There are a lot of things I love about winter. There is a beauty in the bare trees and snow covered fields. The animal tracks in our yard allow me to see who besides birds are coming to the feeder. The sun seems to shine directly on me as if it knows I am always cold.
I welcome the slowness of the season that gives me the time to get some things done in the house. The quiet on the streets because people are only going out when they need something for their homes or to go to work. The peace in knowing that I have a roof over my head and someone in the house who loves me more than anything in this world.
Okay, that is the nice stuff I am supposed to say about winter. What I really want to say is that I can’t catch my breath and get nearly what I want to get done right now. I feel limited by the snowy roads, bundling up just to take the trash out and that sleepy feeling like there is a gas leak in the house. (My husband doesn’t worry about a gas leak because he knows I am built like a canary and me keeling over will be his indicator to get out.)
But the thing that really has made me grumpy is my nose. It has been constantly wet and runny. I blow and blow and sound like a goose getting run over by tractor. I can only breathe out of my mouth because if I inhale out my nose it sounds like someone is trying to start a car with a bad battery. If I exhale, well, I’ll spare you the gory details but it just gets messy!!!
When I wake up in the morning there is a minefield of wet tissues on the floor. My poor husband has to walk by my side of the bed to get out of the room and has to hop across the floor so he doesn’t step on them. (He won’t pick them up because apparently everything about me isn’t beautiful, as he has been led to believe.)
The worst part of all this is that my appetite is just lost. I think it is because I have no taste. (Of course, my “taste” has come into question in other parts of my life like writing about my snotty nose on a food blog!)
Last night, I was just stuffed up and kind of miserable. I just wanted soup but didn’t have the energy to make anything extravagant. (My sweetie somehow wasn’t available because he didn’t want to catch my cooties.)
So I shuffled into the kitchen and looked in the pantry. Sigh. I really didn’t have a lot of easy options. I had the usual cans of broth, a bouillon cube and a couple of cans of tomato soup. I was just about to hang my head and cry when I saw it….a little bit of red. I had an emergency box of Lipton Noodle Soup tucked away in the back. (This is my go to soup when I’m really feeling lousy because it is easy to make.)
Hooray! I felt like I was going to live. I sniffled a few times and grabbed the box. Part of me still felt sad because I really wanted something fancier but I just was too tired. I thought how could I easily jazz this baby up so I could taste it and maybe make it hot enough to clear my nose.
I added the water to my pot and got it boiling. I ripped open my package and dumped it in. I tried to smell the chickeny scent but I had nothing! So I looked in the fridge and grabbed some ginger. I added a heaping teaspoon and then also added a half-teaspoon of white pepper.
I took a little taste and was hit instantly with the floral scent of the ginger. Oh, it was a beautiful moment. I could taste something. I put some in my mug and took another taste. Hmmm, I want a little bit more flavor so I added a tsp. of malt vinegar to my cup of soup. I could taste the sour now. It was like I was given life again.
I grabbed my cup, blankie and another handful of tissues and plopped back onto the couch. I slurped every noodle and drank the broth with glee. I blew my nose numerous times but at least felt like a human again.
As the sun started shining into my living room this morning, I grabbed a throat lozenge and started to wipe my nose. This little cold isn’t over yet but at least I found something to eat that makes me feel happy.
Disclaimer: I have not tasted this recipe when my nose is not clogged. It may be delicious tasting or it might be kind of weird. With that said, I am going to go get more soup today so I can binge eat it until my nose gets back to normal and I feel like I can catch my breath again.
Lipton’s Cure for the Common Cold
Ingredients
1 packet of Lipton Noodle Soup (not the chicken noodle, just noodle soup)
4 cups of water
1 heaping teaspoon of minced ginger
½ tsp of white pepper, ground
4 tsp of malt vinegar (1 tsp per cup serving)
Handful of tissues
Directions
Boil water
Add packet, ginger and pepper.
Simmer for about 5 minutes.
Add 1 cup of soup to a mug and add 1 tsp of malt vinegar.
Drink up and feel better. (I hope I do!!!)
