I'm up and about, feebly. This year, for the first time, Christmas dinner will feature a store-bought pie, and whipped cream from a can. Patrick is playing DJ, via iTunes and the living room speakers. We may be able to coax his playlist out of him. Lydy Nickerson has come to spend Christmas with us, and is perched on the sofa with her laptop. Hiro Frumentius, grown elderly and very nearsighted, is rustling around -- contentedly, I assume; that's his usual state -- in his igloo.

Hoping this finds you all well and happy --

Teresa

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

May the peace of the season be with you and yours, and may your beliefs be a comfort to you.

Here's Linus explaining its meaning.

Just so you know, I came home from late service, turned on the computer, and checked to see if this post was up yet. It has become a standard of my Christmas season; this post, this place, and this community that you have built. Many thanks.

Parvulus enim natus est nobis filius datus est nobis et factus est principatus super umerum eius et vocabitur nomen eius Admirabilis consiliarius Deus fortis Pater futuri saeculi Princeps pacis.

I will walk home in the starless cold and amue myself until Barry gets home from Midnight Mass (which I didn't have the emontional energy to leave the house at 8:15, when the service started at 10), an wish him a merry Christmas before I retire.

Mimosas and coffee and toast and Russian omellete in the morning.

A happy holiday to all, and a Merry Christmas to those who keep it.

Pigs in blankets tomorrow morning for us.

Anyway, I wish a merry Christmas to all those here who would welcome such a wish; to everyone else, whatever seasonal greeting or blessing you would prefer. And to everyone, health and happiness in the coming year.

The Lolcat edition also chooses that translation:

'Roun dis tiyem, Caesar Augustus wuz like, "I can has cenzus?" ('Coz while Quirinius was Teh Boz of Syria, is invisible census!) And all teh doodz went home for teh saying, "I is heer!" So Joseph went from Naz'reth to Judeeah to Bethlehemm whar David wuz borned, 'coz David wuz hiz graete-graete gran-daddie, An Mary went wif him, 'coz she was gonna be married wif him an she was preggerz. When wuz time for teh baybee, it wuz a boy, so he wuz wrapd in blanket like burrito an placd him in fud dish, cuz innkeeper wuz liek, no room here kthxbye!

Then there wuz sheep-doods in teh field, an they wuz watchin teh sheep in teh dark. Iz vry vry boring. srsly. An suddenly, visible angel! An glory! O noez!! But teh angel sed, "DONT AFRAID OF ENYTHING! it r ok, you can has gud news for all teh doodz! Todai in da city ov David, you can has sayvur! is Christ da Lord! w00t! Iz sign fer u, find da baybee wrapd like brrito in a big fud dish." An suddenly, moar angelz! They sez, "w00t to teh Ceiling Cat! An peace fer doodz he luffs! Kthxbai."

An when da angelz go invisible again, sheep-doodz sed, "sweet, nao we find teh brrito-baybee sayvur!" So dey left da sheeps (sheeps r vry borng) and found Joe an Mary and da baybee in da fud dish. An when dey saw it wuz baybee an not brrito, they told evrywun he wuz kewl, An all teh doodz who herd were lyke, "neat-o brrito!" An Mary wuz lyke, "o rly?" Teh sheep-doodz sed, "Yay fer Ceiling Cat! Was not invisible brrito!"

In addition, the preposition 'en' ('in, among') is missing in some traditions before 'anthropois' ('humans, people'); without it, 'anthropois' means
'to people'.

The better half is working on a dinner composed entirely of comfort foods. I am contemplating an attempt at eggnog. Both children are absorbed in new games. My mother, visiting, is reading one of her new books.

All the best sheep to the members of this community who are unwell, and my deepest affection to everyone, lurker, commenter and poster alike. Making Light has lived up to its name for me this past year, and that is due entirely to the people here.

I have to go play with my Jane Austen action figure now (key weapon: the Character Study, according to the package).

This is sorta complicated by my having spaced the buying of several essential ingredients for the planned menu, and having to try and make last minute substitutions to the menu.

The pumpkin rice pudding may come out okay. But I'm not sure a "savory" cranberry sauce is going to be a successful experiment. (OTOH, if you can't experiment on friends and family, who can you experiment on?)

[0] I have -got- to remember that this delightfully bright, similar to daylight lamp is implausibly good at charming my brain into believing that it's daytime... in fact, so good that it practically guarantees forgetting to go to bed.

