Cook for the cure

          Practically every family has a list of home cures for common ailments.  We all know about the curative powers of chicken soup.  It really does work!  That's why it's known to many as Jewish Penicillin. It works wonders for those feeling under the weather.  My mother also had a home cure for colds and the flu.  It was a simple prescription of 1 cup hot water, the juice of 1 lemon, 1 spoonful of honey, and 1 shot of whiskey.  Sipping that worked wonders.
           Homeopathic medicine has been around for thousands of years.  People around the globe swear by it.  From green tea for hypertension to cinnamon for weight loss and St. John's wort for depression people have looked to the kitchen shelves for cures for whatever ails them.
          Rudi was kind enough to share with me the cold she brought home over the Christmas holiday and I've been languishing with chest congestion and coughing and sneezing for about a week now.  So I thought I would create a cure from elements I had on hand.  So yesterday I adapted a recipe for a spicy shrimp broth to see if it would send me on the road to recovery.  I simmered some shrimp shells to make a seafood stock and then added some sauteed onions, carrots and celery along with some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, and diced tomatoes.  It cooked on the stove for an hour and a half, covered, before being removed and adding the shrimp.
          I sampled just a spoonful of the broth as it cooked.  It was really spicy!  But it did clear my stuffy nose.  So at dinner I ladled out a whole bowl and warmed it up in the microwave.  Just as a precaution I stirred in a large helping of sour cream, hoping to cut the heat.  I had tears in my eyes as I downed the soup, one spoonful at a time.  It bordered on being intolerable but it worked to reduce my symptoms.  It cleared out my sinuses (and everything else along it's path).
          So today I'm feeling better thanks to my homemade cure.  They say whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  That shrimp broth almost did me in, but it also reduced my cold to a whimper.