Drinking Coffee, Tea, and Other Warm Beverages

Caramel Latte is one of my favourite all time drinks. The one in the picture had way, way too much syrup and it was clearly not real caramel. So disappointing to drink, but very pretty to look at.

Now that the weather is quickly cooling and we will soon rival temperatures and wind chill with Siberia (not kidding y'all), I like to play around with warm drinks.

I do warm cider with cream, from scratch chai latte, coffee, hot chocolates, warm teas, spicy teas, herbal teas..... but the real trick is not actually making them yummy. That is easy, no the real trick is making them still taste yummy after I add in a 1/4 a teaspoon of fermented cod liver oil.

Yes. I said it. Fermented Cod Liver Oil. This has got to be the most foul smelling and tasting thing anyone ever has decided was something people should eat. God forbid it spills and the clean up rag ends up in a forgotten laundry hamper only to curse the house with a fouled up washing machine, losing 5 towels to attrition, and ruining several good sweaters. That is like the worst level of laundry hell, I kid you not. So why, oh why, would I even bring that into my house let alone feed it to my children? Vitamin D. I refuse to use synthetic. I do not even give my kids a multivitamin, I prefer to make sure their food is rich in nutrients of the digestible and usable kind. Still, with Isaac's immune deficiency and known Vitamin D (actually a hormone) deficiency (34 was his last level), I decided to give cod liver oil a try. Bonus, it helps with chronic constipation that plagues 22q kids but Isaac has never had issues with. Nope. Never. Are the two related? Maybe.

We also do not use sunscreen. We eat Vitamin D rich foods like mushrooms, fresh pastured lard, grass fed butter, and fish. We go outside all year round and stay out there in the sun. We have Happylights. Crazy talk, I know. Seriously though, I work mushrooms into so many things here it isn't even funny. I hate mushrooms. Hate them. For the benefit of our health, I got around my own personal issues. They go in the bone broths and I puree them into meat balls and sauces so there is mushroom of some sort on the table 3-4 times a week.

Why not use synthetic D in pill or gummie form? There are a lot of reasons, synthetic D reacts with calcium in a different way and 22q kids have issues with calcium levels. Low calcium leads to seizures. Natural D does NOT have this problem. The kicker for me was this mind blowing fact- vitamin D isn't a vitamin- it is a HORMONE. No way am I giving my kids synthetic hormones. Nope. Not ever. Not when I can do the same thing naturally and with food and a couple fancy light bulbs.

So that brings me to to the fermented cod liver oil. I do not use it every day. They get it in their warm drinks on cloudy stretches in the winter. Today the kids played outside for 90 minutes in the sunshine, even though it was cold. They came back in with better attitudes and flushed cheeks after planting acorn seeds they found (Isaac got to help), hauling firewood by the arm loads (Isaac watched), and generally running around in the grass chasing each other. Today they did not need it. I usually start giving it to them in January and through April, depending on our weather here in the Midwest.

I am getting pretty good at being a sneaky barista, but last year my kids found me out and mounted a political campaign with protest signs and a chanted slogan (MAKE the DISH without THE fish......OIL. They took turns supervising food preparation to catalog ingredients. It was hilarious. This year, I plan on being honest about it.....when they ask me.

I would love not to have this in my fridge though. What kinds of things do other folks do? Ideas?