Sheer Desperation

I am absolutely terrified of being sick. I started coming down with a cold on Thursday, and since then I've been doing whatever I can think of to keep it from becoming full-blown. I cannot imagine what life would be like around here if I was shuffling around in my pajamas with a wad of Kleenex in my hand, and I don't want to find out.

Last month, Ellie started coming down with something, so I made her some garlic lemonade that I had found in a children's health care book. She drank nothing else for 3 days, and the cold completely passed her by. She had a 99 degree fever and two boogers, and she was a little snotty when she cried for more than a minute, but that was it. Here is the recipe:

4 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup lemon juice
4 cups boiling water
honey to taste

Pour boiling water over garlic and let steep for 20 minutes. Strain to remove garlic, and add lemon juice and honey. Chill and serve.

Well, I decided to make myself some. Maybe because I let it steep way too long (until cool) or maybe because I'm picky, I just couldn't stomach the stuff. I drank about a cup of it over the course of a day and a half.

Yesterday, I told RaeAnn about my plight, and she suggested a few remedies to me. The first was R. W. Knudsen Simply Nutritious Lemon Ginger Echinacea Juice. She said her precious girls had responded similarly to it as Ariel had to the lemonade. She also mentioned someone who swore by eating a whole onion when they started coming down with a cold, and she sent me a link to a friend's homemade tonic.
So, this morning, I went to Fred Meyer and bought the juice, as well as ginger root, horseradish sauce (sadly, they don't carry horseradish root), and yellow chili peppers. The juice is pretty good (and I think it would be really good served hot!). I'm nervous about trying the tonic, which sounds less than yummy, but I haven't made it yet because the blender is in the dishwasher. And I just ate a whole onion, sauted and served with 3 scrambled eggs and a tiny bit of ground breakfast sausage from New Seasons.

May I take this moment to say that buying meat at New Seasons actually feels GOOD? That I no longer feel like I'm paying obscene amounts of money for what is essentially garbage - poultry that is limp and mucous-like, sausage with lord-knows-what ground into it, steaks that I would hesitate to eat rare? New Seasons chicken is thick and firm like steak, and their sausage looks good enough to eat, which I can't always say about a lot of the other junk out there. They make their sausage right there out of fresh ground pork and spices. So, yeah, I can't tell you how excited I am to have a source of edible meat.

Anywho, I'll make the tonic this afternoon, and let you all know later if my illness-fighting efforts are successful...