RECIPE: Grandma's Homemade Cough Syrup

Vovó Zilca meeting my youngest and her 5th great-grandchild

So Grandma was nice enough to share her cough syrup recipe with me and now I will share it with you.  Look at how efficiently this train of information works! You ask, I deliver.

Diabetics beware! This is an old school recipe. That means that it comes with a lot of sugar! I'm just happy it doesn't have something crazy like whiskey in it.

What you need:

2 Cups Sugar
1/2 cup water
Well washed leaves from 1 stem of Ruta graveolens (also called common Rue)
2 tablespoons of bee honey (I don't know of any other kind of honey but since she specified...)

How to Make it:

• You first need to caramelize the sugar in pot on the stove. Be careful not to burn it! It can not be burnt! 
• Once nice and caramelized, add 1/2 cup of water. Mix well over low heat.
• Now is the tricky part. Take the leaves and mash them into the caramelized sugar and water mixture. We are talking serious mashing. I don't know how the woman does it but you can't see any leaf in there when she's done. 
• Let cool a little
• Add in the 2 tablespoons of honey and mix well

And there you have it! Something tells me that it's not as easy as it seems. The stuff is the perfect consistency. It's amazing. Then again, after making a few thousand batches I bet it becomes second nature.

Finally, put it in a glass jar and this bad boy will last you for a while. Here's a picture to see what my fresh batch from Grandma's kitchen looks like:

Disclaimer: I have never actually made it. It would be a bitch slap to the Grandmother's face if I didn't call her and request it. She has called me twice since this morning to discuss the syrup.  When it was finished she said that she would find a way to get it to me tonight. Since it was late and raining, she did not expect me to come over with the boys. I told her I would be there first thing in the morning. 

A half hour later she called back. She told me she loved making the syrup for her great-grandson and that I was to call her for anything and everything I need.  

Then asked to talk to my husband. 

She told him was sending his cousin to bring the syrup so that my youngest could start taking it first thing in the morning. 

Sweet and stubborn, just like I like my Grandmothers-in-law! 

Great Grandma Saves The Day

Homeopathy is on the rise as people are getting over the side effects of medical treatment. Here in Brazil, there are many homeopathic options.  Personally, I think the one I use is the best.

I call my husband's Grandma. After 7 kids this woman has a few secrets of her own. Hell, she even did home births before it was considered cool or dangerous or whatever you think of it. In her day, the baby came out of the vagina whenever and wherever it wanted.

So this is the woman I call when someone has a cough. It didn't start out that way of course. My oldest was about 10 months old when I was introduced to her syrup. She heard through the family gossip line, aka Grandma telepathy, and showed up at my house with some weird stuff in a jar.

It was her homemade cough syrup. All natural and with a base of honey, she said this was the cure all for cough, mucus, and allergies. I of course turned to my American ways and said that my child could not have honey yet, he'd obviously die. No honey before 2 years old!

I swear, they entire family almost disowned me for this. Everyone, EVERYONE, had been eating honey since birth. NO ONE had died, gotten that mysterious illness from it, nor had they ever taken another medicine for cough. This honey mixture was it.

I was finally worn down about a year later. I figured he was almost 2 anyway. And you know what, he took it without a problem. Honey seems to go down even easier than butter. And while I can not confirm if it was a coincidence or repeated use, but my son stopped have mucus/allergy issues a couple months later. A teaspoon a day and a lifetime of a difference.

Now my 2nd is dealing with the same thing and I've just called the Grandma for her secret syrup. She insisted on mixing it up with her own 87 yr old hands. I think that's wise. After 60 yrs of mixing, I'm pretty sure those hands know what they are doing.

And with that we start our own little Brazilian homeopathy experiment, honey syrup mix versus the doctor. Just call me crazy but something tells me that 87 yrs of life may beat out 7 yrs in medical school.

The Great-Grandmother

So a little family drama today.  Actually, it started in the middle of the night last night. 

The Monarch of family had a heart attack. 

I´ve resisted getting truly personal on this blog for obvious reasons but I am compelled to tell you about this woman. 

She´s 83 years old but has more Sass now than I can muster at my feisty 30 years.  She married her love who was already married at the time.  Divorce was big NO NO then and they ran away.  He was an amazing piano player. His piano is on display in a museum their home town. 

They had 6 children, 4 daughters and 2 sons.  The third was born on the floor in their apartment.  It was during a war in Brazil and they lived in a small town. The maternity hospital was being used as bunkers for the soldiers so her and her maid were waiting for the midwife to show up.  Very unBrazilian of the baby, it couldn´t wait and the Grandmother gave birth into the hands of her maid.

Well, the maid freaked the hell out, and who can blame her. So, according to the Grandmother, she passed the afterbirth and got up to make the other kids their bottles.  In her words, 'They were crying and were hungry and the maid (I forgot her name) was just staying there in hysterics.'  The story goes that she took the newborn and started to boil the water. The maid finally calmed down enough to hold the new one so that she could finish the bottle process and pop them into the mouths of the other two. 

