The Wyzyrd speaks….”granny remedy” for colds and flu

Words Wisdom from The Wyzyrd

(from SurvivalGeezer.com – coming soon!) 

The best ‘granny remedy’ I know of is for flu symptoms, taught to me by a former co-worker, whose Mom was a traditional Chinese Herbalist from Szechuan Province who got out when the Maoists got totally crazy.

Make a big cup of hot green tea, add a nickel-sized slice of fresh ginger root (smash up the ginger a bit) and let it steep for about 5 minutes. Very soothing, and delicious even without unnecessary sweeteners. Works extraordinarily well.

“Grandma Penicillin” works surprisingly well for colds and flu as well. Homemade chicken soup with a lot of onion, garlic, sage and thyme (where the thymol in those cough drops comes from)

Not ‘cures’, but they’ll help make the symptoms a lot less severe.

Recipe from an upcoming (I hope) book, if anyone is interested:

GRANDMA PENICILLIN
(really magical when you’re sick) 

Ingredients:
whole roaster chicken, remove and keep all bones and skin
3 yellow onions, quartered, keep skin on
1 yellow onion, diced
2 carrots, rough chopped
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, rough chopped
2 stalks celery diced
large bunch fresh thyme
lots of minced garlic
2 fresh sage leaves
olive oil
slice of fresh ginger, about quarter-sized (or 2)
egg noodles, boiled, very al dente
salt and pepper to taste

Prep:
Grandma was right. Chicken soup really does help (warm fluids) . The herbs help too (where do you think they get thymol for cough drops?)

 Start by skinning and boning the whole chicken, Toss all the skin and bones into a stock pot and brown everything, Cover well with water, add rough cut veggies and herbs, bring to a rolling boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and go away for a few hours (well, watch it and add more water, if needed). Dice up all the meat and reserve in fridge.

After a few hours, strain out all the veggies and herbs and discard – they’re done and have already given up all their flavor and nutrients. Let stock cool and skim off excess fat. Saute the diced veggies and add to the stock. Heat thoroughly. You may want to add more garlic and thyme

Now, here’s the secret: Do not add the noodles until you are ready to serve. Put them in the bowl, cover them with hot soup. Store leftover soup and noodles separately, and combine at meal time – the noodles won’t soak up all the stock and turn into ‘pudding’ that needs to be thinned out again.

It won’t taste like the stuff in the red can, but I bet you’ll like it, and it might help when you feel under the weather.

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