I would probably never do this, but as a vegetarian I was fascinated by Nora Dunn wringing every last ounce out of a bunch of soybeans to make mass quantities of soy milk, veggie burgers and tofu:

The last batch of soy beans I processed cost $1.50 and produced 24 meals. Want to know how? Read on...

It's amazing how far she makes the beans go. I was almost going to do it myself - until I got to this step:

Line a large pot with a pillowcase (or cheese cloth if you have an abundance of cheese cloths lying around) and pour your blender mix into the pillowcase. Then, squeeze the pillowcase for all it's worth! This is best accomplished with two people: one holding the pillowcase over the pot, and the other squeezing the soy - you'll definitely need two hands and some elbow grease for this one.

Putting a bunch of wet soybeans into a pillowcase and then squeezing them (not to mention convincing a friend to help me) sounds like a recipe for a messy and unhappy Justin McHenry.

This is why I'm a bad do-it-yourselfer. When the going gets tough, I get out of there.

But if you have a lot of gumption, Dunn has a lot of other interesting articles at Wise Bread, such as Paint A Room and Wash Your Face: More Uses for Powdered Milk Than You Ever Imagined. (I've never really imagined any, which again shows why I'm no good at these things. Dunn sees powdered milk and wonders what else she could use it for.)

(By the way, Nora Dunn is not the same Nora Dunn that used to be on Saturday Night Live.)