diff --git a/src/calibre/customize/builtins.py b/src/calibre/customize/builtins.py
index 9a686e0d94..dcbffade92 100644
--- a/src/calibre/customize/builtins.py
+++ b/src/calibre/customize/builtins.py
@@ -287,6 +287,7 @@ from calibre.ebooks.odt.input import ODTInput
 from calibre.ebooks.rtf.input import RTFInput
 from calibre.ebooks.html.input import HTMLInput
 from calibre.ebooks.comic.input import ComicInput
+from calibre.web.feeds.input import RecipeInput
 from calibre.ebooks.oeb.output import OEBOutput
 from calibre.ebooks.epub.output import EPUBOutput
 from calibre.ebooks.txt.output import TXTOutput
@@ -296,7 +297,7 @@ from calibre.customize.profiles import input_profiles, output_profiles
 
 plugins = [HTML2ZIP, EPUBInput, MOBIInput, PDBInput, PDFInput, HTMLInput,
         TXTInput, OEBOutput, TXTOutput, PDFOutput, LITInput, ComicInput,
-        FB2Input, ODTInput, RTFInput, EPUBOutput, EREADEROutput]
+        FB2Input, ODTInput, RTFInput, EPUBOutput, EREADEROutput, RecipeInput]
 plugins += [x for x in list(locals().values()) if isinstance(x, type) and \
                                         x.__name__.endswith('MetadataReader')]
 plugins += [x for x in list(locals().values()) if isinstance(x, type) and \
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/cli.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/cli.py
index 941a1ec5fc..d8de702915 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/cli.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/cli.py
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ def check_command_line_options(parser, args, log):
         raise SystemExit(1)
 
     input = os.path.abspath(args[1])
-    if not os.access(input, os.R_OK):
+    if not input.endswith('.recipe') and not os.access(input, os.R_OK):
         log.error('Cannot read from', input)
         raise SystemExit(1)
 
@@ -169,6 +169,9 @@ def add_pipeline_options(parser, plumber):
             if rec.level < rec.HIGH:
                 option_recommendation_to_cli_option(add_option, rec)
 
+    option_recommendation_to_cli_option(parser.add_option,
+            plumber.get_option_by_name('list_recipes'))
+
 def option_parser():
     return OptionParser(usage=USAGE)
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py
index da9c9f11e2..1ef58e1d95 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py
@@ -360,6 +360,10 @@ OptionRecommendation(name='book_producer',
 OptionRecommendation(name='language',
     recommended_value=None, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
     help=_('Set the language.')),
+
+OptionRecommendation(name='list_recipes',
+    recommended_value=False, help=_('List available recipes.')),
+
 ]
 
         input_fmt = os.path.splitext(self.input)[1]
@@ -525,6 +529,13 @@ OptionRecommendation(name='language',
         self.setup_options()
         if self.opts.verbose:
             self.log.filter_level = self.log.DEBUG
+        if self.opts.list_recipes:
+            from calibre.web.feeds.recipes import titles
+            self.log('Available recipes:')
+            for title in sorted(titles):
+                self.log('\t'+title)
+            self.log('%d recipes available'%len(titles))
+            raise SystemExit(0)
 
         # Run any preprocess plugins
         from calibre.customize.ui import run_plugins_on_preprocess
@@ -535,8 +546,13 @@ OptionRecommendation(name='language',
         accelerators = {}
 
         tdir = PersistentTemporaryDirectory('_plumber')
+        stream = self.input if self.input_fmt == 'recipe' else \
+                open(self.input, 'rb')
 
