Common Kitchen Measurements

In a bit of serendipity, these great conversion charts keep popping up.  This one breaks down measures so you can see at a glance how much of an ingredient you need.  Sometimes a recipe will give you a measure that doesn't necessarily add up with your measuring tools, or so it seems.

I feel as though some of these I should have memorized from some long ago high school class, and a few are in the brain cells, while most are not.

It's A Mystery! Crossword

It's A Mystery!  A Puzzle for Mystery Lovers

 

Doubling a Recipe

Favorite Commenter Kaye George asked about a chart for doubling recipes.  There are quite a few out there, but they have you filling in blanks and you just want to have something to look at, right?


From This Food Thing (I'm not sure what she means by scale in this context):

Scale, Half and Double Quantity Amounts in a Recipe (Chart)

Posted on October 9, 2008 by Michelle

I was trying to quickly scale a recipe, and found this old chart hidden among my recipe files.  I thought it might come in handy for those that are looking to do the same.

Original Recipe Measure	Half Scaled Measure	Double Scaled Measure
1/8 tsp.	Dash or Pinch	1/4 tsp.
1/4 tsp.	1/8 tsp.	1/2 tsp.
1/2 tsp.	1/4 tsp.	1 tsp.
1 tsp.	1/2 tsp.	2 tsp.
1 1/4 tsp.	5/8 tsp.	2 1/2 tsp.
1 1/2 tsp.	3/4 tsp.	3 tsp. (1 tbsp.)
1 3/4 tsp.	7/8 tsp.	3 1/2 tsp.
2 tsp.	1 tsp.	4 tsp.
2 1/2 tsp.	1 1/4 tsp.	5 tsp.
1 tbsp.	1 1/2 tsp (1/2 tbsp.)	2 tbsp.
1 1/2 tbsp.	1 1/4 tsp.	3 tbsp.
2 tbsp. (1/8 cup)	1 tbsp.	1/4 cup
3 tbsp.	1 1/2 tbsp. (4 1/2 tsp.)	6 tbsp.
4 tbsp. (1/4 cup, or 2 fl. oz.)	2 tbsp.	1/2 cup
1/3 cup	2 tbsp. + 2 tsp.	2/3 cup
1/2 cup (4 fl. oz.)	1/4 cup	1 cup
2/3 cup	1/3 cup	1 1/3 cups
3/4 cup	3 tbsp.	1 1/2 cups
1 cup (1/2 pint)	1/2 cup	2 cups
1 1/4 cups	1/2 cup + 2 tbsp.	2 1/2 cups
1 1/3 cups	10 tbsp. + 2 tsp.	2 2/3 cups
1 1/2 cups	3/4 cup	3 cups
1 2/3 cups	1/2 cup + 1/3 cup	3 1/3 cups
1 3/4 cups	3/4 cup + 2 tbsp.	3 1/2 cups
2 cups (1 pint)	1 cup	4 cups (1 quart)
2 1/2 cups	1 1/4 cups	5 cups
3 cups (1 1/2 pints)	1 1/2 cups	6 cups (1 1/2 quarts)
3 1/2 cups	1 3/4 cups	7 cups
4 cups (2 pints, or 1 quart)	2 cups (1 pint)	8 cups (1/2 gal.)
4 1/2 cups	2 1/4 cups	9 cups
5 cups (1 1/4 quarts)	2 1/2 cups	10 cups (2 1/2 quarts)
5 1/2 cups	2 3/4 cups	11 cups
6 cups (1 1/2 quarts)	3 cups (1 1/2 pints)	12 cups (3 quarts)
7 cups (1 3/4 quarts)	3 1/2 cups	14 cups
8 cups (2 quarts, or 1/2 gal.)	4 cups (1 quart)	1 gal.
10 cups (2 1/2 quarts)	5 cups	5 quarts
3 quarts (3/4 gal.)	6 cups (1 1/2 quarts)	1 1/2 gal.
14 cups (3 1/2 quarts)	7 cups	7 quarts
1 gal.	1/2 gal.	2 gal.
2 gal.	1 gal.	4 gal.