Paul #10: I loved the LOLcats version.

Happy Season* to all!

*Garlic, cinnamon, thyme -- whichever you prefer.

Last night I visited with a small group of friends for a Christmas Eve dinner (topped by an utterly scrumptious pecan and cranberry pie with whipped cream, O joy); I napped, and then went to Midnight Mass; today a friend is joining me for a Christmas midday meal, tomorrow I will go to a Boxing Day party.

It rained strongly last night in the Bay Area, and more rain is coming, for which we are grateful: we need the rain. The lights are bright on my tiny tree.The morning is still. Do not be afraid, the angels sing. Joy to the world, the Lord is come. May all sentient beings be blessed.

As someone who doesn't really celebrate Christmas, I think that I especially appreciated Wayne Coyne's Twelve Reasons Why Christmas Matters.

Happy celebrations!

Hope you feel better soon, TNH.

Thank *you* for being here, even if you do insist on periodically posting funny English that makes me feel woefully clueless.

Best wishes to you and yours on this day, and in the year ahead.

(BTW, I've been reflecting a lot upon St Joseph recently. Quite aside from anything else, he committed at least one totally miraculous act all on his own, for which as far as I can tell he receives no credit: while all *sorts* of stuff was happening around him, including mysteriously pregnant girlfriends, divine messengers, inconvenient taxation pilgrimages, non-standard use of stables, massacres of children, and all, he just kept on getting on with the program. Very impressive.)

1. Naqueles tempos apareceu um decreto de César Augusto, ordenando o recenseamento de toda a terra.
2. Este recenseamento foi feito antes do governo de Quirino, na Síria.
3. Todos iam alistar-se, cada um na sua cidade.
4. Também José subiu da Galiléia, da cidade de Nazaré, à Judéia, à Cidade de Davi, chamada Belém, porque era da casa e família de Davi,
5. para se alistar com a sua esposa Maria, que estava grávida.
6. Estando eles ali, completaram-se os dias dela.
7. E deu à luz seu filho primogênito, e, envolvendo-o em faixas, reclinou-o num presépio; porque não havia lugar para eles na hospedaria.
8. Havia nos arredores uns pastores, que vigiavam e guardavam seu rebanho nos campos durante as vigílias da noite.
9. Um anjo do Senhor apareceu-lhes e a glória do Senhor refulgiu ao redor deles, e tiveram grande temor.
10. O anjo disse-lhes: Não temais, eis que vos anuncio uma boa nova que será alegria para todo o povo:
11. hoje vos nasceu na Cidade de Davi um Salvador, que é o Cristo Senhor.
12. Isto vos servirá de sinal: achareis um recém-nascido envolto em faixas e posto numa manjedoura.
13. E subitamente ao anjo se juntou uma multidão do exército celeste, que louvava a Deus e dizia:
14. Glória a Deus no mais alto dos céus e na terra paz aos homens, objetos da benevolência (divina).

Regards
Jo
(posting from Boxing Day)

1. Es begab sich aber zu der Zeit, daß ein Gebot vom Kaiser Augustus
ausging, daß alle Welt geschätzt würde.

2. Und diese Schätzung war die allererste und geschah zu der Zeit, da
Cyrenius Landpfleger in Syrien war

3. Und jedermann ging, daß er sich schätzen ließe, ein. jeglicher in
seine Stadt.

4. Da machte sich auch auf Joseph aus Galiläa, aus der Stadt Nazareth,
in das jüdische Land zur Stadt Davids die da heißt Bethlehem, darum daß
er von dem Hause und Geschlechte Davids war

5. auf daß er sich schätzen ließe mit Maria, seinem vertrauten Weibe,
die war schwanger.

6. Und als sie daselbst waren, kam die Zeit, daß sie gebären sollte.

7. Und sie gebar ihren ersten Sohn und wickelte ihn in Windeln und
legte ihn in eine Krippe; denn sie hatten sonst keinen Raum in der
Herberge.

8. Und es waren Hirten in derselbigen Gegend auf dem Felde bei den
Hürden, die hüteten des Nachts ihre Herde.

9. und siehe des Herrn Engel trat zu ihnen, und die Klarheit des Herrn
leuchtete um sie, und sie fürchteten sich sehr.

