My Cough and a Recipe for Joe's Chicken Soup

If you treat a cold - with chicken soup, juice, water, over-the-counter medications - it goes away in about a week and a half.

If you don't treat a cold, it goes away in about 10 days.

Hot chicken soup feels good and it helps replenish your electrolytes as well as keep you hydrated. Juice, water - all hydration. Over-the-counter medications don't get rid of the cold at all - there aren't any medications yet that kill the 200+ viruses that cause a cold. OTC meds just make the symptoms bearable.If you're otherwise healthy, your body will ramp up and start fighting the viral infection. There really isn't anything you can do to increase your body's immune response. Depending on which exact virus is causing your symptoms, your body may get rid of it in 2 or 3 days, or it may take a week to a week and a half (or 7 to 10 days) to clear the virus and get rid of the symptoms.Stay hydrated, that's the main thing. Your body goes through a lot of fluids when you have a cold. Using a humidifier or standing in a hot shower may help. The nasal saline sprays are definitely worth a try.Chicken soup, orange juice, water. Can't stress those 3 enough.

Well, I have a cold...I guess. I coughed all night and really didn't get much sleep. I can't remember the last time I had a cold. I hope the cough is the extent of this cold. I can deal with that, but not the head cold. I will follow the above recommendations and see how long it lasts.

Balisha

Joe's Recipe for Chicken Soup:

* Note: If making a small amount of soup, just alter the amount of ingredients to fit. This receipe is for a large soup pot.Whole Chicken or 4 chicken breasts. Boil in large stewing kettle (something like you saw in cartoons of cannibals cooking people) Add generous amt. of salt.Slice 6-7 carrots end to end. No need to peel.Cut up 4 stalks of celery.Cut up 2 large onions.When chicken parts are done...take out of boiling water, but do not throw water away. Allow chicken parts to cool. Carefully cut or pull chicken bones away from meat. Slice the chicken parts longways. Lay slices flat and slice longways again...then cut into cubes. Throw everything together into the pot.Now, add to the pot, 3-4 heaping tablespoons of chicken base (you can buy this at the store rather inexpensively) And stir all together. Then add generous amt. of dehydrated parsley flakes. The best Chicken base of the several that I have tried is the Chicken Base bought at the GFS store.Finally, using white pepper, add salt and pepper to taste.Now for the noodles..... Boil noodles in a large separate kettle.Now I use wide no yolk egg noodles and rotini combined.In this large kettle, put in more water than you think you'll need and then add few drops of cooking oil (keeps noodles from sticking together). Bring water to a boil and add the noodles...stirring frequently until tender. After noodles are cooked, pour into a scolapasta and drain. Then rinse noodles thoroughly with real hot water (this removes all the starch). (If you prefer, just cook the noodles until Al Dente and then add them to the liquid soup.)Add all the noodles to soup mixture in kettle, bring to a boil again and simmer for half hour or more.NOTE: The amount of noodles that you will use will depend on how large of a kettle that you started with. Just remember more noodles is better than less noodles.... You may want to sprinkle a small amt. of cumin into the soup towards the end and stir in thoroughly. ENJOY!***Also, if you would like you can add potatoes to the soup, just peel 3-4 med. sized Yukon Gold potatoes. Cut into large cubes. Definitions... Scolapasta = A colander Joe's grandma was from Sicily and spoke very little English. He lived with her and could speak Italian. Sicilians use a lot of slang words.