I am sick. Luckily, Mark and I have a system that has never failed: 1. Mark gets sick. Kim takes care of Mark. 2. After Mark recovers, Kim gets sick. Mark takes care of Kim.
This works really, really well. If you have to be sick, it is a great luxury to have a healthy person to run to the store for juice, to make soup, and to bring you a box of tissues when you don't feel like moving from the couch. The only scary thing is what would happen if we were to both get sick at once. In almost 6 years together, this has never happened. And I hope it never does.
I always do the same thing when I get a cold. Sick apparel: leggings, hooded sweatshirt. Sick viewing: Anything I can fall asleep to, but the best is the entire Pride and Prejudice BBC series. Sick reading: Reading?
My main interest is in sick eats/drinks. I have found that everyone has something they swear by, whether it was something a loving parent always gave them or something miraculous they discovered on accident. My friend Nicole used to swear by the BRAT diet - bananas, rice, applesauce, toast. As a kid, Mark had chicken soup, cream of wheat blended with a banana, 7-up, saltines, and lime sherbet. Here are my usual suspects:
1. Homemade soup. When I'm sick, I must have something hot that slips down the throat. One of my favorites is chao, also known as congee or jook, which is a thin, porridge-like rice soup. Simple and immensely comforting, it must have shredded chicken, lots of ginger, and pepper. I also like chicken noodle soup. If I'm lucky, Mark will roast a chicken and then use the carcass to make stock and shred the meat into my soup.
2. When we don't have homemade soup on hand, I cry and wish my mom was there. Then I send Mark out for take-out pho ga (chicken pho) or tom yum (spicy Thai soup). Whenever I feel under the weather, I really crave flavorful, spicy broth. Pho is especially great after a long flight.
3. Sparkling water with fruit juice. Orange juice, grapefruit juice, or passionfruit juice are all excellent.
4. Hot water with thinly sliced ginger and lemon wedges, mixed with a lot of honey. If I have a sore throat or am congested, this works wonders.
5. Crackers. My mom always had saltines and ginger ale on hand when our stomachs were upset. I don't care for ginger ale these days, but crackers are essential sick food.
6. Fruit sorbet. Raspberry Haagen-Dazs, please! Actually, cold fruit in general, especially oranges and berries.
7. When my taste buds start to return, I invariably crave crusty bread, spread with goat cheese and drizzled with honey.
What are your sick foods? Are they the same as when you were a kid, or have they changed as you got older?
10 comments:
My mom wasn't into making anything from scratch, really. So we got Campbell's chicken noodle soup (which she one time tried to dissolve a grape Tylenol in) and Sprite. To this day, Sprite out of a 2-liter bottle tastes like being sick to me. However, I have no bad associations with Campbell's chicken noodle, despite the nasty grape Tylenol incident.
All your soups sound fabulous. I wish I felt like making them for myself when I am sick. I don't think Nathan will ever take it upon himself to roast a chicken and make a stock!
I swear by an all liquid diet. And everything has to be hot. So it's emergen-c in hot water, hot tea (with lemon and honey), or hot toddies :) When I feel I need something more substantial, that's when the soup comes in. I eat soup as a meal all winter long but especially when I'm sick, which ::knock on wood:: hasn't happened yet this season. I will try the pho or the tom yum next time though, since I love them and they fall into my all-liquid requirement :) Hope you're feeling better!
lauren - grape tylenol, you poor thing... this brings back bad memories of awful kid medicine in a plastic cup. i distinctly recall banana flavored liquid antibiotics. ick.
agrado - remember our weekly jaunts to thai garden? my first taste of tom yum.
Yes, Triaminic has ruined me for creamy orange flavor forever.
I hope you are feeling better, Kim! I don't have any sick foods because I pretty much never get sick. Apparently my immune system is awesome. Of course, having said that, I will probably get really sick soon. :)
However, when I take care of John when he is sick, I tend to go with lots of echinacea tea, hot Airborn, lots of soups and crackers, ginger ale, and orange juice.
Why did Mom get invited to join Mark's facebook but not me?
J -- I sat here for a minute trying to think of a good joke about you being Russian and never getting sick. Like... you were sick once; we call that period the COLD WAR. Aha!
Bob - I explained this already :)
Lauren - funny thing that a 2 liter of 7up reminds you of being sick, because a 2 liter of 7up reminds me of Nathan being sick...
Wow, umm, I guess cause you aren't feeling well I'll give you a ha for that joke. If you were feeling better, I would totally give you a groan. ;)
A pity 'ha'? I'll take it!
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