear that Birdie is not in your and your other cats’ lives any more. Hug them close and know that we here understand how you feel.
Thank you to all,
I thoroughly believe that the other three know she’s gone. When I got back yesterday afternoon, they were looking for both of us. I didn’t bring the box through the house, but went directly to the back yard and didn’t come inside until I was finished. Even then, there were the questioning “meows” and searches all over the house for her.
I’m not sure what stage I’m at with whatever I have, because it seems I take a step forward, and then suddenly, I’m right back where I was before. I actually had my first full meal today since Monday night and it stayed down. The chills are still off and on, too.
No crud here, but a canker sore on the edge of my tongue, just right of the tip, for the past couple weeks makes me “unhappy”.
I think they’ve got an effective treatment for that. As I recall, it’s one of those viruses that ‘hides’ in the spinal fluid or somewhere and strikes opportunistically. But they can rid you of them: Mum had them every year until she finally got something to stop them.
I believe the herpes simplex virus that causes these sores seems to hole up in the salivary glands.
My doctor used to use silver nitrate swabs to destroy the sore, and then a topical bandage for inside the mouth. I believe it was called “Kenalog with ‘Actibase’ Ointment”. The reaction between the carrier substance and the saliva supposedly caused the ointment to form a seal over the lesion, preventing saliva, food, etc., from causing further irritation. I used to get them quite a bit during my sophomore year in college. I’m sure stress had nothing to do with it. 😉
I use butternut (or similar) squash to make a coconut milk/squash soup. Wash the squash. Cut it in half length-wise (for butternut) and remove the seeds and fiber. Place the two halves cut-side down in a baking dish with about 1/2 – 1 inch of water. Bake at 350 until tender. Flip, and let cool. For more intense color, peel and steam some carrots, too.
Spoon out the cooked squash and puree with coconut milk (we use some plain soy milk, too) until it reaches your preferred thickness. Season with ginger, mild curry powder (I’m mildly allergic to peppers, so I sometimes mix my own curry powder, but Penzey’s Maharajah Curry is tolerable), a little salt (I don’t much like salt), and a very small amount (1 – 2 Tbsp is enough for 2 quarts, I think) of agave nectar.
When you re-heat it, don’t let it boil.
One concoction I enjoy, whether well or ill, is a version of Chai. I simply simmer the spices and mix the liquid with hot milk. I purchase the whole spices from Penzey’s (there are two stores in my town), but often substitute fresh for dried ginger.
This mixture won’t do much for the throat, but it smells and tastes good (to me). I’m very fond of ginger, though.
2 T green cardamom pods
1 tsp. whole cloves
2 T dried, diced ginger root
2 T cinnamon chunks (Cassia cinnamon)
1 T blade mace
1 T whole allspice
1 tsp. Reunion pink peppercorns
1/2 – 1 star anise pod (that’s by pods, not by tsp or T) [optional]
Simmer in ~ 2 qt. H2O for at least 1 hours (2 – 3 hours are better). I usually mix the hot chai with an ~equal amount of hot milk or tea and milk, and then sweeten to taste (I don’t sweeten mine, but most people do).
One pot usually last me about a week, because I replenish the water as I decant the chai liquid for my tea and then simmer the chai for another hour or more. By the fourth time, the spices have lost a lot of their ‘oomph’ – that’s when I start another pot.
Tea made from licorice root does indeed help with sore throats (or just chew the raw root), but it can also raise blood pressure.
Another sore throat remedy: hot Jell-O. Just mix some of the powder with hot water (make it fairly concentrated), and drink. The kind with sugar works better than the sugar-free version, probably because the concentrated solution helps the inflamed throat tissue.
Of course, cold Jell-O of any type can be soothing, too, and it’s another way to get fluids into your body. You don’t have to worry about spilling the cold Jell-O, the way you have to worry about spilling water or tea.
And, you can use just about any flavored liquid with unflavored gelatin to create your own flavor (not fresh pineapple, though).
Mrs. Beeton has a good recipe. Just boil However much coffee, tea, or spices you usually use in the amount of milk you usually use of water, strain and sweeten to taste and drink. If you are having a hard time holding things down, you can beat in an egg. That will cook in the hot fluid and thicken it just slightly.