Daredevil

I watched the Netflix series Daredevil this week.   I had waited because I thought it had a sort of dark, maybe hopeless tone to it.  You know me, I'm all about sunshine and Pooh Bears.

I love superheroes, though.  Sometimes you just want someone to go into the morass and make things right.

Daredevil is set in New York's Hell's Kitchen, a very grim place indeed where villains of the very worst kind rule the streets and alleys and docks.

Daredevil himself has a great backstory wherein he is the son of a down on his luck boxer.   The boy who will become Daredevil is injured in an accident involving an overturned truck full of radioactive materials.  Matt Murdock (Daredevil) is blinded at the age of nine.  He soon loses his father and is orphaned.

The accident took his sight, but enhanced his other senses greatly.  He can detect smells and heartbeats and conversations quite a ways away.

Somewhat luckily for him, a strange blind man named Stick finds him and trains him to use these hyper senses, and shows him how to fight.  Scott Glenn is such a great actor, it was nice to see him here.

Adult Matt is a lawyer beginning a law practice in Hell's kitchen with his college roommate Foggy Nelson.   They work well together, the serious Matt and the very funny Foggy.  Determined to make Hell's Kitchen a better place, they slowly work to find clients.

The threads of the series involve fighting organized crime as a law team, and as Matt's lone vigilante character, out in the night trying to right wrongs using methods not so legal or always morally upright.

I am enjoying the Marvel Universe television shows and movies, but I was always a DC Comics fan growing up.  In those, heroes are unapologetically heroic and noble.  Whatever their past, in the now they are all about making things right.

Marvel's characters are always somewhat anti-heroes, always denying to admirers and grateful victims that they are a hero of any kind.   There's often a darkness in them, making them seem just one more fight away from becoming the evil they're fighting.

Stashbusting the DOA Way

My previous post on how to build a yarn stash has energized my already fevered craftiness in this new year. 

Confession: though I inventoried my yarns and hooks before going off to the store, and I had the papers with me, I was a bad doggie, and picked up two of a variety of pretty yarns like a common yarn-a-holic.

Luckily for me, I was a bit horrified by my actions, so I looked at my yarns and set about finding projects to use them on.  In theory, it is best to take patterns of projects you want to make to the store with you, then you can fulfill your yarn lust in a practical way.

I not only found projects for my yarns, I had the really fun idea to create Project Baskets for each of the yarn busters.   I have all the yarn that goes with the project and a copy of the pattern I'm using all in one basket.  This makes it so much easier to visualize these balls of yarn being a really lovely bit of work. 

I'm also just going to work methodically through these, and since I have four projects all lined up and I can see their potential every day, I'm just excited to work through them.  Best yet, I don't feel the need to shop for any new yarn till I've created these. 


 Simply Soft Zigzag Blanket

One of my balls of yarn had a pattern for a stripey throw.  I don't like dark colors, but could see the blanket would look nice in pastel stripes, even better if the stripes were shades of pink.  All I needed to do was get a few more balls of off white, and find 2 balls each of two pinks.  I could not find in the Simply Soft (on that day) two more pink colors so I picked two lavender and two soft blue.

I haven't worked a zig zaggy type pattern before, but somehow I am confident I can do it.

Attic24 Granny Stripe Blanket

 The Attic 24 blog has patterns for two very colorful blankets that can be made from your stash or you could purchase colors similar to what she used.

I'm going to try the Granny Stripe blanket first, because I love Granny Squares, and the same comfortable stitch is used in this blanket.

In keeping with my stash busting, I looked and found that I had quite a few purple shaded yarns from a project very long ago.   I shopped for a few more colors to have the correct number to make this blanket.  I feel very pleased to be using up yarns from a project in the early 80s--is THAT stash busting or what?  Plus more yarn lust inspired shopping.  Happy making on various levels.

