Quick Tip #14

Got a sick kid in the house? Or are you not feeling well? The stomach bug is making its rounds, I hear. Wash your hands and stay clean! You’ve also probably heard that it helps to take ginger ale on an upset stomach, right? Did you know that the ginger ale soda sold in the stores has absolutely NO ginger in it? So it does nothing for your stomach!

When we visited FX Matt Brewery in Utica, NY, the tour guide told us that the brewery makes their own very special ginger ale with real ginger in it. I tried it on my son, who was sick this week, and it really helps! We used the Saranac Ginger Beer stuff. It has no alcohol. It is very spicy; it tastes like ginger snaps.

So, if you are needing ginger for an upset tummy, skip the expensive and useless soda pop and look around for real ginger beer. Here’s a yeast-less recipe at cocktailchronicles.com/2006/08/17/ginger-beer for making homemade ginger beer:

Ginger Beer

• 10 cups water
• 12 ounces fresh ginger, finely chopped (for a lighter colored ginger beer, peel the ginger before weighing it)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• juice of 1 lime

Bring the water to a boil; turn off heat and add the ginger. Cover the pot and let steep overnight. Strain the mixture through cloth, squeezing and pressing to express drops of liquid from the ginger. Add the sugar and the lime juice, stir, bottle and refrigerate.

And don’t use that nasty colored granulated sugar that they call “brown sugar” in the stores. Try this:

Brown Sugar:

1 5 pound bag granulated sugar
1/2 cup molasses (or more, depending on taste)

Mix the molasses and the sugar and stir (and stir and stir and stir) until well blended. You might want to take a break and have the kids do it for a while. You’ll have healthy brown sugar when you’re done!

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