As far as my own goals go..
I think this program is fairly off topic.

To those whom don't know python programming...
I'm including just the comments here.
I swear it's worth a read.

 
"""
Cooking Conversion
June 5, 2008
 
Opening Statements:
 
Wasn't this what they made computers
do back when all they could do was handle
text?
 
Preliminary Coding
 
Opening Notes:
 
I have a bunch of friends whom don't like
to do math. But like to make cookies. And every time
they run out of some fraction of ingredient they
cry out for the exact proper proportions
that the all powerful recipe calls for. (Which usually
means going out and buying the rest.)
Yesh, I thought it was time to prepare a program to
answer the call of the mathphoic chef. And test out
the comedic power of programming in the process.
 
The end result will have a gui.(often pronounced: gooey)
Hopefully the end
result of the cookies will not.
 
Objectives:
1 Dumb conversion my scaling a recipe to whatever factor
2 rounded conversion scaling and rounding to approx english units
3 Smart Conversion (giving less of one item and having the recipe adjust automatically)
reminds me of linear algebra.. I kept thinking of pivoting on that one ingredient
I thus exclaimed.. "Argh Why am I thinking about pivoting on cookies?"
 
English units *sigh
I'll be making this as English chef friendly
as possible. And in doing so I shall give myself
the greatest headache imaginable.
 
Data Storage Details:
Mixed number storage
(I really didn't mean to have them spell a.n.d.)
a n,d
a n/d
 
There's probably some better way to pull this off
but I've always wanted to write an inordinate number
of excess math classes to be used for a small cooking
program. Haven't you?
 
Improper Number Storage
(Feign a laugh at that)
 
Recipes will be lists of tuples with
(quantity, unit, ingredient)
 
I seem to have hardcoded Nestle's Toll House Milk Chocolate
Morsel cookies into the program. Not that I feel
Nestle brand cookies can benchmark my program it was just the only
recipe I've ever seen in my life.
How fitting that a program (like a recipe) helps calculate recipes.
In a way you could say I'm writing a recipe for processing recipes.
 
Conversion from any English units to mL (Vol)
then I can go back to anything. Like a train station.
 
Units
teaspoons tsp	4.93 	milliliters
tablespoons tbs	15 mL
cups
pints
quarts
gallons 
 
Ahh, dang you English puedo conventions!
"In most jurisdictions, one tablespoon equals three teaspoons.
In Australia, however, one tablespoon is four teaspoons.
In Asia a tablespoon is equivalent to 2 teaspoons"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablespoon#Relationship_to_teaspoon
 
"""