Mama Céleste's Cure For Feeling Puny

When I edited Listen Magazine, our art director, Bill Kirstein, used to call having a cold "feeling puny." Since this is the time of year when many of us are feeling "puny" I thought I'd share my cure: Garlic Soup. I just made some of this for my MIL who is sick and it smelled so good I made another batch for my own lunch. I'm not feeling puny but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. Whopping cough is going around these parts. This recipe is pretty flexible. Add what you want and take out what you don't like. But the part that needs to stay the same is you use an entire head of garlic. You heard me. Man up. A whole head. Tip: to make it easier to peel the garlic, put the head of garlic in a towel. Gather it up so you have the garlic contained in the bottom as if you're carrying it in a bag and thump it on the counter a few times. That will peel some of the cloves for you and loosen up the skin on the others. You're welcome. So here you go . . . not only will this scare away cold germs but no one else will want to be around you either so don't indulge before a date.

Garlic Soup

2 cups of water

1 head of garlic, cloves sliced into this rounds

Chunk of vegetable bouillon the size of a pea

1 Tbs nutritional yeast

Generous pinch of sea salt

1 tsp - 1 Tbs red pepper flakes (optional but great)

1 scallion, chopped (optional but also nice)

Noodles from one packet of Ramen (optional but if you're squeamish about the garlic or want more of a meal soup rather than a broth these are nice. Discard the flavor packet. Or use a different kind of noodle.)

1 Tbs miso (any kind)

Boil everything but the noodles and miso until the garlic is tender. Add more water if you need to. Add noodles and cook until done. Remove from heat and add miso. Ta-da! Run, run, little cold germs. The garlic is coming to get you. Bwahaha . . .

In other news I'm struggling to get my life back under control after turning in the book the day before the deadline (yay!). There should soon be news of animals and new projects and Etsy listings (yay!). But please bear with me; I've been letting everything not essential slide while I worked on the book and it's going to take me awhile to whip it back into shape. An important event is happening in 12 days though . . . do you remember what? Am crossing my fingers for a sale or giveaway or some such to celebrate.

* Bowl by Patty Herzfeld (it's my favorite!) http://www.herzfeldstudios.com/patty.php