Feel Better with An Infused Hot Toddy

episode . Thank you for listening . Thank you for being here . If this is your first episode , I think you're going to enjoy it , because there are a lot of germs going around right now .

It feels like all my friends are toppling like dominoes friends and family getting sick , and it wasn't pretty recently myself that I came down with a pretty nasty cold , and this is sort of what prompted this particular episode , because I was helping myself feel better with some infused hot toddies , and we're going to get into it in just a second , but before we

do , once again , thank you for listening . If you're a long time listener , I just want to acknowledge you as well for the reason that I'm here , because if I didn't have listeners who were tuning in each and every week , then I would just be sitting here talking into the ether and that's not that much fun .

So I hope you learned something from this episode and let's get into it .

So , before we get into the recipe itself , I just wanted to go over a review that I received recently that really touched me , and I just want to say thank you so much for the people that take the time to send in to write these reviews , because I'm a small independent podcaster with a small independent podcast and I'm not part of any big networks or anything

like that , and independent podcasters really have to work hard to get the word of mouth out there for their shows and podcasters work really hard . There's a lot of behind the scenes things that go on to make a podcast happen each and every week , and reviews like this really help move the bar as far as spreading the word about the show .

So this one's entitled so Helpful , and it was a five star review . Marge does a phenomenal job of providing bite sized information that is easily digestible .

Check out this podcast and this review came from Yunonia Zen from Canada and apologies if I pronounced that username incorrectly and I really love how this person also used a few little food kind of references with bite sized information easily digestible . I really liked that .

I don't know if that was on purpose or not , but if it was , it was noted and appreciated . So I really do appreciate again these types of reviews and it really means a lot . Now let's just get into the recipe , shall we ? Because that's what we're all here for . We're all here to find new and refreshing ways to infuse our foods and drinks and lives .

And I think , as I mentioned a few minutes ago , I was sick recently and it just sort of hit me right when it coincided , I think , when we closed all our windows and turned on the furnace .

And this fall has been unprecedented in the fact that it's been really mild for Canada , for where I am in Ontario , and a lot of the times I mean , we have the furnace on and running long before the beginning of October , but not this year , and we still have had several nights in October where I've been able to open the window and allow a nice breeze in at

night and it's been lovely , which is shocking because this time of month , in this month , you can easily get snow .

Anybody who is from Ontario or lives in Canada knows what I'm talking about and it's strange too , because I'm looking I can see out the window right now at some of the trees , and there's the trees in my backyard , many of which have not even started to fall .

There's a tree out my window right now where it's pretty well-alterned colors but it hasn't lost any of its leaves . There's a bunch of trees in the neighborhood that are bright , brilliant red , and I love the bright , brilliant reds from the tree's turn , but they've been like this for like a couple weeks and the leaves have just started to fall .

It's very odd and unusual Climate change . I don't know , but I have to admit that I'm not really looking forward to winter . So I will take it for as long as I can . But of course there's so many people getting sick right now .

It went through my house I mean , not everybody got sick , but I definitely did and I know a lot of people have been sick recently too . So normally I don't condone a crossfade and that's when you mix alcohol and cannabis at the same time , and doing that's even more tricky to navigate when you're ingesting edibles because the onset time can take so long .

A lot of people , if you're doing the crossfade and you're combining alcohol and weed , have had the experience of consuming some cannabis like using a joint , and they will immediately notice that the effects of the alcohol are often amplified by the joint and it's depending on how it goes , that can be very unpleasant or it can .

You know you can just sort of back off because the effects from the cannabis are immediate . But , as we all know , if you're consuming edibles you might not feel those effects for 45 minutes or an hour , and if you're already consuming alcohol , the feeling of the effects might also be a little blurred when they start to come on .

Most culinary cannabis chefs would also recommend against it . I've talked to many culinary cannabis chefs through this show and most of them do recommend that you don't do it , and most of these chefs also , if they're doing any kind of infused dinners , never combine cannabis and alcohol together . Now , having said that , I have many times done just that .

I don't drink that much anymore , but during and before the pandemic I did drink quite a bit more and since then I've kind of flirted with going dry for stretches . At a time I did 100 days of no alcohol , I think a couple of years ago .

By now I've done several sober months or dry months , and because mainly because I realized how shitty it made me feel most of the time , while also encouraging poor decisions , because no one wakes up glad that they ate that late night pizza at like 1 am before crashing , and you don't even really have to be drunk to do that .

