Today's post is inspired by the fact that I have been ill for almost two weeks. Well, that is a bit of a dramatic statement. I was actually sick for three days starting on Easter morning and am now trying to get rid of very wet cough and the sniffles.
Since I know that at least three of my friends are in the same boat, I decided that others probably were feeling the Spring "Ick" that is going around in Louisiana and I thought that I would post some of my homemade remedies to help sooth a sore throat and cough.
I am often torn about what flavor I want to make my home made cough drops, so I am including two flavors here. They are basically the same recipe, I am just changing out a couple of the ingredients to get the different flavors.
Mint Honey Ginger Cough Drops
Ingredients
1 cup honey
1 cup boiling water
1/2 tbsp. fresh ginger juice**
1 tbsp. (One tea bag) peppermint tea leaves
4 drops mint extract
Instructions
1. In a medium sized pot, bring 1 and half cups water to a boil.
2. Remove from heat and steep the mint tea bag in the one cup water for about 10 minutes.
3. Once you have made the mint tea, remove the tea bag and pour the tea back into the medium sized pot. Add the honey, ginger juice, and four drops of mint extract to the tea.
4. Heat over medium heat until the mixture begins to boil, stirring constantly with a wire whisk It will get foamy and will try to "climb" up the sides. When this happens, lift the pot away from the heat and continue whisking. Once the mixture has settled back down, put the pot back on the warm burner and repeat as needed.
5. This is where it gets tricky. If you have a candy thermometer, you want your mixture to reach 300 degrees and then remove from heat. I don't have a candy thermometer, so I have to do it the gambling way and eyeball it. So, if you don't have a candy thermometer, this process is going to take about 30 minutes. You can use the ice water method to see if your cough drops are ready.
For the ice water method, you drop a small bit of the cough drop mixture into a glass filled with ice water. If the mixture is ready it will harden to a consistency that will "shatter" when you bite down on it. If it is chewy, keep it on the stove and cook it a little longer.
6. At this point, you can pour the cough drop mixture into candy molds. If you don't have candy molds, and I know I sure don't, line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper and spray with oil. Use a spoon and drop the mixture on the parchment paper to form a coin. Once it has cooled slightly, enough to touch without burning yourself, use spoons to form small rounds or to better shape the cough drops.
7. Allow the cough drops to cool and harden completely.
8. Take a piece of was paper and cut it into two by three inch squares, as many as you need to wrap your cough drops and wrap them individually.
9. Store in an air tight container.
** To make the ginger juice, grate about a 1 inch piece of ginger and place in the center of a paper towel. Squeeze the ginger inside the towel above a small bowl. Keep squeezing until you have 1/2 tbsp. ginger juice. If this sounds too complicated you can do one teaspoon grated ginger and just put that in your cough drops.
Lemon Honey Ginger Cough Drops
1 cup honey
1 cup boiling water
1 elderberry tea bag (I included a link in case you don't have this at your grocery store) https://www.amazon.com/Traditional-Medicinals-Organic-Echinacea-Elderberry/dp/B000EJPDL8/ref=sr_1_2_s_it?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1493426186&sr=1-2&keywords=elderberry+tea
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tbsp. fresh ginger juice**
Instructions
1. In a medium sized pot, bring 1 and half cups water to a boil.
2. Remove from heat and steep the elderberry tea bag in the one cup water for about 10 minutes.
3. Once you have made the elderberry tea, remove the tea bag and pour the tea back into the medium sized pot. Add the honey, ginger juice, and cinnamon and fresh lemon juice to the tea.
4. Heat over medium heat until the mixture begins to boil, stirring constantly with a wire whisk It will get foamy and will try to "climb" up the sides. When this happens, lift the pot away from the heat and continue whisking. Once the mixture has settled back down, put the pot back on the warm burner and repeat as needed.
5. This is where it gets tricky. If you have a candy thermometer, you want your mixture to reach 300 degrees and then remove from heat. I don't have a candy thermometer, so I have to do it the gambling way and eyeball it. So, if you don't have a candy thermometer, this process is going to take about 30 minutes. You can use the ice water method to see if your cough drops are ready.
For the ice water method, you drop a small bit of the cough drop mixture into a glass filled with ice water. If the mixture is ready it will harden to a consistency that will "shatter" when you bite down on it. If it is chewy, keep it on the stove and cook it a little longer.
6. At this point, you can pour the cough drop mixture into candy molds. If you don't have candy molds, and I know I sure don't, line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper and spray with oil. Use a spoon and drop the mixture on the parchment paper to form a coin. Once it has cooled slightly, enough to touch without burning yourself, use spoons to form small rounds or to better shape the cough drops.
7. Allow the cough drops to cool and harden completely.
8. Take a piece of was paper and cut it into two by three inch squares, as many as you need to wrap your cough drops and wrap them individually.
9. Store in an air tight container.
I'm going to be honest, I don't know how long these last in the air tight jar. I usually use them within a two week period and they are okay.
Another trick that can help you when you are sick is to "steam bath" your face with essential oils while you are feeling congested and cough-y. I wish I could say that I got this idea from my grandmother, but the truth is, I got it from watching Adelaide's lament in the film version of Guys and Dolls.
In the show, she sings about the fact that she has a chronic cold and, in the movie version, she ends the song by sticking her head in a steamer and putting a towel over her head,
One day, when I was feeling miserable and couldn't breath, I decided that I wanted to try it. One try and it was love at first steam.
I couldn't just do plain steam. So, as you may know, if you are a frequent reader of my blog, I love essential oils and use them as much as I possibly can, in whatever I can. So I added some oils to my steam bath. Oh wow, I could breath! Heaven. For me, it really works! So here is what I do.
Essential Oil Nasal Congestion Steam
Ingredients
4 cups water
10 drops essential oil (Can be one scent only or a mix of any of these - lavender, tea tree oil, eucalyptus rosemary, and peppermint)
1. In a large pot, preferable one with a wide brim, bring water to a low boil.
2. When water is steaming, remove from the heat and add the essential oils. (Be careful not to add too much as the oils will get stronger with heat. It is better to start slow and add more if you feel you need it as you steam.) Of course, if you do make it too strong, you can always add more boiling water to dilute it.)
3. Place a heating pad or towel on a table that you can comfortable lean over.
4. Place the pot on the heating pad or towel.
5. Drape a large towel over your head and over the pot, this will ensure that you lock in the steam.
6. Begin to take deep "singer's" breaths. That means that you want to take deep breaths through your nose and release the breath through your mouth.
7. If you have a cough, alternate and breath through your nose and breath out through your mouth, then breath in through your mouth and out through your nose.
You may have to move your head out of the steam bath after a couple of minutes as it can get quite warm in there. Just make certain that you keep the pot covered with the towel to keep in the heat.
8. Try to breath in the vapors for at least ten minutes.
9. Repeat as needed.
After my talk with Jeff Johnson, I think I am going to try to modify this idea to make a shower bomb of these oils to put on the floor of the shower so that you can steam and breath as you take a shower. I don't know if it is going to work, but I am going to try. If it is successful, I will share on this blog!
Well, that is it for now. We have Cinco de Mayo coming up and I would like to share some recipes that you can do at home that aren't tacos, (Not that I don't love tacos, but sometimes its fun to switch things up.)
And then after that is Mother's Day and I will share some recipes and craft ideas! So please, come back and check out what I will be posting in the future.
