I was going to do a write up about the effects that drinking cows milk can have on our health and the horrible things that are done to cows in order to produce more milk at rapid rates…. BUT the more I read the more disgusted and angry I became. Consuming cows milk is a topic that causes much debate in our world. Many believe that is a vital nutrient that should be incorporated in our daily lives, and others don’t. Some find that cows (animals) don’t have a soul and don’t find their living conditions or treatment as cruel, some do while others just put their blinders on not wanting to know. Do your own research and see where your own personal conviction lies. I got an email the other day that came from a great web-site called YumUniverse were there was an article written by a doctor regarding cheese. I found it very interesting and…. well I was going to saying shocking but to be honest not much shocks me anymore when it comes to our food industry. Here is the link so you can read it for yourself. 
Enough on that for now… tonight I was busy collecting “milk” but it wasn’t from cows. Nope, I was milking my nuts! Ok, hmmm, so that doesn’t sound so good. lol But it was true. I was making Nut Milk! This is a wonderful replacement for dairy milk and no animals are harmed in the process. :) It is soooo easy to make. The neat thing is that you can really tailor it to fit your taste buds exactly. I have a post on how to make nut milks right here if you want to see it. You can make your milk thick and creamy, thin, sweet, with vanilla, with any nut you want and so on. It’s pretty darn cool. The other beauty to making your own “milks” is that nothing goes to waste and the by-product offers up a great leftover ingredient that can be used to make crackers, croutons, cakes, cookies and breads!
Tonight, I was busy in the kitchen making a new raw bread recipe. I made some last night and it came out AMAZING, so I had to keep playing because my head is spinning with ideas! I made a plain bread last night that works beautifully for sandwiches. Today I made a Garlic Olive Bread, Raisin Bread, Chocolate Doughnuts and a few others fun things. I will be posting the recipes over the next few days. But back to making nut milk. Not only did I end up with this wonderful Almond Milk (which can be used in smoothies, with raw cereals, in ice creams, etc) I ended up with all this great nut pulp which lead me to my bread and other creations today.
My husband who has an incredible mind of an engineer, walked into the kitchen with “that look” in his eyes. That look that says, “I know I can invent a way in making straining the milk from the pulp a lot easier for you.” After some back and forth brainstorming we decided to give our book press a try. Shew, that puppy was heavy! We knew it was to big, to heavy and not exactly what were after but the attempt was enough to keep the wheels turning. As I was looking upward, in the “I’m thinking” pose, my eyes landed on a beautiful cheese press that we saved from the scrap yard. When we brought it home it was completely rusted over. After a bit of elbow grease and love, we were presented with this gorgeous cheese press. I mentioned it and Bob quickly agreed that we should give it a try. It was the same basic concept as the book press, just much easier to work with due to it’s size.
I whipped up a new batch of nut milk and poured it into the nut bag so the milk could be extracted from the pulp. We then took the bag, twisted it close and stuck it in the cheese press. I slide a baking pan underneath to catch the milk and my sweetheart went to town on pressing the milk out of the bag. It was gorgeous! Not to mention it saved a lot of wear and tear on my poor paddies. Our wheels are still turning but this was a great discovery and one that I will use again when I make another large batch of milk.
I just love the way my husband’s mind works! Out came this creamy nut milk and when we took the bag out after being pressed, it was nice and dry…all ready for another recipe creation!