10. Und der Engel sprach zu ihnen: Fürchtet euch nicht! Siehe, ich
verkündige euch große Freude, die allem Volk widerfahren wird;

11. denn euch ist heute der Heiland geboren, welcher ist Christus, der
Herr, in der Stadt Davids.

12. Und das habt zum Zeichen: Ihr werdet finden das Kind in Windeln
gewickelt und in einer Krippe liegen.

13. Und alsbald war da bei dem Engel die Menge der himmlischen
Heerscharen, die lobten Gott und sprachen:

14. Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe und Friede auf Erden und den Menschen
ein Wohlgefallen!

15. Und da die Engel von ihnen gen Himmel fuhren, sprachen die Hirten
untereinander: Laßt uns nun gehen gen Bethlehem und die Geschichte
sehen, die da geschehen ist, die uns der Herr kundgetan hat.

16. Und sie kamen eilend und fanden beide, Maria und Joseph, dazu das
Kind in der Krippe liegen.

17. Da sie es aber gesehen hatten breiteten sie das Wort aus, welches
zu ihnen von diesem Kind gesagt war.

18. Und alle, vor die es kam, wunderten sich der Rede, die ihnen die
Hirten gesagt hatten.

19. Maria aber behielt alle diese Worte und bewegete sie in ihrem
Herzen.

20. Und die Hirten kehreten wieder um, preiseten und lobten Gott um
alles, was sie gehöret und gesehen hatten, wie denn zu ihnen gesagt war.

I really wanted Zwingli's version, but I can't seem to find one on-line.

* Augustus has joined #Galilee
<Augustus> lol i just got a PayPal acount
<Augustus> everyone must pay me monees or i ban them!
* Augustus changes topic to 'Pay me or b banned!'
<Augustus> and everyone should get back to their original channels
<Joseph> fs
<Joseph> Mary, we gotta get our ass to #Bethlehem
<Mary> wtf! i'm bursting here!
* Mary is very pregnant
<Joseph> get your ass over here
<Joseph> right, off we go
<Joseph> /join Bethlehem
<Mary> /join Bethlehem
* Joseph has left #Galilee
* Mary has left #Galilee

* Joseph has joined #Bethlehem
* Mary has joined #Bethlehem
<Mary> fine, we're here, but i really need to get to #Inn
<Mary> I'm in friggin labour!
<Mary> /join #Inn
* Unable to join channel (channel is full)
<Mary> wtf
<Joseph> Guess we'll have to stay here
* Jesus has joined #Bethlehem
<Mary> oh dear, he's early
<Joseph> put him in that manger
* Jesus is now known as Jesus|Manger
<Jesus|Manger> WHeeehheheheheeee

* Angel has joined #Field
<Angel> lo
<Shepherd1> ARGH
<Shepherd2> WTF!!1
<Angel> Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy
<Angel> For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
<Shepherd1> Why do you come here to tell us?
<Shepherd2> no one ever joins this channel, xcept sheep
<Sheep3b> baaaa
<Angel> He is your Saviour! you should go praise him
* Angel^Choir has joined #Field
<Angel^Choir> GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, AND ON EARTH PEACE, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN!!!!11!~!@!
<Shepherd2> meh, this is too much, EVAC
<Shepherd1> let's join #Bethlehem
<Shepherd1> /join #Bethlehem
<Shepherd2 /join #Bethlehem
* Shepherd1 has left #Field
* Shepherd2 has left #Field

* Shepherd1 has joined #Bethlehem
* Shepherd2 has joined #Bethlehem
<Shepherd1> LMAO hes lying in a manger
<Shepherd2> lol, i told all my contacts to come visit too!
* Shepherd3 has joined #Bethlehem
* Shepherd4 has joined #Bethlehem
* Shepherd5 has joined #Bethlehem
<Mary> erm... Joseph
* Shepherd6 has joined #Bethlehem
* Shepherd7 has joined #Bethlehem
* Shepherd8 has joined #Bethlehem
<Joseph> yes?
* Shepherd9 has joined #Bethlehem
* Shepherd10 has joined #Bethlehem
<Mary> I think it's time to join #Jerusalem
* Shepherd11 has joined #Bethlehem
<Mary> to present our son to God
* Shepherd12 has joined #Bethlehem
* Shepherd13 has joined #Bethlehem
<Joseph> right you are
<Joseph> /Join #Jerusalem
* Shepherd14 has joined #Bethlehem
<Mary> /Join #Jerusalem
* Jesus|Manger is now known as Jesus
<Jesus> /join #Jerusalem
* Shepherd15 has joined #Bethlehem
* Shepherd16 has joined #Bethlehem
* Joseph has left #Bethlehem
* Mary has left #Bethlehem
* Jesus has left #Bethlehem

A joyous and merry holiday to all here!