Attic24 Cosy Stripe Blanket


She also has a Cosy Stripe Blanket  that I thought would be perfect for using some leftover balls of pink yarn from the same time period.  A similar idea, but a bit of a different pattern from the Granny.

In this case, I didn't have many balls, but I thought I could look around over time for nice pink colors to make this one.    I happened to be shopping for yarn to fill in a different project, when I noticed that there were a ton of nice pink shades from various manufacturers, and all were acrylic 4 ply.  In a thrilling bit of yarn shopping, I was able to indulge and buy just one skein of each to get enough to make this blanket.   It was all on sale!  Yaaaaa!!!!

Red Heart Checkerboard Textures Throw

The last crochet project in my Stashbusters Anonymous fiendishness uses some off white yarn and a couple of green shades. 

The Red Heart Checkerboard Textures Throw  is shown all in gray yarn, which is pretty, but I don't see me working with the color gray anytime soon.   What I like about this one is, it has ten large Granny Squares, which I know I can do, and ten Textured Squares, which may be quite a challenge.  If, (I reason) I am completely unable to figure out the challenge squares, I'll make it all Granny and voila!

Max The Magnificent: Miss You Already, Buddy

Favorite Book:

Favorite Treat:

Favorite Food:

Favorite Person:

Center Cut Cook's Guide To Making Half A Recipe

So many times a recipe makes far more than you need for your family, and sometimes if you're trying a new recipe you just don't want to have a 9x13 pan load of something you end up not liking..or you messed up the recipe, oops!

Center Cut Cook has this nice little chart for halving amounts in recipes.  You can always do the math yourself, but this so very handy!

Take Me Out To The Ballgame Wordfind

I was trying to do a baseball crossword, but doing the definitions exceeded my non sports person head.  So, if I have a theme I like but can't get the words right, voila! a Wordfind.  I'm hoping to have either a Wordfind or Crossword on Saturdays.  Watch this space!

Embroidering on Patterned Fabric: LadyLapsus

Via the Feeling Stitchy Blog,  a wonderful idea by LadyLapsus for adding to the design elements of an embroidery piece by using colored/patterned fabric as a background rather than the traditional white linen.   It just seems like brilliant idea.

I'm also seeing embroidery hoops in different shapes and colors, which adds another interesting element, particularly if you use the hoop as a frame for the work, as many do.

LadyLapsus has a site (In German) so you can see more of her work  http://www.meinhood.com/shop/

Deadpool: Talk About Lively!

He's not a hero, that's for sure. His attitude stinks, and though he saves people and secretly has a heart of gold, he's too busy quipping his way through this movie to bother with good vs bad distinctions.

I knew nothing about the character going in, and feared this would be The Punisher with humorous naughty bits.

Luckily, though heads fly, swords slash, and slow-mo guns do their damage, there isn't any lingering on gore.  It's all played for laughs.   

Deadpool is sassy, irreverent, and the best wise cracking (not hero) in ages.  Highly recommended.

Star Wars The Force Awakens Wordfind

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was everything I hoped it would be.  Somehow I've resisted seeing it a million times in the theater.  While we await the Blue Ray/DVD release, here's a short Star Wars: the Force Awakens Word Find.  Note: the compiler didn't like all of those proper names so I had to jam words together. Ah, well.

In the Garden: Crossword Answer

Here's the answer key to Saturday's puzzle.  Too easy? Too hard? Let me know.  I do enjoy making them.

In the Garden: a Crossword

I used a different crossword puzzle compiler here  (I make up the theme, all the words and clues then it puts it in crossword puzzle form for me because I couldn't figure it out myself), the Armored Penguin.
 
I was trying to get a better layout so added a few non-garden words which I can use for an ongoing Word List.  

Note:  29 across has an unintended space after the sixth letter that I didn't see until too late.  Solve for a phrase that has six letters, the unintended space, then three more letters. 

The answer will post on Thursday.

Mysterious Words Crossword Puzzle Answer