Sotto voce

Laryngitis - I haz it. Thanks to some lovely germs which briefly affected Big Girl, but decided to linger much longer with Hubs and me, my voice is, at best, a quiet croak today. I'm staying at home and drinking lots of hot fruit tea. It's a variation on stuff that the women in my family make, and it's not really tea, exactly, but that's what I call it. You could add some tea bags to it, which some of my relatives do, and it would be delicious, but I often omit that step. My mom adds mulling spices when she makes it, but today I'm sticking with the following simple recipe since I have these ingredients on hand:

In a monstrous pot on the stove, combine a gallon of apple juice with half a big can of pineapple juice, and/or same amount cranberry juice. Toss in some cinnamon sticks and/or cloves. Simmer for a while until flavors come out and get mixed, then ladle into mugs and drink. It's nummy, as my boy would say.

I'm making some now.

Variations on hot fruit tea

When I have a cold (or sinus infection, as it inevitably becomes), I love to make a large pot of hot fruit tea and just keep it warm and ready to drink throughout the afternoon and evening. My recipe is never quite the same, but it often is something like this:

1 64 ounce bottle of apple juice
1 quart of cranberry juice, and/or 1 quart of pineapple juice
Two family-size tea bags
One or two cinnamon sticks
A few cloves

I put all of these things in a large pot on the stove, or in the crock pot, and just heat until warm, and then simmer. If too much liquid evaporates and the fruit tea becomes too strong, I add some extra water.

I have a pot on the stove this afternoon, with pineapple juice since I had it on hand. It makes the whole house smell lovely, and the kids generally like it (I use decaf tea bags when serving it to little ones). My grandmother, mother, and aunts all make variations on this same recipe throughout the cooler months, and I have wonderful memories of drinking this while sitting around a card table playing cards or Scrabble with all of them. I also made it a few times in college, when my roommates and I had parties (no, not the wild kind of parties) - it works well without the tea, even, if you just want a hot spiced fruit drink. Hope you enjoy it!