-        self.oeb = self.input_plugin(open(self.input, 'rb'), self.opts,
+        if hasattr(self.opts, 'lrf') and self.output_plugin.file_type == 'lrf':
+            self.opts.lrf = True
+
+        self.oeb = self.input_plugin(stream, self.opts,
                                     self.input_fmt, self.log,
                                     accelerators, tdir)
         if self.opts.debug_input is not None:
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/base.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/base.py
index 9d8598c766..f5395e04fe 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/base.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/base.py
@@ -1578,15 +1578,15 @@ class OEBBook(object):
                 return data.decode('utf-16')
             except UnicodeDecodeError:
                 pass
-        try:
-            return data.decode('utf-8')
-        except UnicodeDecodeError:
-            pass
         if self.encoding is not None:
             try:
                 return data.decode(self.encoding)
             except UnicodeDecodeError:
                 pass
+        try:
+            return data.decode('utf-8')
+        except UnicodeDecodeError:
+            pass
         data, _ = xml_to_unicode(data)
         data = data.replace('\r\n', '\n')
         data = data.replace('\r', '\n')
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/split.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/split.py
index 21d71da5bb..ec3d63192d 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/split.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/split.py
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ class Split(object):
         self.fix_links()
 
     def split_item(self, item):
+        page_breaks, page_break_ids = [], []
         if self.split_on_page_breaks:
             page_breaks, page_break_ids = self.find_page_breaks(item)
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/web/__init__.py b/src/calibre/web/__init__.py
index cadf21c39f..b14dc0ce28 100644
--- a/src/calibre/web/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/web/__init__.py
@@ -2,5 +2,6 @@ __license__   = 'GPL v3'
 __copyright__ = '2008, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>'
 
 
+class Recipe(object):
+    pass
 
- 
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/calibre/web/feeds/input.py b/src/calibre/web/feeds/input.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..21324293d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/calibre/web/feeds/input.py
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# vim:fileencoding=UTF-8:ts=4:sw=4:sta:et:sts=4:ai
+from __future__ import with_statement
+
+__license__   = 'GPL v3'
+__copyright__ = '2009, Kovid Goyal <kovid@kovidgoyal.net>'
+__docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
+
+import os
+
+from calibre.customize.conversion import InputFormatPlugin, OptionRecommendation
+
+class RecipeInput(InputFormatPlugin):
+
+    name        = 'Recipe Input'
+    author      = 'Kovid Goyal'
+    description = _('Download periodical content from the internet')
+    file_types  = set(['recipe'])
+
+    recommendations = set([
+        ('chapter_mark', 'none', OptionRecommendation.HIGH),
+        ('dont_split_on_page_breaks', True, OptionRecommendation.HIGH),
+        ('use_auto_toc', False, OptionRecommendation.HIGH),
+        ])
+
+    options = set([
+        OptionRecommendation(name='test', recommended_value=False,
+            help=_('Useful for recipe development. Forces '
+            'max_articles_per_feed to 2 and downloads at most 2 feeds.')),
+        OptionRecommendation(name='username', recommended_value=None,
+            help=_('Username for sites that require a login to access '
+                'content.')),
+        OptionRecommendation(name='password', recommended_value=None,
+            help=_('Password for sites that require a login to access '
+                'content.')),
+        OptionRecommendation(name='lrf', recommended_value=False,
+            help='Optimize fetching for subsequent conversion to LRF.'),
+        ])
+
+    def convert(self, recipe_or_file, opts, file_ext, log,
+            accelerators, progress=lambda x, y: x):
+        from calibre.web.feeds.recipes import \
+                get_builtin_recipe, compile_recipe
+        if os.access(recipe_or_file, os.R_OK):
+            recipe = compile_recipe(open(recipe_or_file, 'rb').read())
+        else:
+            title = os.path.basename(recipe_or_file).rpartition('.')[0]
+            recipe = get_builtin_recipe(title)
+
+        if recipe is None:
+            raise ValueError('%s is not a valid recipe file or builtin recipe' %
+                    recipe_or_file)
+
+        ro = recipe(opts, log, progress)
+        ro.download()
+
+        opts.output_profile.flow_size = 0
+
+        for f in os.listdir('.'):
+            if f.endswith('.opf'):
+                return os.path.abspath(f)
+
+
+
+
diff --git a/src/calibre/web/feeds/news.py b/src/calibre/web/feeds/news.py
index 6a248b6992..216a827326 100644
--- a/src/calibre/web/feeds/news.py
+++ b/src/calibre/web/feeds/news.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ from calibre import browser, __appname__, iswindows, \
 from calibre.ebooks.BeautifulSoup import BeautifulSoup, NavigableString, CData, Tag
 from calibre.ebooks.metadata.opf2 import OPFCreator
 from calibre.ebooks.lrf import entity_to_unicode
+from calibre.web import Recipe
 from calibre.ebooks import render_html
 from calibre.ebooks.metadata.toc import TOC
 from calibre.ebooks.metadata import MetaInformation
@@ -27,12 +28,11 @@ from calibre.web.feeds import feed_from_xml, templates, feeds_from_index, Feed
 from calibre.web.fetch.simple import option_parser as web2disk_option_parser
 from calibre.web.fetch.simple import RecursiveFetcher
 from calibre.utils.threadpool import WorkRequest, ThreadPool, NoResultsPending
-from calibre.utils.logging import Log
 from calibre.ptempfile import PersistentTemporaryFile, \
                               PersistentTemporaryDirectory
 
