Since I was trained at the Cordon Bleu and La Varenne, and raised on Julia Child, I have always used her extremely thorough and precise conversion tables. They are invaluable, because they give French, British and American equivalents, which is important since--perhaps you don't know--an American ounce is quite a different thing than a British ounce! (I'm exaggerating a wee bit there.)

These conversion tables are to be found in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," of which an anniversary edition has just been published. Child, or simply "Julia", as we like to call her in the world of cuisine, also provided temperature conversion charts, including both British and French "marks" as well as metric and Imperial temperatures.

I will try to reproduce these on my food blog, The Rambling Epicure, on GenevaLunch, in the next few weeks, because many people are quite understandably confused, especially when they first arrive in Europe.

If you do have anybody back in the U.S. who can send you a set of stainless steel measuring cups and spoons however, do ask them to do so. The American ones usually give the U.S. measurement as well as the metric equivalent. I agree that weighing small amounts is tedious, and once you start using these cups and spoons, you'll soon get a feel for the metric equivalents.

They can easily be found in stores such as Walmart, and certainly in all major department stores, hypermarkets, superstores and, of course, in cookware shops. They are not expensive, and last forever. I've been using the same ones for 25 years now.