1/2 cup dried apricots, thinly sliced
1/4 cup apricot brandy (or any brandy, or orange juice if you don't want the alchohol)
3/4 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 bag fresh cranberries

Combine apricots and brandy in a small bowl, cover and let macerate overnight.

Combine water and sugar, bring to a low boil. Add everything else, cook 8 minutes, or until saucy.

How do people feel about cranberry relish? I always make it by grinding cranberries coarsely with oranges, peels and all and just enough sugar to take the edge off.

We totally do it like that in my family, in the old school meat grinder that clamps to the table. LOVE IT.

That's how we do it. I don't actually like it (I don't like orange with cranberry) but I love making it.

I think you mean The Great Influenza. The Great Mortality was about the Black Death.

A really excellent book on the 1918 influenza is "The Great Mortality" by John Kelly. It explains why influenza is such a versatile and fast-moving bug.

Isn't that about the Black Plague?

Just tonight I went out and had a "turkey dinner" from one of the gajillion restaurants in my neighborhood that tries to do American classics with "a twist"-- it had weird tasting cranberry relish. When I got to the bottom I realized why. Black licorice! WTF?

See, I can't see adding any more flavor to relish. But I suppose cooking a wee bit mellows it. But...NO. I like it fresh and painfully tart.

But I suppose the recipe is delish, regardless.

Just not mine!

Ewww, bon bon.

Licorice is a bit much. I like fennel and its cousins fairly well, but not with THAT.

I think you mean The Great Influenza. The Great Mortality was about the Black Death.

Le oops. You're quite right. I picked up the wrong book from the floor next to the bed.

I can do you a good line of recommendations in poisons, too.

A year after a given strain hits your immune system, its surviving descendants are very likely to be completely unrecognizable as far as your antibodies are concerned.

I had a very nasty flu (doc's couldn't identify it, so it must've been a new one) just before my sophomore year in college. I didn't catch another flu for at least 6 years after that and I know I was exposed plenty. Even in the last couple of years, when I've been surrouded by sickies I've sometimes felt tired and achey for a day and then felt fine after that. I think my antibodies are pretty good at the recognition thing.

Of course this means something like the 1918 influenza would turn me into a puddle of white cell goo.