I expect to be kind of scarce the next few days. I have half my children home for the week, and actually have 6 days off in a row from work! Tonight we have midnight Mass, and tomorrow will be cook all day. We do the traditional British dinner. Standing rib roast, Yorkshire pudding, potatoes, carrots, (the last of the summer's CSA share), maybe a steamed pudding with hard sauce. Need to inventory fridge and cupboards before the stores close. Boxing Day we hang out together, and Saturday I put one child on a plane, and Monday the other one on a train, and we try to go back to life as usual.
This year, at least, I won't be catching Christmas babies. There is always a bittersweetness to being on call Christmas, to being there with some one else's family and not my own.
Food: December 2003 Archives
From TSO.
My favorite remedy for the chesty cough remains the hot toddy. A good slug of the distilled liquor of your choice, honey, lemon juice, and boiling water. Serve in a mug. Cinammon stick stirrer is optional.
I had horrible croup as a child. (I probably had asthma, but my mom didn't trust doctors much and in those days asthma was more tightly defined - chronic cough didn't qualify). I remember waking up around 2 in the morning, coughing my lungs out and barking like a seal. First it was a trip into the home made steam cabinet - a bathroom with the shower turned on high and hot - (not to get under, just to breath). Then a liberal application of Vapo-Rub to the chest and back, and finally a couple of table spoons of hot toddy (I think my mom finished off the rest after tucking me in). It probably didn't work as well as today's inhalers and steroids for acute asthma attacks, but it sure felt more loving.
I've been hacking and coughing since the day after Thanksgiving. I think it is time for me to go to my favorite Japanese watering hole for the ultimate cure. Miso soup with a dollop of wasabi added in, Tempura Udon with added red pepper, and hot sake to wash it down. It may not clear my sinuses and lungs, but I will still feel better afterwards!
Pansy asked for my 'recipe' for taco salad. Like so much other everyday cooking, it doesn't really have a formal recipe, but I will describe how I generally make and serve it. Hope that helps!
When I was off for the weekend with my husband, I had the opportunity to try a few new drinks. One was labelled "The Bitter End" and it was a martini style concoction that was deadly and delicious. The description stated that is contained Bombay Sapphire, Campari, and Angostura bitters. I have been trying (without success, alas) to replicate it. If anyone else has heard of this or has a recipe, I would be grateful.
This evening, I decided to try something a little different. I have been rather out of it for several days, first with an asthma flare and later with a bad head cold, and today was the first day in a while that I have had energy to do much more than go to work and go to sleep.
I mixed equal parts Tanqueray and Dubonnet blanc with a dash of angostura bitters, shook it over ice, and strained out. My daughter sniffed it and declared that it needed mango. Mango? Well, I happen to have a mango/peach/orange juice blend on hand, so added in 1/2 part of this, reshook and strained, and voila - a delicious cocktail which I am now sipping slowly, waiting for John to get home from work for dinner. Taco salad.
