Dehydrating Fun

 Remember this sink, filled with veggies?  Well, some of them are in the fridge, but… the peppers got chopped up last night.  Started out with my mandolin.  Love slicing things with it.  Peppers are a diff’rent story tho.  They don’t like the mandolin.  Had to get food processor out for them.  Tried the shredder side, but it turned them to a watery mess.  Reversed to slicer side and it did a great job.  Slices weren’t perfect, but I’m not either.  Got the job done tho.

 Decided to save the seeds to see if I can dry them out and plant them.  Could be a good experiment.  Might even work.  You never know til you try.  The stack of waffles are cooling off for the freezer.  After making that many I decided to have an omelet instead.  And the orange tomato needs a little more ripening time.  Cherry syrup in background waiting for a home.

 This is a mutant small pepper.  Cute, huh?  Just couldn’t bring myself to slice it up yet.

 Dehydrator at work with first batch of peppers.  Had too many for one batch, so rest were in fridge waiting their turn.

 First batch of dehydrated peppers.  Aren’t they cute?  After the second batch was finished, my two gallon bags of peppers fit in one quart bag.  And all I’ll have to do when I want peppers for a recipe is rehydrate them in hot water.  No more paying over a dollar for one pepper at the grocery this winter.  I’m going to do some onions next.  I’ve heard they really smell bad while dehydrating, but I have no sense of smell, so who cares?  Might even put in some of the garlic cloves I have.  That would be a perfect aroma to greet any unwelcome visitors.

I’ll have to read up on drying tomatoes.  And cucumbers.  Celery.  Carrots.  Have to check the fridge to see what’s in there that I can dehydrate for winter.  I’m anticipating my next MS relapse, in case you’re wondering.  And hoping this will keep it from happening.  That six month relapse last winter and spring was not much fun.

 Still haven’t made the watermelon pickles, but the syrup is finished.  Have to confess I ate a lot of the melon while I was cutting the chunks out of the rind.  Not much white part in the rind, so I’m hoping there will be enough to make at least a pint of pickles.  Might have to buy another melon for the rind.  Of course the red part won’t be wasted.  Watermelon is one of the perfect foods.  Right up there with chocolate.

Also have 2 cartons of heavy cream in my fridge.  Can’t remember why I got them, but they were on my list.  I did forget my list, but I checked it when I got home from the grocery, and yeah, it had 2 cartons of heavy cream written right there.  Now all I have to do is remember why I put it there.  Hopefully before they turn into sour cream.

Going to make my own hash browns tomorrow.  Have a recipe somewhere for hash brown casserole.  Probably should find the recipe before making the hash browns, but where’s the fun in that?  Have potato, will hash!

A.

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