Homemade Herbal Cough Drops

I've been wanting to try making my own cough drops for a while because I don't like the flavor of commercial cough drops. They end up tasting like really nasty candy. Usually when I get a bad cough, a butterscotch candy works just as well as a Hall's and tastes a lot better.

I set out to find a recipe, and I ran across this one here. I modified it to make it simpler. Instead of fussing with a bunch of fresh herbs, I realized that the "herb infused water" that the recipe calls for is just a complicated way of saying herbal tea. So here's my recipe:

1 cup extra-strong herbal tea
1 1/2 cups honey

Mix together over medium-high heat in a 2 quart saucepan. Stirring frequently, heat until the mixture reaches 150 degrees Celsius (302 degrees Fahrenheit), measured by a candy thermometer. Pour into greased lozenge sized candy molds. Allow to harden.

I used locally produced honey from H&H Honey. For the mold, I used a Jello Bean Mold because a friend gave it to me a few years ago after she found it at a thrift store. (I wouldn't have paid full price for it, but it's just the right size for cough drops.)

For the herbal tea, I used three tea bags and allowed it to steep for about 15 minutes. I used two bags of Peet's Lemon Rose and one bag of Peet's Hibiscus C. I figure that honey lemon is a good flavor for cough drops and that some extra vitamin C is a good thing during a cold.

The two quart saucepan is important. I started out in a one quart pan, but the mixture gets really bubbly as it boils, so I had to transfer pans halfway through. Even the two quart pan started to look a bit iffy on size at the end. It took about 35 minutes for the mixture to reach the desired temperature.

One word to the wise that should go without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway: Don't poke it while it's in the mold to see how hard it is. It takes a long time to cool, and I'm now the proud owner of a beautiful blister on my left index finger.

The lozenges are still cooling, so I haven't tasted them yet. Now that I'm working from home, I catch colds much less often, so it may be a while before I can comment on their medicinal effectiveness. It was a fun project for science, though.

Basketball

I used to be in really good shape. I was a gymnast, figure skater, and springboard diver as a teenager. I played basketball on the ROTC team in college. I did ballet and ballroom dance as hobbies. I spent a year and a half riding a bicycle everywhere I went through the hills of North Carolina and Virginia.

Then I came home and went to law school. Between studying, going to classes, and holding down a full-time job, exercise kind of fell by the wayside. Then my adrenals and thyroid went on strike and I was too sick to do much more than get out of bed.

I'm better now, but I'm still out of shape. It turns out Isaac Newton was right. A body at rest tends to stay at rest. I keep meaning to start up a workout plan. I downloaded Couch to 5K running tracks years ago, and every now and then, I tell myself that I should go for a run.

When I tell myself that, it's because I forgot one very important fact. I absolutely loathe running! The only way you're going to get me to run is if I'm being chased by a sabre tooth tiger on the savannah. Since the sabre tooth tiger is extinct and I live in the middle of the desert, I don't foresee myself running anytime soon.

A lot of runners seem to exude an almost religious fervor about their chosen athletic activity. Running is apparently the most virtuous form of exercise there is, and all that stuff. But it's definitely not for me. I've decided that running isn't morally superior to other forms of exercise, and the best workout routine is one that I'll actually do.

Some acquaintances of mine play pickup basketball three mornings a week before work. So, early Monday morning, I'm going to go shoot some hoops. And I have a whole bunch of pilates workouts saved in my Amazon streaming video queue for off days. I also dusted off my goggles and swim cap so that I can swim laps in the apartment pool when the mood strikes me.

I'm looking forward to seeing the look on people's faces when the 5'3" nerd wipes the court with the competition! :-)

SMART new year's resolutions

Every year, I make the same resolutions (eat right, exercise more, etc.), and every year, I faithfully follow them for about 2 weeks. Then real life sets in, and the best laid plans go awry. This year, I’m applying some of my professional skills toward better resolutions.

The hip new(ish) buzzword in performance evaluations is the setting of SMART goals as a way of assessing workplace success. A SMART goal is something that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, “eat healthier food” doesn’t count because it’s not specific or time-bound, and it's a bit hard to measure. A better goal would be “eat at least one serving of fresh green vegetables every day”. Someone who leads a sedentary lifestyle shouldn’t set a goal to run a marathon next month because that’s not attainable, but setting a goal to run a 5K by the end of the year probably is.

With that in mind, in order of hardest to easiest, here’s my SMART 2015:

1. Exercise 20 minutes per day, 3 days per week.

Ideally, I would like to exercise more than that, but it’s a start. I used to be in really good shape until my thyroid decided to go haywire when I was in law school. There was a time when just getting out of bed was a massive achievement, so I need to start out small here when rebuilding. I’ll try to work up to more, but I want the initial goal to be modest.

2. Get a permanent job that makes at least $X per year.

X is a number that I have in mind personally that I’m not going to post here. Ever since I left my cushy (but ethically uncomfortable) job at a defense contractor, I’ve been freelancing/consulting/temping or whatever you want to call it. I kind of prefer “consulting” because I’m still doing professional level work, just on a contract basis instead of a long-term basis. I’ve had gigs lasting up to a year, and I know nothing is certain in this economy, but I still want the stability of a standard job.

This one has some sub-steps. I’ll have to keep up on my networking, and I’ll have to keep applying to jobs. I’m casting a wide net at this point. Ideally, I would like something as a faculty member at a college or university. I’m also considering attorney and HR jobs. In the meantime, I’ll continue with the contract work.

3. Reduce my overall debt by $Y.

Once again, Y is a number I have chosen but will not post here. This goal is a sub-goal to my more long-term goal of buying a house. That goal will take a few years, but I need to start somewhere. I’m already really good at sticking to a budget and living within my means. (The debt is from school and my bout with unemployment this past year.) Basically, if I keep getting good contracts or if I land a good job, this goal will be the easiest of the three to meet.

I guess this means I’ll need to give myself a performance review at the end of the year!

2014 in review

I haven’t blogged much in the past year. 2014 started out by getting laid off from a job I liked (but a commute I hated). I uprooted my tidy life and headed off into the great unknown, arriving in Phoenix just in time for the legendary summer season. (The heat wasn’t as bad as I had expected, but the hurricane-induced flooding was inconvenient. My sources tell me that was a once every hundred years occurrence, so I figure I’m good to go.)

I went on vacation with some friends this summer to Bryce Canyon, which was a bright spot to an otherwise very hard year. It took me months to find a job, which was demoralizing. When I did finally land a job, it was only a temp gig. I was fortunate that it kept getting extended, and I’ve made some good contacts to help me out with my continuing quest for a more permanent job.

I got a new cat, Obsidian. Her previous owners couldn’t keep her, and I took her in to rescue her from going to the shelter. Ebony isn’t too thrilled, but they’ve moved from swatting and hissing to just the occasional growl. Every now and then, when they think I’m not looking, they’ll even groom each other. I’m going to try to be better about documenting 2015, but no guarantees.