Double-boiled Pear With Chinese Almonds

The Three Musketeers at home have been sick! XS had been coughing on and off for 3 weeks, at times with phelgm... been on and off cough syrup until doc prescribed white, pink, red and blue pills for cough, cold, lungs etc last week. His pead said he could be allergic to the dusty environment! Thank goodness he had finally stopped coughing at least for these 2 days.

XXL have been down with high fever, cough with lots of phelgm and cold (full package!) since raya. Bed-ridden for 2 whole days with self prescribed meds. Not getting any better, XXL went to the clinic (finally) when he got back to work but how sad, no rest days were given to recuperate even with drowsy meds precribed. Boss worked him to the max too thinking he's on 2 weeks study break @$#*@. To date, still coughing and the flu bug is till hanging on!

XL finally joined the bandwagon, not sure who infected her! Other than sniffles and cough, she had gotten sore throat which made her lost her voice last Friday and luckily got a day off to sleep in. The meds made her feeling weak but had to skipped certain meds in order to watch over XXL and XS. Still coughing... *cough cough*

Come Sunday, staring at the about-to-rot pears in the fridge. We can't eat them since they're considered cooling stuff, believed could worsen a cough... Recalling somewhere I've read about double-boiling them with Chinese almonds, so I got on to make them. I do not have the actual recipe, so I don't really know if they work or not but nevermind lah, eat first, think later (sounds familiar?)! So please DO NOT TRY THIS as I'm only experimenting!!!!

BTW, Chinese almonds are actually apricot kernels and they come in 2 types, nam hung which come from Southern China which is considered the sweet type; and buk hung, the bitter one from Northen China. These almonds are supposedly meant to cure coughs. I have a bag of these in my fridge, funnily which I have no idea why?!??

Anyway, I've skinned, deseeded and quartered one and a half brown skinned pear (I think from Korea); and placed them in a glazed-clay double-boiler. Poured in 2 and a half bowl of water plus a handful of nam hung and buk hung. Double-boiled concoction for 3 hours on low heat. XXL and XL drank them warm whilst XS refused any as expected.

One day gone but still can't really tell any improvement, last night with the slow cooker free, I made another dosage with a yellow skinned pear instead. Cooked them overnight with the timer on for about 5 hours and we both have them before we left home. Let's just see if it will make us any better later today. *keep fingers crossed*