Soup and tea remedies for sinus infection

My family was always one for making 'herbals' , tonics and teas and food combinations to try to chase the basic ills of fever and cold and stomachache away...  I guess I inherited some of it, the information and the art.  My nose usually tells me what I need and then I go about trying to make that happen.  Mark says I can eat more black pepper and garlic on something than anyone he knows. 

My shelf contains the following always - garlic powder, onion powder, curry powder (madras style with yellow turmeric), black pepper, cayenne pepper, oregano, basil, mint leaves, cinnamon, ginger powder and diced ginger root pieces.  Beyond that I have strong black tea, lemon juice, honey, coffee, cocoa powder, white vinegar, balsamic vinegar and apple cider vinegar, olive oil, orange juice, tomato soup, chicken noodle soup (or broth), miso soup, canned carrots, canned pineapple, licorice tea, peppermint tea and a certain brand of echinachea tea that is hard to find but is from Traditional Medicinals.   There are a few off the wall things in there that are not used very often (anise, marshmallow root, etc.)  I have peppermint extract and eucalyptus oil for adding to vapor baths to clear congestion.   Sounds like a major tea party and luncheon, right?  Those are the basics for throwing together something in the middle of the night that might break a fever, have a chance at fighting a bacteria and just keep everything on the way to recovery.  My grandmother (part Ojibwe / Anishiniabe ) was told to be also fond of willow bark and white pine needle tea.  I've had the tea before, but the trees do not grow here in the South very well, and the willow bark was a substitute for aspirin.  I remember just a tiny bit about going through the Northern Minnesota woods with her and a few things she showed me that were edible there, a few sweet clovers and of course raspberries and blackberries.

What I have been making every few hours the past few days with my sinus infection was the echinachea tea with honey, chicken broth with garlic, ginger, black pepper and curry powder, ginger/honey syrup and tomato onion powder soup.  I feel much better than the past two days - with a lot of sleep, water and coffee on top of that.

Armed with my 'strong soups' and plenty of fluids I'll probably be back at work tomorrow.

Sewing:
Tonight, I have a new dark blue dress half done for Esme, with long sleeves and a gorgeous astronomical pattern to the fabric.  I am using the Simplicity 4969 pattern from her camp shirt, size 6, with the opening adjusted to be in the back instead of the front.  That, mixed along with the sleeves from Butterick 9644, size 6 jacket.  Since I put most of my 'go to' patterns away, it is hard to find just what I want to work with.. so I end up conglomerating whatever is on the top of the stack.  So far, looking at what I've got, it looks like it will work just fine.  I could tell I was sick, though -- I sewed a facing to the wrong side and took several minutes to realize what was wrong... then I looked around my table for five minutes to find the bobbin case cover that was underneath my pair of scissors.

Size 6 Simplicity 4969 TOP front, back, sleeve head, 

skirt from DRESS cut in half vertically.

Size 6 Butterick 9644 jacket sleeve, length and elbow width

Yes, the dress turned out perfectly.  I had to add the normal 'three small tucks' at the front of the sleeve on each side to make it line up properly with the other pattern.. but it looks pretty and normal for her little girl attitude.  The dress hangs a little large in the bodice (as she is technically a size 5 right now and it is a 6) but that is a good thing and she likes her dresses that way.