Date: Sat, 11 Jun 1994 19:14:49 -1000 From: Thom Shanken Message-Id: Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Subject: EDIBLE KITES Greetings Fellow Kite Eaters! Hungry for a good kite? Well, here is the (first?) installment I promised. To call the (sometimes) tasty sillyness that is to follow "recipes" would be to misstate their intent. Your own personal creativity is required here, I will only be giving you material "guidelines and techniques" from which to start. I will expect rewards for my efforts, namely your participation in this forum. A personal observation: "Some concepts are mutually exclusive. On the one hand, kites may be used as a metaphor for life itself, on the other hand, hey!, they're just kites...." The purpose of EDIBLE KITES is to HAVE FUN!!!! No elaborate culinary or kite building experience is required, just a desire to enjoy and make lots of tasty mistakes! Some materials that you may find helpful are: a sharp knife (of the scalpel/X-acto variety) tweezers (a really good "sharp" pair) artists brushes - various sizes (not too expensive) magnification (for small work) straight pins a sewing needle cardboard (as a work surface and for drying things) waxed paper or vellum food coloring I could go on, but this will do for starters. Before I go into the edible materials for your first project, now would be a good time to talk about materials for your flying line and bridles. There are no "hard and fast" rules for edible kites, but I will offer two (2) guidelines: 1. They should be able to fly. 2. They should be entirely edible. Having said this, I will now proceed to "break" guideline # 2. Inorder to make edible flying lines and bridles I use various edible barks, i.e. cinnamon, sassafras, etc. By soaking the bark in water or sometimes a more intoxicating solvent, individual fibers may be CAREFULLY removed with sharp tweezers. This process is definitely a "finesse move" for some and requires practise. In the interest of getting you started with the highest degree of success I am willing to forgive you (just this once) :-), if you go out and buy some flavored dental floss. Yes, you heard right! Dental floss (at least in the U.S.A.) comes in flavors (cinnamon, mint, and who knows what else). You don't need to soak the floss, just "rough up" the end with your fingers and then peel off strands with your tweezers. Whichever method you choose to use, the longest strand you will need (your flying line) is about 12 inches (30 cm). My "hat is tipped" to the lovely Alice Hayden for the above dental floss "trick" (always give credit where credit is due), who I hope, through her charming (wife stealing :-) ) husband: Mark (you better spell this right) Virgilio, will join in the success of this forum, with (at least) her world famous recipe for a peanut butter cookie sled kite! I really need to know if EDIBLE KITES is something alot of you would like to pursue. Let me know by e-mail (thomshanken@delphi.com), in this way we can keep the subject heading: "EDIBLE KITES" exclusively dedicated to recipes and instructions - which tend to be a bit long, its much easier to show someone "hands on". Who knows?, maybe some event organizer will want to do a workshop, now THAT'S FUN! Before I sign off for now, here is your shopping list (in addition to the above materials list) for our first edible kite project: Cinnamon sticks - the long variety, found in craft stores (we will be using this for our spars and/or flying line and bridles) Flavored Dental Floss (see above use) Sugar and/or Honey - our "glue" Botan Rice Candy - this is a product of Japan, imported by: JFC Inte- national, Inc. (it comes in a small pink and green box - most easily found in specialty stores) get several boxes Our first project (as you can probably see) will be a "real sweet deal". Until then..... Keep 'em Flying! Thom :-) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Sun, 12 Jun 1994 06:24:28 -1000 From: johnsen@eskimo.com (Brian Johnsen) Message-Id: Organization: Captain Pugets Roadside Taco Stand Subject: Re: EDIBLE KITES In article , Thom Shanken wrote: >Greetings Fellow Kite Eaters! > [ ] > 1. They should be able to fly. > 2. They should be entirely edible. > >Having said this, I will now proceed to "break" guideline # 2. >to forgive you (just this once) :-), if you go out and buy some flavored dental >floss. Yes, you heard right! Dental floss (at least in the U.S.A.) comes in >flavors (cinnamon, mint, and who knows what else). You don't need to soak the I supose you CAN eat dental floss, though it's not very digestible. By these rules you can eat Icarex as well if you flavor it appropriately. (How should I sleeve shoestring licorice & whats the rating on red or black?) -- "The Tooth Fairy Ridiculed My Infant", Says Civil Engineer -- Brian Johnsen johnsen@eskimo.com = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Mon, 13 Jun 1994 09:33:22 -1000 From: crowell@teleport.com (Carl Crowell) Message-Id: <2tica2$d6j@linda.teleport.com> Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016 Subject: Re: EDIBLE KITES I sugest a glycerine (sp?) paper skin. You can buy the stuff in sheets, i haven't seen them larger than 6"x6", but if you lick them, they will stick together. It has no taste, and is digestable. Use pasta for sticks. Other options would include a NORI cellular design. the nori is stiff enough to not require sticks, and is very light. Again, a little moisture for glue, maybe some egg white too. String? That is a tough one. Can someone come up with a real edible string? I dont think that hemp thread would be the best option. We need to think in the terms of edible monomers.... hmmmm thinking -- crowell@teleport.COM Public Access User --- Not affiliated with TECHbooks Public Access UNIX and Internet at (503) 220-1016 (2400-14400, N81) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Thu, 14 Jul 1994 04:11:24 -1000 From: andrewh@hal.harvard.edu (Andrew Hawken) Message-Id: <303h2c$g1b@beta.qmw.ac.uk> Organization: Queen Mary & Westfield College, London, UK Subject: Edible Kites I have been wondering recently, its probably going to be too heavy but, how about a Pitta Bread style ram-air airfoil, sort of a Flexi-Bread or a Pitta-Foil or something ? I guess that we would be talking about a full sized kite here. Now how do I bake in the airfoil sections :-) Smooth Eating ;-/ Andy -- ____________________________Andrew Hawken______________________________ "However many ways there may be of being alive, it is certain that there are vastly more ways of being dead" R Dawkins. Home : 0895 420110 QMW : 071 975 5542 AIIT : 0494 677045 Email : A.Hawken@QMW.AC.UK = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =