LIST: Things you wish you had brought with you

Well you bakers are a bit "different" anyhow...it is science as much as art...

I have always wanted to ask about ovens and such, whether anyone has had trouble adjusting. The only thing I bake is buttermilk biscuits and I can't get them quite right. They are OK, but a bit puckish..

Lyonaria, you mentioned needing space to store 'a set' of scales.  My kitchen scale is small and flat...about the size and thickness of a small/individual pizza or a small dinner plate.

Lyonaria, you mentioned needing space to store 'a set' of scales.  My kitchen scale is small and flat...about the size and thickness of a small/individual pizza or a small dinner plate.

Same here - my electronic scale lives on the kitchen counter top in the corner (although I'm constantly moving it around when I cook)... it's circular, about 8 inches in diameter and about 3 inches high with the bowl on top (it looks like this one).

*grins* Ksand and Albatross you should see the size of my "kitchen." It's just a tiny portion of my living space. I have about 4 square feet of counter space and 2 smallish cabinets to hold everything from food stuffs to cooking/baking things to plates/glasses/mugs etc) . My home is essentially a tiny studio apartment. We're waiting for the lease to be up to move to a bigger place.

Well you bakers are a bit "different" anyhow...it is science as much as art...

I have always wanted to ask about ovens and such, whether anyone has had trouble adjusting. The only thing I bake is buttermilk biscuits and I can't get them quite right. They are OK, but a bit puckish..

My issue with ovens, so far, has been that it's an electric convection oven and it's taken some time for me to get the hang of cooking things in it. I overcooked quite a different things when I first moved over. They turned to charcoal on the edges, it was gross. And learning what the different Celsius temps are has been fun.

Baking IS a science.....  - as Emeril Lagasse said, "it's a formula, don't mess with it".

Back in the Dark Ages, some of us did learn ratios about the amount of "raising agent" to flour and shortening to sugar. The beauty of American Standard Measure (cups/spoons) is that it's easier than weighing, and less subject to goofs if you're just pouring flour into a bowl that has other stuff already in.

I hate fan ovens for baking. About 21 years ago, I bought a little book specific to fan ovens, but still find it doesn't quite do the job. Using the mantra "lower the temperature by 20 degrees" is fine as a general guide, but baking is best in a static oven. A true convection oven is sort of o.k. IMHO, but few of the 'fan ovens' here are true convection ovens.

I keep a temperature conversion chart handy, but even after all these years, I still have to watch to make sure whatever I'm baking isn't rising too fast, browning too much, or worst yet, NOT doing what it should....like a pumpkin pie that doesn't "set" properly.

I hate fan ovens for baking.

I'll admit my fan oven cooks quickly...but there are hot spots.....I know where they are now and can move stuff about, but that is terrible for baking because you lose so much heat every time you open the door.

But a frozen pizza....to borrow another of Lagasse's bon mots...BAM!, it's done in like 9 minutes...

One of the best purchases that I have made here is a magnet from Marks and Spencer's that has the baking conversions listed on it.  I use it all the time, especially for liquid measurements.  The thing that absolutely boggles my mind is that all the sets of measuring spoons that I've bough here have all been too big to fit into the ingredient containers!  I end of measuring everything with the half-teaspoon.

After my mother passed last May, I was sorting out some stuff and found just such a magnet - something she had likely received as a 'gift' when she ordered a cookbook or something similar. It was in a drawer and likely she never had reason to use it.

Useful for me, and just a little "bit" from my mother's kitchen. It now lives on the door of our refrigerator.

I'm in the process of downsizing and thinking about what to keep/ pack. I know my DVDs won't play over there, but I want to take a small dvd player too, and was just going to use an adapter. Didn't think about voltage though, what do I need so it will work? Thanks!

I'm in the process of downsizing and thinking about what to keep/ pack. I know my DVDs won't play over there, but I want to take a small dvd player too, and was just going to use an adapter. Didn't think about voltage though, what do I need so it will work? Thanks!

We brought our DVDs with us and bought a multi-region player when we got here. 

We brought our DVDs with us and bought a multi-region player when we got here.

Also, if you have a laptop with a DVD player, the VLC Player is region-free and will play all DVDs without you needing to switch the laptop region.

Blue jeans!!!  I was floored by the prices here and I am sorry I did not bring 20 pair. I bought my favorites Wrangler regular fit on Amazon UK,  paying duty on them and still cheaper than buying here.

Our small bedroom radios - we left them behind because their plugs were US mains. The cost of replacing them here is almost triple the cost of what we paid for them in the USA - should have brought them and just used the travel transformers we have.

We also left a big metal Sunbeam stand mixer, the kind that lasts forever, for the same reason. Can't get Sunbeam here, and what is here is not exactly good looking and, again, much more expensive than getting one in the States (assuming one could find a good old made-of-metal mixer). I hate plastic kitchen appliances....

This list has been going since 2002 (I believe) and I wonder how peoples experiences are now with sites like Amazon being able to ship product?

Many things like Crockpots, US measuring cups, ziploc bags, Ranch dressing, etc. are on Amazon UK so I'm thinking its gotten a little easier to replace things? Just curious.

I've definitely heard that its best to leave most things with a plug and just budget to replace them in the UK (with the exception of things like cellphone/ipad chargers, or little things like that.

This list has been going since 2002 (I believe) and I wonder how peoples experiences are now with sites like Amazon being able to ship product?

Many things like Crockpots, US measuring cups, ziploc bags, Ranch dressing, etc. are on Amazon UK so I'm thinking its gotten a little easier to replace things? Just curious.

I've definitely heard that its best to leave most things with a plug and just budget to replace them in the UK (with the exception of things like cellphone/ipad chargers, or little things like that.

Yes, it's true it is MUCH easier to find American products in the UK now with Amazon, Costco, etc. However, we were sad to find out in another group that Costco UK has ended their agreement with Ziploc and are no longer carrying the bags. Ziplocs on Amazon UK are prohibitively expensive (the 347 variety pack for example is $20 on Amazon and £39.80 on Amazon UK). I have told my husband to go easy on the quart ziplocs until I can make my trip to the US in December!

The nice thing is that I can find MOST things I crave, for a price. I just wish I could figure out how to get refrigerated stuff over!