 
-class BasicNewsRecipe(object):
+class BasicNewsRecipe(Recipe):
     '''
     Abstract base class that contains logic needed in all feed fetchers.
     '''
@@ -443,40 +443,34 @@ class BasicNewsRecipe(object):
         '''
         raise NotImplementedError
 
-    def __init__(self, options, parser, progress_reporter):
+    def __init__(self, options, log, progress_reporter):
         '''
         Initialize the recipe.
         :param options: Parsed commandline options
         :param parser:  Command line option parser. Used to intelligently merge options.
         :param progress_reporter: A Callable that takes two arguments: progress (a number between 0 and 1) and a string message. The message should be optional.
         '''
-        self.log = Log()
-        if options.verbose:
-            self.log.filter_level = self.log.DEBUG
+        self.log = log
         if not isinstance(self.title, unicode):
             self.title = unicode(self.title, 'utf-8', 'replace')
 
-        for attr in ('username', 'password', 'lrf', 'output_dir', 'verbose', 'debug', 'test'):
-            setattr(self, attr, getattr(options, attr))
+        self.debug = options.verbose > 1
+        self.output_dir = os.getcwd()
+        self.verbose = options.verbose
+        self.test = options.test
+        self.username = options.username
+        self.password = options.password
+        self.lrf = options.lrf
+
         self.output_dir = os.path.abspath(self.output_dir)
         if options.test:
             self.max_articles_per_feed = 2
             self.simultaneous_downloads = min(4, self.simultaneous_downloads)
 
-
         if self.debug:
             self.verbose = True
         self.report_progress = progress_reporter
 
-        self.username = self.password = None
-        #: If True optimize downloading for eventual conversion to LRF
-        self.lrf = False
-        defaults = parser.get_default_values()
-
-        for opt in options.__dict__.keys():
-            if getattr(options, opt) != getattr(defaults, opt, None):
-                setattr(self, opt, getattr(options, opt))
-
         if isinstance(self.feeds, basestring):
             self.feeds = eval(self.feeds)
             if isinstance(self.feeds, basestring):
@@ -493,7 +487,6 @@ class BasicNewsRecipe(object):
             '--timeout', str(self.timeout),
             '--max-recursions', str(self.recursions),
             '--delay', str(self.delay),
-            '--timeout', str(self.timeout),
             ]
         if self.encoding is not None:
             web2disk_cmdline.extend(['--encoding', self.encoding])
@@ -520,9 +513,6 @@ class BasicNewsRecipe(object):
             self.simultaneous_downloads = 1
 
         self.navbar = templates.NavBarTemplate()
-        self.html2lrf_options.extend(['--page-break-before', '$', '--use-spine', '--header', '--encoding', 'utf-8'])
-        if '--base-font-size' not in self.html2lrf_options:
-            self.html2lrf_options.extend(['--base-font-size', '12'])
         self.failed_downloads = []
         self.partial_failures = []
 
@@ -557,7 +547,7 @@ class BasicNewsRecipe(object):
         return self.postprocess_html(soup, first_fetch)
 
 
-    def download(self, for_lrf=False):
+    def download(self):
         '''
         Download and pre-process all articles from the feeds in this recipe.
         This method should be called only one on a particular Recipe instance.