British-English to American-English 'translation' thread

[dktc05101]

I had to laugh about the cheese comment. I live in Vermont, New England, United States. I guess I'm very lucky because I've grown up with very fantastic cheese. That orange day glow garbage IS NOT CHEESE. Yuck!!

[Cofa's Tree]

Does anyone know, are receiving blankets the same as muslins?

I seem to have lost the newborn head insert for our car seat, and on googling, the best substitute seems to be a rolled up 'receiving blanket' instead of buying something not crash tested with the purchased car seat, but can't see a clear description of what one is so guessing it's a muslin but the 'blanket' bit is throwing me.

[mamapup]

Do you have a maxi cosi? There's a slim possibility we randomly still have the head insert. Let me look tonight...remind me.

[catkin]

Not quite but similar. An American friend gave us some, they're more like soft cotton swaddles. Bit bigger and thicker than muslins. Tho my mum did say we were wrapping baby in a tea towel! Maybe a baby towel? Muslin would be a bit thin I'd think.

[Treeb]

Receiving blankets are made of cotton flannel. There doesn't seem to be a standard size for them, we have some that are square and some rectangular. Both types we have are smaller than the large square muslin "swaddling blankets" that we have here, which I think may be different from your "muslins"?

[Mummamac]

Not answering your actual question but we use a rolled up cloth nappy as a newborn head stabiliser in our car seat. A towelling one, obviously not MCN.

[Cofa's Tree]

Thanks mp, we've got the Graco Junior seat, but I would think Maxi Cosi and Graco would have similar testing standards, compared to the generic fleece liner inserts that Amazon is offering up, so if you do have it that would be great, obviously sort costs out.

And thanks for the receiving blanket replies. Looks like they are something we don't have over here, although a couple of muslins might do a similar job. Not sure how practical they sound for every day use though, although from memory, it wasn't something Daniel used for that long anyway...

[Marrow]

We own a packet of three giant (approx 1 m square) muslins that were sold as summer swaddling blankets. They were useful for that, and for pinning arms to sides (anyone else had to cup feed a newborn?!), but really came into their own as crumb catchers to put on the floor at pubs / restaurants when C was little. They might also work as a head rest, and if you are anything like me you'd get your money's worth out of them.

[Brigitte]

[Cofa's Tree]

Big thanks to mp for coming to the rescue and sorting me out with a head insert...and I got to learn about receiving blankets along the way!

[KattyLadyBug]

I know this thread is ANCIENT, but I came across it and had to clarify some things. I don't know what these things are called in the UK, but in the US, it is as follows:

Chickpeas and garbanzo beans are used interchangeably.
Scones are triangular bits of sweetened bread, usually with a glaze on top.
Biscuits are usually round buttery fluffy bread eaten at breakfast, sometimes covered in gravy, sometimes with butter and jelly/jam inside. Some dog treats are also called biscuits.
I've never heard of an oat cake, and the description doesn't sound familiar. It does sound yummy though.
Jam and jelly are different things here. Jelly is made from fruit juice. Jam is made from puree, and preserves have chunks/bits of fruit in it. We tend to use telly to refer to them all, but if you go to the store to buy a jar of it, it will be labeled with the more specific term.
Cheese is cheese ... You can buy imported cheese, and it might be something you're more familiar with. We also have processed ("American") cheese here, and that stuff is pretty nasty on its own. I do like it for some specific purposes (like in warm sandwiches).
A mooch is a freeloader - somebody who is always asking for things but never giving things.
US slang for being drunk (and sometimes high on drugs) include trashed, smashed, wasted, and tipsy. I've never heard trashed referring to being tired. I guess sometimes if you were doing something athletic, and your body is very tired it might work. "That game wasted me." "That obstacle course trashed me." "I wasted the other team." Those might work, but it would be misunderstood if referring to general exhaustion.
Diapers are what you would call a nappy.
A blanket is something you cover up with at night. It's a generic term. We would call a quilt, duvet, etc. a blanket. A baby blanket might refer to a muslin for you in England. We usually swaddle babies in their blankets, and now we have "sleep sacks" which are little cloth bags that you zip up around a baby's body so that they don't get strangled by a loose blanket.

[qbm]

Any of you guys know if a recipe says to use a 5oz tin of condensed milk, is that 5 fl. oz or 5 ...um, regular weight ounces?

<confused>

[emzit]

They're almost the same, it wouldn't make a difference either way.

[qbm]

Oh! Ok. Seems like that might be obvious... Thanks!