We had a fairly quiet Christmas - the absent and the dead were very much present.

Christmas brunch, then a few presents, then Scrabble. In family games of Scrabble, my job is to come dead last, which I did, twice.

I attempted home-made eggnog, and it was good. Cut the amount of sugar by 1/3, and found it wasn't missed; home-made 'nog tastes SO much better than the storebought stuff, I'm not sure I'll ever buy it again. I should work on a non-alcoholic version, for those occasions when a drink composed of 1/4 booze is not, in fact, appropriate.

Another quiet day tomorrow; I need to find my copy of the Chieftain's "Saint Stephen's Day Murders", one of my favourite holiday/post-holiday songs...

* Quite how far back the 'house and lineage' is being calculated is not clear, but one suspects most bureaucracies would not be going back that many generations.

Lúkasar guðspjall 2:1-20

En það bar til um þessar mundir, að boð kom frá Ágústus keisara, að skrásetja skyldi alla heimsbyggðina. Þetta var fyrsta srkásetningin og var gjörð þá er Kýreníus var landstjóri á Sýrlandi. Fóru þá allir til að láta skrásetjasig, hver til sinnar borgar. Þá fór og Jósef úr Galíleu frá borginni Nasaret upp til Júdeu, til borgar Davíðs, að láta skrásetja sig ásamt Maríu heitkonu sinni, sem var þunguð. En meðan þau voru þar, kom sá tími, er hún skyldi verða léttari. Fæddi jún þá son sinn frumgetinn, vafði hann reifum og lagði hann í jötu, af því að eigi var rúm handa þeim í gistihúsi.


En í sömu byggð voru hirðar úti í haga og gættu um nóttina hjarðar sinnar. Og engill Drottins stóð hjá þeim, og dýrð Drottins ljómaði kringum þá. Þeir urðu mjög hræddir, en engillinn sagði við þá: "Verið óhræddir, því sjá, ég boða yður mikinn fögnuð, semm veitast mun öllum lýðnum: Yður er í dag frelsari fæddur, sem er Kristur Drottinn, í borg Davíðs. Og hafði þetta til marks: Þið munuð finna ungbarn reifað og lagt í jötu."


Og í sömu svipan var með englinum fjöldi himneskra hersveita, sem lofuðu Guð og sögðu: Dýrð sé Guði í upphæðum og friður á jörðu með m0nnum, sem hann hefur velþóknun á. Þegar englarnir voru farnir frá þeim til himins, sögðu hirðarnir sín á milli: "Förum beint til Betlahem að sjá það, sem gjörst hefur og Drottinn hefur kunngjört oss" Og þeir fóru með skyndi og fundu Maríu og Jósef og ungbarnið, sem lá í jötu. Þegar þeir sáu það, skýrðu þeir frá því, er þeim hafði verið sagt um barn þetta. Og allir, sem heyrðu, undruðust það, er hirðarnir sögðu þeim. En María geymdi allt þetta í hjarta sér og hugleiddi það. Og hirðarnir sneru aftur og vegsömuðu Guð og lofuðu hann fyrir það, sem þeir höfðu heyrt og séð, en allt var það eins og þeim hafði verið sagt.

Lúkasar guðspjall 2:1-20

En það bar til um þessar mundir, að boð kom frá Ágústus keisara, að skrásetja skyldi alla heimsbyggðina. Þetta var fyrsta skrásetningin og var gjörð þá er Kýreníus var landstjóri á Sýrlandi. Fóru þá allir til að láta skrásetja sig, hver til sinnar borgar. Þá fór og Jósef úr Galíleu frá borginni Nasaret upp til Júdeu, til borgar Davíðs, að láta skrásetja sig ásamt Maríu heitkonu sinni, sem var þunguð. En meðan þau voru þar, kom sá tími, er hún skyldi verða léttari. Fæddi jún þá son sinn frumgetinn, vafði hann reifum og lagði hann í jötu, af því að eigi var rúm handa þeim í gistihúsi.