That is a wonderful picture of who this woman is. I bet she was berating the maid about not holding it together. 

Her husband died during the military dictatorship.  It seems that he was getting some hell in his job because he was sensitive to the other side. He had a heart attack.

She continued her job, raised their children, and took in other children and raised them.  Hello Super Star!

Her house was like a ship. She went to work, the kids were expected to do what they needed to do. My Mother-in-Law was the master of the child army.  Chores, homework, and housework had to be done by the time the Grandmother walked in the door from work. Not to mention dinner on the table. She pre-planned the menus and the older ones had to cook it.

Did I mention that the kids, now adults, of this family are AMAZING cooks! 

Some more fun facts.  At around 76 years old she broke her arm and had to have a cast put on. She tired of it after about 2 weeks and sawed it off with a kitchen knife.  She never got another cast and she has yet to complain about any after effects. 

She´s had a boyfriend for 20 years and refuses to marry him. She´s already had a husband.

She flies to her favorite festivals and to visit family alone. She was on her way home yesterday from visiting friends and attending a festival in Belém. 

She is constantly invited to visit people, begged even. Come and stay with us!  She is loved by everyone. 

Do not call this woman during the soap operas. She will hang up on you. 

She is the only honest to God direct person I have yet to meet in Rio de Janeiro. You always know where you stand with her. 

She is touchy feely. I`m a closet touchy feely person but I need permission from the person to be that way.  I met her, not speaking a word of the language, and she put her hand around my waist and didn´t let go.  I regularly come up behind her and drape on her like I´ve known her my entire life.

She reminds me of my Grandmother who died when I was 13. 

She is the kind of woman they don´t make anymore.  She can be hard and knows tough love.  At the same time, she is as soft as dolce de leite.  She makes a home just by being there.  She doesn´t expect anything of children except for them to be children. That includes occasional breaking of nice things, all by accident of course. 

And she laughs. She´s a picture of laughter for life, especially when it´s inappropriate.  

As for her condition, she is doing well. She is in the ICU and will be for a couple of days at the very least.  They have to wait for her to stabilize so that they can test how weak her heart is now.


And her hair and nails still look fabulous!

Mother's day or Grandmother's day or Great-Grandmother's day... who will win?

I had a very interesting day today.  For starters, I woke up thinking that I was actually queen of the world and not just someones wife and mother.  My poor husband and kids. It was all peaches and roses the first couple hours and then I threw my first fit.

The house was trashed. TRASHED. It looked like I had moved out and 3 men lived in it.  3 grown drunk men who like playing with toys and wore really small underwear. 

It pissed me off.  Should it have? Not really. Does it matter so much?  Not so much. Did it matter to me? Hell to the yeah it did.  It bothered me, big time.  I felt that my husband should have been on it knowing that it would bother me and it was my day.

So here's a side story. I'm married to a seriously amazing man.  He may not notice much when he's home, like a super large pile of dishes or a bunch of his socks or underwear on the floor, but he's a good man. Hell, he's in making a canoe for my oldest's class.  Long story short, we have parental homework sometimes.  Good school though so I'll let that slide.

So I throw my fit, we all calmed down, and we all cleaned up.  Next we had to go to my husband's Grandma's house for lunch. I didn't want to go. I didn't want to have to share my day. We all already know I was being a ginormous baby today and I didn't want to share.  We go.

Disaster. My youngest wouldn't nap. If he doesn't nap he doesn't sleep at night. I need him to sleep at night!  Everyone is yelling and talking super loud. The apartment is 2 feet by 2 feet for heaven's sake. We can hear the Grandma fart in the kitchen. There is no need to yell. But there is yelling because everyone is Brazilian and they can't, by genetic makeup, speak softly.

I give up on the nap and try to eat lunch. The kids were being impossible. Everyone was annoying me (remember, big baby syndrome) and fit two was had. 

In my defense, it was during my 2nd nap attempt and my husband and mother-in-law let my 3 yr old in to lay down.  It seems that I'm the only one who knows my 3 yr old.  He always does this.  He comes it to check it out, gets over it, and loudly states that he wants to leave. Wants to leave! WANTS TO LEAVE!

So I pulled my husband into the room, told him I was done and that we were leaving!  He is such a trooper and said ok.  You must know that this is very faux pas here in Brazil. You don't leave before the coffee. And once you say you are going to leave you actually stay another 40 minutes chatting.

We didn't.  Needless to say, not the favorite of the family right now.  This is what makes me miss my family in the US of A.  I could just say, look I'm a cranky sack today. My kids are being difficult. We're just ready to go.  And it wouldn't be a big deal.

Oh well.  Can't win them all. My littlest napped and was good and happy for round two at the other Grandma's house. We ate waffles.  Fun was had by all.  I don't think I'm going to win daughter-in-law of the year from my mother-in-law.  Then again, I could poop gold and I still wouldn't. Even if I shared.