HERB RECIPES FOR VARIOUS AILMENTS

FROM THE NOVEL: FAMILY OF THE HEART

BY: K.L. WATKINS

Important Tips:

  1. For best results, try to obtain locally grown herbs whenever possible.

  2. Locally grown honey of any flavor is superb. If you are prone to allergies, locally grown honey is most helpful in building up your immune system. In every recipe, locally grown honey is more important than the specified flavor.

  3. Herbal recipes cannot counter poor health habits including but not limited to: smoking, poor nutrition, high caffeine use, poor sleeping habits, too much sugar in your diet, too many processed foods in your diet, drinking sodas of any kind. It is the opinion of the author that many of today’s health problems can be traced to the change in our nutrition and habits developed and accepted by our culture over the last fifty years. One of the most detrimental aspects of today’s culture is our reverence for time—calendars, watches, clocks; appointments dominate our daily living and we forget to be playful, to smell the flowers. Count how many times a day you say, “Hurry up,” to your children.

ZAN’S PREGNANCY POTION

DEVELOPED & SOLD BY ZAN DORA’S COMPANY SASS:

1-ounce red raspberry leaves

Soak in boiling water for 10-12 minutes. Strain. Use raspberry honey to taste. Beginning in the third month of pregnancy, drink a cup three times a day, fourth month—4 cups a day and so on. Once labor begins, drink one cupful every hour. Continue after childbirth to heal and strengthen muscles used during labor.

Other pregnancy tips:

Do not drink mint tea during pregnancy.

After the birth, to heal yourself, put a small amount (about one tablespoon) of honey on the pad you wear. Change the pad about every 2-3 hours. This eases the pain quickly and promotes amazing recovery. Both my daughter and I resisted this advice but once we tried it, we swore by it.


ZAN DORA’S LOVE POTION

MADE BY ZAN DORA’S COMPANY: SASS

In a brown paper sack, make and keep away from sunlight to insure ultimate freshness. Make a fresh pot each time; do not refrigerate. When making a pot of tea, shake bag well to mix ingredients. Simmer one ounce gently for seven minutes in one pint of water. Strain before serving. 

Ingredients:

  1. One-ounce red clover blossoms

  2. One-ounce chamomile flowers

  3. Three-teaspoons sunflower seeds pulverized into powder using a mortar and pestle

  4. Three teaspoons mugwort (encourages virility)

Flavor with red clover honey to taste (or leave unsweetened if you prefer)

ANOTHER LOVE POTION TO FIND NEW LOVE:

Pour a glass of chilled red wine, just enough to cover the bottom of the wine glass. Sprinkle one tablespoon of cinnamon into the glass and a teaspoon of sugar. Do not stir.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl before adding to the wine. After setting up your wine glass, sprinkle the rest of mixture (not the wine) over your threshold.


More spells can be found in: Spells for the Perfect Love Life by Lauren White, Andrews McMeel Publishing, Kansas City.

THE SASS SAGE’S RECOMMENDATION AS AN ANSWER TO ANXIETY:

To reduce anxiety and for relaxation, brew a tea of chamomile leaves sweetened with honey to taste. It is advised to drink before bedtime, not during the day as sleepiness often follows shortly after administration. 

Another sure-fire answer to anxiety is rescue remedy, a Bach-flower remedy. Take one dropperful per day during heightened times of anxiety. My daughter uses this with her dog sometimes who gets anxious especially when there are thunder storms or fireworks.

HOT BAG! HOT BAGS! HOT BAGS!

These are great for loving comfort or a warm snuggle. Order hot bags for $14 each from watkinkay@hotmail.com. If you prefer to sew your own, divide one yard of material into four sections, add eight cups of basic rice (NOT MINUTE RICE). Material must be 100% cotton (or it will blow up in the microwave).

Put your HOT BAG in the microwave for 2-4 minutes or until toasty warm (be careful not to burn yourself—microwaves vary). You will be comfortable for a long while! Great in cold weather, for sinus headaches, companions for new puppies missing their mothers, for a new baby, or after surgery.

My daughter’s trick is to put it under the covers, at the spot where your shoulders lie, while she brushes her teeth and prepares for bed. Then, when she gets into bed, she slowly pushes the HOT BAG down, lightly warming the full length of her sheets and leaving it to keep her feet toasty.

