Wow! I never thought this post would turn into a discussion of baker's math! I think arley explained it well: "... the baker's percentage system, which considers all other ingredients as a percentage of the flour used." That's the starting point for the percentages -- whatever the amount of flour is (whether 1 cup or 1 pound) THAT will be the 100%. It's "Baker's Math" not arithmetic math. From "The Fresh Loaf" Website: "Math?! Yes! Professional bakers don't usually talk about recipes, but rather about formulas. Bread is all about proportions, and baker's math is a way of breaking down ingredients into these proportions so that you can scale up or down as needed. It also makes baking much easier because, once you understand the basic proportions, you can freely mix and match ingredients to invent all kinds of breads on your own. "It's not necessary to learn baker's math to bake good bread, of course, but it can expand your ability to mix and match ingredients and break free of recipes to create your own formulas. "In baker's math, every ingredient is expressed in terms of the flour weight, which is always expressed as 100 percent." Don't get me wrong. I don't use this method because my pipsqueak brain cannot handle it. But I can understand how this system would be helpful to professional bakers and also those "die-hard" home bakers that keep pushing the envelope on hydration, looking for the perfect artisan bread with both tons of hole & chewiness and adequate structure. Here is a link that might be useful: Baker's Math Article

Hey Ellie! You and Mimi were going off the wall yesterday! LOL I was going into withdrawal when I couldn't post. Grrrrr I hate when I can't come here and visit. A local radio station has a daily trivia quiz. They are posted on their website, which is where I get my questions. I'm picking and choosing the questions, but I'm getting close to the end of the list. Some questions are repeated and some I just don't like. But I just might go ahead and post every question, to make sure I have enough to keep it going. Glad you guys like it. I hope the participators don't google the question ahead of time....kind of takes the fun out of it, I think. I like seeing all your great answers and you guys do have great ones!

I'm secretly going to type this out just so the hubby doesn't see this. LOL My husband really goes above and beyond for me. Not only does he work long hours so that I can have my dream of being a farmer, but he helps with farm work as well. He makes me laugh on the daily. He's more intelligent than I am with quite a few things, but looses gracefully when I kick his butt (like almost every single time) we play Risk. He'll do the most ridiculous things like try and ride our steer and our sense of humor is so in sync it's scary. I love that I'm just as attracted to him now as I was almost 17 years ago when we met. And I love that he still makes me feel like he's attracted to me. Oddly enough, the first night we met, what drew me to him was playing the game Mind Trap. I thought to myself, "this is the most intelligent guy I've ever met." See the key is to marry someone more intelligent and good looking then you to improve your future children's gene pool. ;)

I use only the powdered homemade version. I make about 2 batches a year and store the powder in clear plastic storage containers that I get bulk nuts in from Costco. It costs me less than a large bottle of Tide for a whole year's worth of laundry -- and I am not having to toss plastic detergent bottles. (They don't recycle them here yet.) I use a 5 ingredient version that works well for my semi-hard water and a front loading washer. It has Oxy-Clean so it keeps my lights bright. It does not leave any white residue on darks, no oil marks on synthetics, does not suds up, and leaves no scent on clothes. I mix the following in a 5 gallon pail. Don't inhale the powder mixture while mixing it up. Store the dry powder in plastic containers. I use only one rounded tablespoon for each load. 1 box Borax 1 box Washing Soda 5 lbs Baking Soda 3 lbs Oxy-Clean (or generic substitute) 1 grated bar of Zote (or two bar Fels Naptha, or two bars Castile Soap) If the soap bar is allowed to dry out in advance, it grates much finer. I cut up the Zote soap in 4 parts to air dry. I use a hand crank rotary Mouli shredder to grind up the soap.