Sometimes a little bit of alcohol can loosen those inhibitions and the next thing you know you're like , ah , one slice won't hurt , or whatever . I mean it might be pizza , it might be whatever your nemesis is , but that's just one example of how sometimes alcohol can encourage you to make poor decisions that you wouldn't otherwise make .

And of course let's not even talk about hangovers and fatigue and all the rest of that stuff . But I will also say that anytime I was mixing alcohol and edibles during that period of my life , I was doing it in the comfort of my own home where I was safe . But still it's not something I would take to the streets , if you will .

And of course we were all pretty locked up and needing things to do during the pandemic , so there was a bit of a safety element . But it is an advanced move and if you're not accustomed to it I don't necessarily recommend it . Now I don't really buy alcohol anymore to bring into the home .

If I want a glass of wine , I'll usually just have one when I'm out for dinner or spending time chatting with a friend out somewhere . I don't tend to buy it just because if I buy it and it's in the house , then that means I'm more likely to drink it , and if I just don't have it in the house , I don't even think about it .

It might be a little more expensive , but I consider it like a health tax for not having easily accessible alcohol in the house and , like I said , I don't miss having it in the home at all .

So when I found myself sick with this really crappy cold recently , I was exploring every remedy to help my symptoms and I came across the hot toddy which I shouldn't say came across . I mean , hot toddies are as old as time and they've been around for a long , a long , long while , and so this is nothing new .

But I found this recipe and it made me think how warming and nourishing it would be , even with the whiskey . And the whiskey is sort of an important ingredient for this particular , this particular beverage . But in this case it feels more medicinal than alcoholic , and I don't know if you would agree with that or not . You can always let me know either way .

But it's sweetened with honey . So I was like why not swap the honey for an infused version ? Wouldn't that help me also when I'm feeling lousy ? And I actually had whiskey in the cupboard because back last Christmas . So yeah , last Christmas .

We bought a bunch of Mickey's for Christmas last year , expecting to accommodate the alcoholic preferences of a bunch of different people , and we never opened a single bottle . And for those of you who are unfamiliar , I think I do believe I've heard that Mickey is a Canadian term , but Mickey is a small bottle of alcohol .

I'm trying to think , because we don't really call bottles anything like there's the Mickey and there's the 60 , and I don't even know what they are anymore . I don't really worry about it too much , but the Mickey are the small bottles .

So we have whiskey in the cupboard and tequila and two types of vodka and two types of rum , the spice and the clear and like all this stuff , and none of it got opened . And obviously I've found also over time that many members of my family , immediate family , have also been really slowing down on their alcohol consumption .

It seems to be a real trend these days , at least in the people that I've been talking to , and so you know , I thought why not open one of these bottles for this particular recipe ? Because I had it and it's been sitting in the cupboard for nearly a year . At this point , notably I should say notably it's wine that I like to drink .

Beer and spirits will sit in the cupboard for months unopened , but never the wine . So I should clarify that because , yeah , if I buy wine , that's what I like to drink and that's what I like to drink when I'm out . So just for just to clear that up for any of you who might have been wondering .

So I requested some lemons for the next person who was out of the house and going to the store and I set myself up to make a nourishing hot toddy when I was feeling like staying in bed . And luckily , not only you can infuse this medicinal lixir , but you can also skip the whiskey .

If you don't want to go out and buy a bottle , even if it's just a Mickey , and haven't sitting here covered until the next time you feel shitty , or if you don't drink ,

then what you have on your hands essentially is an infused hot lemon , which is also nourishing and warming to the weakened soul . And the beautiful thing about this particular recipe is that the ingredients you need are so simple . Nothing specialty , except maybe the whiskey . If you know , as aforementioned , you're not much of a drinker , you don't have it on hand .

You might have to go out and buy it and make a special stop if you actually want to do that . But basically what you need is hot water , lemon , lemon juice , your infused honey and the whiskey , if you are using and you're going to boil your water in a kettle or on a pot on the stove .

If we're going sort of I don't know pilgrim style or whatever , and while that's going on you're going to add a couple lemon rounds , so you're going to slice the lemon , put a couple of rounds in the mug , you're going to add some lemon juice I used bottled organic lemon juice , which I usually have on hand in the fridge for recipes , so I have it when I

need it the honey and the whiskey , and I kind of muddle the rounds a little bit to help release some of the juices from that as well , and then I pour in the hot water , I stir to dissolve the honey , and then you can also adjust the sweetness and the tartness by adding either more honey or lemon juice .