KATRINA’S SOLUTION FOR INCONTINENCE:

Many women experience incontinence at many different stages of life. If you find yourself in this situation, buy fresh ears of corn, pull the silks off, and boil the silks in water. I always put a tea bag of one of my favorite herbal teas (not regular tea—the tannic acid worsens incontinence). Let the tea steep for ½ hour then refrigerate. I pour a cup, heat it in the microwave, then add honey to taste. This works best if repeated frequently. Can also be served cold.

ED’S & THE BRIARCLIFF HOUSE’S EVERLASTING ELIXIR:

Ingredients:

Brew a strong tea using the following tea bags:

Hibiscus (also if you have a sugar habit, this helps reduce cravings)

Lemon Zinger

Honey Vanilla Chamomile

Brew in boiling water. Let steep overnight. Flavor with honey to taste. Drink iced or reheat in microwave.

Here are some of Sass’s steps to maintain or develop a youthful attitude:

  1. Cultivate and celebrate yourself! Make personal time to do something for yourself at least three times a week.

  2. Be sure (or at least try!) to give/receive four hugs a day.

  3. Laugh at least four times a day and giggle uncontrollably at least once a month (I call this the Wally Giggles).

  4. Don’t put others first. This reduces your inner love and makes for passive-aggressive behaviors or a downward spiral into depression. If you put yourself first, it allows you to send your energy out into the world in a much more enriching way! Remember the tips on an airplane in case of emergency: put your own oxygen mask on first before assisting others.

  5. Attend (or host) one potluck a month.

If you need protection, both physical and mental, always remember that a paranoid attitude attracts energy you do not want. My sister says it this way: what you resist, persists. If you need extra insurance (and I don’t mean the type we pay for), sprinkle salt around the outside of your house. It also helps to go through your environment (work and home) ringing a bell. Be sure to use a pleasant-sounding bell that fills your environment with musical, sweet notes. Another way to claim your environment as your own space is to smudge with sage. This relieves your living space of energy you do not want. This is especially important when moving into a new home, ending a bad relationship (and you want the person gone), or buying a camper! If you travel frequently, you can do this in temporary locations such as hotel rooms (just be sure you do not set off smoke alarms).

And, finally, SASS’S RECIPE ON HOW TO STAY YOUNG THE MAJORITY OF YOUR LIFE!

Everyone wants to look young, both men and women. The key is to FEEL young no matter what age you are. Someone can be twenty and act eighty while many eighty-year-olds have twenty-year-old spirits. It’s up to you and your outlook on life!

Exercise and a strong positive mental attitude assist in maintaining youthfulness. I have heard that one’s face is God-given until the early thirties and thereafter we shape and mold the face from our outlook, our attitude, our spirituality. Study people’s faces: when someone has suffered a great tragedy, it often shows up in the shape of their mouth. My own grandmother suffered from depression and she had the saddest mouth of anyone I have ever known. As a child, I was told that the only one who could make her smile was me! Now, she appears to me often in my spirit life, a gentle, loving presence who is safe and secure in heaven. Once, in a dream, she came to me and said: YOU ARE THE JEWEL!  She is also my parking angel.

OTHER PRODUCTS TO MAINTAIN YOUTHFULNESS:

Bee pollen for energy

Bah jee titan tea for male potency

Dang shing tea for low blood sugar/anemia

Dow tzonb tea for nervous tension

Emperor’s secret classic tea for anti-aging/memory

Hibiscus tea to reduce sugar cravings

Cayenne pepper in your food or mixed with water and drinking several times a day is often a good way to alleviate tobacco cravings

Zurvita zeal for life for energy. 

If you take anti-depressants, be careful with the one you choose (work closely with your doctor). I found several made me feel like I’d been run over by a freight train and I slept most of the time; others made me have severe memory loss and great weight gain; one made me so constipated, I went to the emergency room. If other family members take anti-depressants with success, pay attention! Drug responses are sometimes genetically inclined: my daughter, my grandson and myself are all allergic to penicillin.

REMEMBER A HEALTHY ATTITUDE & POSITIVE OUTLOOK IS HALF THE BATTLE. I ALSO BELIEVE THAT ART IS 20% TALENT & 80% DEDICATION (TRANSLATED = HARD WORK).

THANKS FOR READNG MY BOOK!