En í sömu byggð voru hirðar úti í haga og gættu um nóttina hjarðar sinnar. Og engill Drottins stóð hjá þeim, og dýrð Drottins ljómaði kringum þá. Þeir urðu mjög hræddir, en engillinn sagði við þá: "Verið óhræddir, því sjá, ég boða yður mikinn fögnuð, sem veitast mun öllum lýðnum: Yður er í dag frelsari fæddur, sem er Kristur Drottinn, í borg Davíðs. Og hafði þetta til marks: Þið munuð finna ungbarn reifað og lagt í jötu."


Og í sömu svipan var með englinum fjöldi himneskra hersveita, sem lofuðu Guð og sögðu: Dýrð sé Guði í upphæðum og friður á jörðu með mönnum, sem hann hefur velþóknun á. Þegar englarnir voru farnir frá þeim til himins, sögðu hirðarnir sín á milli: "Förum beint til Betlahem að sjá það, sem gjörst hefur og Drottinn hefur kunngjört oss" Og þeir fóru með skyndi og fundu Maríu og Jósef og ungbarnið, sem lá í jötu. Þegar þeir sáu það, skýrðu þeir frá því, er þeim hafði verið sagt um barn þetta. Og allir, sem heyrðu, undruðust það, er hirðarnir sögðu þeim. En María geymdi allt þetta í hjarta sér og hugleiddi það. Og hirðarnir sneru aftur og vegsömuðu Guð og lofuðu hann fyrir það, sem þeir höfðu heyrt og séð, en allt var það eins og þeim hafði verið sagt.

Came home to open presents, and thought I'd finally received what I asked for - "nothing! the apartment's filled to the gills! I have everything I want and there's a recession on!" - when I opened the lone box containing just the "stocking" portion of Christmas. Various odds and ends and the all-important mom-made fudge are pretty much all I need for holiday cheer. Called the 'rents to thank them and they wondered where my second box had gone off to, since they sent them at the same time.

Maybe next year Los Angeles will extend their tree recycling program past 12th Night, and we can get a tree.

The pumpkin rice pudding (which substituted for the butternut squash casserole I usually make) was decent enough, but I should have added a quarter-cup brown sugar to kick up the taste and sweetness a bit. (But the idea's worth keeping in mind the next time I have leftover rice around.)

The "savory" cranberry sauce... ended up not getting served, after Hilde tried a sample taste. (Chicken stock just doesn't cut it in cranberry sauce.)

Otherwise, a pretty good Christmas dinner.

Thanks. That's from a few months before I started reading your LJ, so I'd missed it.

Lovely, and just what I'd hope for from you.

Thanks. That's even a different interpretation than had occurred to me ("Well, Joseph, we've been able to give you and your wife a pallet on the floor in the common room, but as to babies--no way to swing a cradle in here, not to mention all that howling. Stable's warm, and a lot quieter.")

Not to mention getting robbed of the Gifts of the Magi while on the Flight into Egypt, by that self-same Dismas who (some thirty-odd years later) would wind up getting crucified too on a Friday afternoon.

Happy Holidays to all, and "May God Bless Us!, Every One!"

Take a dutch oven.

Line the bottom and sides with bacon. You can double the bottom layer, if there are a lot of people. You want to get meatier cuts of bacon. The lining of the side won't stay very well past about one slice, but that's enough.

Slice some onions, Grate some hard cheese. Chop some tomatoes. Pile this on top of the bacon.

Beat a dozen eggs (you may add a dash of liquid if you like. Water will make it fluffier, cream richer).

Put the oven on a moderate heat. Pour the eggs into it, cover and cook for 45 minutes. Serve with sour cream and pepper.

Teresa: I'd always heard that as, "tea and the beers" "The Bells of Dublin is one of my favorite albums. Burgess Meredith's reading, the bells, the sopranos, the riotous good times, and the mystery of it all.

Cranberry Orange Ginger Sauce
aka Not Your Grandmother's Cranberry-Orange Sauce:

2 bags cranberries, fresh or frozen, picked over
1½ cups water
1½ cups sugar
Zest from 3 medium oranges (about 1 T)
1½ T powdered ginger

Combine all ingredients in a pot on the stove and simmer slowly until the berries have popped. This is amazing stuff. The ginger adds an entirely new dimension; it hovers right on the edge between sweet and savory, and and it's neither too orangey nor too sweet (the commonest problems with cranberry-orange anything). We tested it and determined it to be very good (1) by itself, (2) as a dipping sauce for oven-roasted chicken, and (3) as a topping on vanilla ice cream. I suspect it will also work well on toast, but that test can wait until morning.

