Ye olde U S of A

Well, it's that time of year again. When Toby starts behaving (Look, I'm being nice not naughty, Mommy.) and I attempt to eat my bodyweight in Ferrero Rocher and Matchmakers. My Mom gave me some great little cookbooks called Gifts from a Jar. The idea is that you put all of the dry ingredients for a recipe in a jar, a bit like those colorful jars of sand we used to make at school, then attach a note with the wet ingredients that need to be added and the cooking details and voila! A nice little homemade gift. I thought that it would make a good present for Toby's teachers since it's something he can help me make.

My first task was finding the jars. This is the kind of thing that would be no problem to find in the States but requires a bit of hunting in England. Only people who make their own jams would buy them so I needed a specialist shop. Luckily we have a gourmet kitchen store right here in Blackheath. I went in yesterday and explained that I was looking for the equivalent of an American quart jar. Obviously I grew up with 'quarts' but when I said the word out loud it sounded funny to my ears and I wasn't quite sure whether to pronounce it 'kort' or 'kwort'.

The sales assistant squinted his eyes and said 'Quart? I have no idea.' He then got out a big conversion book but American quart wasn't listed. He scratched his head and said 'Well, I assume it means a quarter of something.' I had never thought about it but that made sense. Suddenly a 'quart' seemed like a strange and ancient measurement. Almost quaint.

After coming home and doing some research I discovered that a quart is very conveniently almost exactly a litre. That makes it much easier. Now I'm planning to use some of the Christmasty chocolate chips that I dragged back from the States for the teachers' jars. I'll be off to buy two litre jars tomorrow and Ms Suki and Ms Carla will get their very own American-style Christmas presents this year.