But just be sure to be aware of how potent your honey is . If you're adjusting for sweetness because of course you can always use regular honey as well If you're at the potency level , you'd likely want to sweeten up a little bit more . Now I do love CBD honey for this recipe .

It kind of makes it feel almost more medicinal when you're feeling really shitty , and as someone I don't really take a lot of Tylenol , I have to be really , really desperate if I'm doing Tylenol . I try and keep my remedies a lot more natural , organic , and sometimes I'm like , is it placebo ? It might be , but if the placebo works , then fuck it . Who cares ?

I'm sort of an oil for regular women , because I love the burn . And if you haven't tried that , for when you're feeling down , your throat's a little scratchy or whatever , I do recommend it , and so that's why I was always looking for more creative ways to feel better without going to the drugstore .

I usually take some zinc as well , because that helps lessen the duration of a cold and the severity . So they say and I should probably get some make it echinacea , because I've always understood that echinacea is also really good when you're feeling down or not well . So clearly , I love me a good home remedy .

If you have any great home remedies that you like , then please let me know . And Again , if it's placebo , but it makes me feel like I'm feeling a little bit better or it's accomplishing something , you're moving me towards the goalpost of feeling better , then I don't really care .

And I'm also , at the same time , when I'm not taking things to sort of bring down fevers or that sort of thing , I'm letting my body do its own thing , which sometimes seems healthier in the long run .

I have read some things before to suggest that you know , when you are sort of running a fevery , of the chills or whatever , your body's natural immune response to what's happening , which means it's fighting this virus or whatever for you , and when you do things to sort of eliminate those symptoms , you're also dampening the immune response that your body's having .

Am I a doctor ? Hell , no . So take this advice however you see fit . This is just what I do and I did get over the cold after several days . It was again not nice . Nobody likes getting sick . I hate getting sick , but the hot toddy was really nice . I was enjoying it several times . Well , several times .

I only had it like once in the evening over several days , but I did make it several times . And obviously , if you're putting whiskey in it , the goal is also not to get yourself drunk , because that certainly might make you feel worse instead of better . But there was something really nice about the sort of the richness of the whiskey in it as well .

And you're sipping it . It's in a hot drink and with the lemon it was just really nice , and again with the infused honey in it , that was a really nice bonus . So , who knows , if you're feeling really shitty and as winter imposes , and we're closing up our windows and turning on the furnace , we're more susceptible , of course , to viruses .

That's just the nature of the world we live in now and of course we have that extra virus that we have to think about , which I'm sure I'm sorry to even bring that up , but you know it's cold flu and COVID season now , so hopefully this hot beverage may be something that will help you through when you're feeling down and you're feeling under the weather .

Maybe just what Dr Marge ordered . Yeah , so if you enjoyed this episode , you know somebody else who might be feeling under the weather and needing a little nourishment , then why don't you share this episode with them ? They might like to hear what Dr Marge had to say .

Again , I'm not a doctor , I'm just somebody who likes to talk about infusing things on the internet .

You can always share your feedback with me , or whatever your home remedies are when you're feeling really crappy , and you can send me an email or talk to me on the podcast hotline , because I love hearing your voices and then I can often include that audio right in an episode if it comes through clear enough .

There are occasions when I've gotten audio and it's just a little too scratchy or noisy . But and you can always stay up to date with news and events , questions for guests , giveaways , that kind of thing with the newsletter that helps keep these episodes timeless .

And , of course , I started the Bite Me Canvas Club and I highly encourage you to come over there and join . I'm really trying to get this little club off the ground , a place where we can all come together , and right now it is free for life for the OG members that are joining right now .

So I would suggest you don't wait on that and you know what won't give you a cold the product and services that I recommend on the Marge recommends page .

So be sure to check those out , because if you are in the market for something related to improving your edibles game or even maybe some podcasting stuff , then I have discount codes and product recommendations of things that I personally use all the time , some of which I've been using for years before I even started this podcast , and that

helps to support the show as well , and no extra charge to you , win , win . So I hope you enjoyed that episode this week . My friends , I hope you stay well . Maybe you can use this hot toddy as a preventative as well , here and there when you're sort of , you know , wanting to just feel warm and cozy on a cool night .

I'm your host , marge , and until next time , my friends , stay high .