You have some fairly precise measurements for all the other ingredients but not the cranberries. Is there a standard weight bag where you get them? I figure it would be important to know to get that balance of sweet and savoury.

Sounds like Nero Wolfe's version of scrambled eggs. I think he and Archie were hiding at Lucy Valdon's apartment and he offered to make scrambled eggs, telling Lucy to advise him twenty-five minutes ahead of the time she wanted to eat them. Her response was like mine -- "twenty-five minutes?" To which Wolfe replied, "No American housewife knows how to cook scrambled eggs."

After she ate them, she agreed. Wolfe then admitted that the average housewife didn't have that kind of time to devote solely to cooking eggs.

You've got about a gallon of stuff in the pot, and the heat is coming through an insulating layer of bacon.

Happily, the time is all spent in the prep work. Sitting about discussing the latest things of interest and swilling/sipping champagne (or mimosas) is all the real work one has to do once the fire is under the pot.

TNH: were the italicized passages omitted originally or later? In either case, do we have any idea why? I've read that James's team was going for rhetorical flare, but didn't know they'd actually cut/pasted.

A friend who's gone into culinary exploration did Polish for 18 this year. We spent over 3 hours working our way through the abundance at our seats, not to mention hours more of conversation over hors d'oeuvres; a wonderful evening with mild clear weather.

There are days when it seems my whole cooking life is a battle against the assumptions that everyone seems to make about their local packaging being universal. Even I am guilty of sometimes forgetting to remind non-Australians that our tablespoons are 4 teaspoons rather than the much more common 3 teaspoons (our teaspoons are the same size). I have yet to find any decent source of translations between assumed values for these kinds of things and so keep banging my head against recipes that deal in bags, cans, boxes, packets, jars and sticks without any reference to weight or volume. I know that the US standard "stick" of butter is half the weight of the Australian standard package (which isn't even vaguely stick-like in shape and weighs 250 grams) but most of the others are a mystery. Does anyone know of any catalogue of such local cooking assumptions that international cooks could consult?

FWIW, a US tablespoon is pretty close to 15 ml, and a teaspoon 5 ml. That makes a US cup about 240 ml, and a US quart about 960. (Cooking by volume, yes.)

Alas, the average poster on nearly every recipe site on the intertubes just write down the units they're used to using when they actually cook: cans, or packets or sticks or bags. Worse, they sometimes don't actually name the ingredient, just its brand, leaving those of us in countries where those brands don't exist wondering not only how much we're supposed to use, but just what the heck it is we're supposed to be shopping for.

I've ranted about this elsewhere on a number of occasions. There's no need to go on about it here. We're all grown up enough to give helpful answers to questions, unlike the person on another site (which I won't name here) who told me I was crazy for asking how much a stick of butter weighed and refused to answer the question.

* Does anyone outside of the USA use the "Imperial" measures as a standard any more?

I don't make candy, though, and rarely dishes where precision is crucial.

A US stick of butter is roughly a quarter of a pound. A a can or jar of sauce is likely to be 8 or 12 ounces, preserves to be 12 or 20, exotics or pastes to be 4 to 6. IOW, whatever amount the recipe will call for, the can or jar in your cupboard will be a different size, but if you have an idea of how much food you're supposed to end up with, that should let you make a stab at container size.

Though I've recently realized that in making vindaloo, I've actually been using about twice as much tomato sauce and water as the recipe calls for. It tastes quite nice, so I'm not changing.

I'm teaching my son to cook. Sometimes what I happen to be making involves an actual recipe, but often not. He wants to know exact measurements, and it has caused me to really stop and think. Usually showing him what I mean helps (how much margarine to fry X, how much salt for the salad dressing), but he is still uneasy. I realized that I was the same way at about his age, very recipe- and cookbook-bound.

Bruce Arthurs @45, I sympathize with the savory cranberry sauce, having once tried a recipe for cranberry-sage salsa. Not a success!

Can't find the comments, but this year(?) Xopher(?) mentioned a recipe (fudge? brownies? cake? pie?) with '1 bag X's chocolate pieces' where he'd assumed N oz was the standard bag, but there were several sizes. Strange results followed.

Anything for internet has to define cups (250 ml in Oz), tsp, &c. A note at the bottom, or a linked page if you've a blog of recipes.

