Imagine you're in charge of hors d'oeuvres for the upcoming holiday potluck, and whipping up 100-some canapés just doesn't fit into your New Year's Eve schedule. Sure, buying is an option, but in the near future, there may be another one: printing.

According to a recent article from BBC News, Cornell University is working on a device that will actually print out your food.

Ingredients will be loaded in like ink, and recipes, or FabApps, simply uploaded, and with a few clicks, out comes dinner. The cook (if we can still call her that) can even adjust the recipe for taste. Looking for a bit more spice? Want that extra crispy? Just crank the dial a notch or two.

Right now, ingredients that can be squeezed through a syringe (such as chocolate, cake batter, and cheese) are all that are available, but scientists are working on creating gel forms of many basic foods.

“3D printing will do for food what e-mail and instant messaging did for communication,” Homaro Cantu, chef and owner of the Moto Restaurant in Chicago, explains in the article. “What if you could have mom's homemade apple pie sent via e-mail and printed up at home? Her apple pie becomes as close as an instant message on Facebook.”

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