EDIBLE PAPER EXPERIMENT

Those who know me, understand I'm a bit of an enviro-fanatic. It is all my Mum's fault too. She raised us preaching about healthy foods, natural products and yoga. I was convinced she was a crazy hippie for most of my teenage years. I didn't realize until years later that the seed had sprouted. I became annoyingly anal about recycling (until my recent revelation that recycling is a great excuse for mass-consumption), despise creating waste and adopted some ridiculous food-additive phobias.

That being said, I'm always seeking ways of making things in avoidance of having to dispose of them. I've been drinking Almond milk for years and I tested out producing my own recently. A nutritionist has told me it is the best milk alternative out there - and it's pretty damn delicious. I had all this fluffy almond meal left over and (obviously) couldn't bear to toss it. It made a decent base for cookies, but for some reason it popped into my brain during my research for tree-free paper options.

Here is how the experiment went down.
1. Almond grinding. I couldn't find any almonds in shells, so blanched had to do. This was possibly my first mistake.

2. Blending with water. Essential to making almond milk. Make a nice syrupy consistency, this thick paste stuff doesn't work.


3. First strain.


4. Second strain. They say to use cheesecloth, I only had a silkscreen frame.


5. What the paste excretes becomes your milk. When the paste has finished straining, add some vanilla extract + agave nectar (sweetener) and toss it back.

6. Make a press-lasagna. Put a towel down, then place the screen with the paste on it over top, next goes one of these blue towel dishcloths, newspapers and give it a good heave to get all the water out.

7. Squish that sucker down with some heavy books and leave it alone for awhile.

In the meantime, you can plan your dinner. Thanks Jamie Oliver for the inspiration + garden/kitchen envy.

This is one of my favourite ways to kill time. It's the stuff of a perfect fall weekend. Pumpkin cookies, a superb book and some tea.

Also, my favourite pastime - a visit to the farmers market.


I also love making food with said farmers market gems. I've never had this psychedelic cabbage before.

I went back to check on my almond paper experiment. It wasn't looking so great. It began to crack and looked like dough. I thought perhaps it just needed more time to dry.

Feeling a bit discouraged, I tried to cheer myself up with another food experiment. Success! This is the most tasty dish I've ever invented. You can't really go wrong with squash though.


The almond paper was a total bust. There weren't any fibers to keep it connected. So on to the next challenge...