Brand names … grrr. Stephen King really irritated me by throwing them in without context or explanation. Publishers should have put a glossary into overseas editions. In recipes they really need some gloss, even if you're saying 'only use X'. Surely even USA has regional variations.

Oh yes, got reminded yesterday: I saw some bottles of electric-blue Moxie in a deli in the Bay Area in October.

Hence the old commercial jingle: "So bring out the Hellman's, and bring out the Best!"

Not that long ago, we tried making a pumpkin risotto with cranberry sauce from this recipe. The cranberry sauce -- a sauce of the "thick liquid that gets poured over something" variety, not the eat-on-its-own relish that "cranberry sauce" usually denotes -- definitely qualified as interesting....

For those who don't want to follow the link, it involved putting a bit of cranberry juice, a lot of fresh cranberries, a pretty good bit of sugar, a touch of Dijon mustard, and a raw shallot in a blender, blending it into a nice puree, and adding a melted-and-browned stick of butter. What may not be immediately obvious from the recipe is that it is not further cooked.

Two of us thought it was really quite delicious indeed, and went back for seconds to more thoroughly sauce our risotto. The other two were vastly more skeptical, and made comments about regretting that the recipe-authors ancestors had not discovered fire for cooking shallots with. (The remaining person at dinner doesn't like cranberries much, and abstained from considering it.)

The sauce did seem improved by staying in the fridge for a day as leftovers; the flavors mellowed and mingled a bit, and the raw shallot was slightly less sharp. The bit in the recipe about it becoming quite firm and needing exceptionally careful reheating did not appear to apply at all; it was a little firm, and quite fine when microwaved on top of the leftover risotto.

Cakes I try and stick to recipes for - I used an old-fashioned (50s I think) chocolate swiss roll recipe to make a Yule Log this Christmas. That had an interesting recipe - for the standard swiss roll it said 3 oz (3 heaped tablespoons) of self raising flour, but for a chocolate version to replace 2 level tablespoons of flour with cocoa. So I dutifully weighed out the flour, then put two tablespoons (mostly) back into the bag and added cocoa before going on to sieve twice...
[skip to then end]

Once I covered it in chocolate icing, broken bits of chocolate and sifted icing sugar over the top you couldn't tell the cake had cracked when I rolled it up. Great!

I have no problems with raw onions, but I find raw leeks to be unpleasantly sharp, to the point of causing indigestion. I've taken to steaming sliced leeks briefly before adding them to salads. It solves the problem. Maybe that would help with shallots?

Neil Willcox @72 -- old recipes, now that's a tie-in to the "Texts" theme. Substituting so much of the flour for the cocoa in the recipe you have seems a bit daring. I have no idea if the consistency/density of packaged cocoa has changed over the years.

One of my prized possessions is a small cookbook put out by Baker's Chocolate. I'm guessing it dates from the '20's or '30's, but it's falling apart pretty badly, and the cover is missing. Although there are plenty of recipes calling for cocoa, all the cake recipes call for squares of unsweetened chocolate. The chocolate roll recipe doesn't call for any flour whatsoever; it's basically a chocolate meringue.

In the introduction to the book, it says, "If cocoa is substituted for chocolate, 1/3 cup Baker's Breakfast Cocoa should be used for every square of Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate[1]. In cake or cooky mixtures, add 1/2 tablespoon additional butter for every 1/3 cup cocoa." Modern cookbooks describe a 3Tb cocoa : 1Tb fat substitution[2]. For those not familiar, 4 Tb = 1/4 cup.

[1]which is definitively 1 oz.
[2] don't even get me started on trying to estimate the size of eggs in old recipes.

From a promotional booklet, dated 1886:

Baker's Breakfast Cocoa: "In 1-2 lb. packages (tin), Is made from selected cocoa, with the excess of butter of cacao removed, and guaranteed to be absolutely pure. It is more than three times the strength of other cocoas, making an economical, excellent, and delicious beverage for breakfast or supper, Costing less than One Cent a Cup." [1]

And a corresponding recipe:
"Into a breakfast-cup put a teaspoonful of the powder, add a tablespoonful of boiling water and mix thoroughly ; then add equal parts of boiling water and boiled milk, and sugar to the taste. Boiling two or three minutes will improve it."

[1]the flowery and generous use of adjectives is one of the things that makes old advertising kind of fun.