How to Clean Dehydrating Trays--The EASY Way!

I don't know about you guys, but I (used to) hate to wash my dehydrating trays.  They were big and awkward and didn't fit in my sink very well, making them very hard to clean.  

Well, here is the answer: the bathtub!  I heard about this and had to try it.  

I put all of my dehydrating trays and leather sheets into the tub with some hot water and a couple drops of dish soap.  I let them soak for about a half hour and then drained the water and rinsed them off.  They were so clean and I hardly had to do anything!  Love it!   I hope this helps all of you dehydrators out there. :)  

Cherries!

For the past couple weeks I have been busy with cherries. . . and kids, chemo treatments, an MRI, swim lessons, 4th of July activites, etc. :)  Our nearby orchard was selling them for $.75/lb and I was so excited to get some!  Aren't they beautiful?  

I pitted them with my cherry stoner, cut them in half and then had some help from my 2 youngest spreading them out on my dehydrating trays.

I dehydrated them for about 24 hours.  I think they got a little too dry, but it's hard to tell sometimes until it's too late.  

I also made a ton of fruit leather (I borrowed a second dehydrator from a friend because cherries won't wait!).  I think this is cherries with some pear sauce that I canned last year.  I like to add it to fruit leather to make it more pliable.  

 I also got some apricots and mixed those with cherries for fruit leather.  It is soooo yummy!  I love the tartness that the apricots add

So far I have gone crazy with fruit leather.  I have 3 gallon bags full of rolled up fruit leather.  And it's only the beginning of the harvest!  Fruit leather is what goes the quickest in my family. :)  

Chicken Soup from Food Storage

For the past several days my family has been passing the flu around in a major way.  My almost 21 month-old started throwing up on Wednesday night at about 11PM.  (It always happens right as I'm going to bed)   I was up with him until after 6AM and when he finally went down in his crib.  On Friday night, right at about 11PM (of course) my 4 year-old came rushing out of her bedroom and unfortunately didn't make it to the toilet in time to throw up.  I'm sure you are all really enjoying this story by now. :)  So, she was up throwing up pretty often--like every 15-20 minutes until about 8:30AM.  Ahh, another restful night. Ha ha.  I thought we were good after that, but Sunday night, my 6 year-old came in my bedroom (about 11:30PM) and started throwing up.  Right about that time, I had thrown-up, too, and was not feeling well.  Anyway, my daughter was throwing up fairly often until about 7:30AM.  I had gotten up to get my 7 year-old off to school when my 4 year-old (yes the same one I spoke of earlier) started throwing up.  Sigh.  So, for most of today, me and my girls (4 and 6) were lying on the couch with bowls nearby and sippy cups of water and Powerade (I know that stuff is horrible. . . HFCS is the second ingredient--ugh. . . I had some leftover from my couponing days and they wanted some) watching movies like Enchanted, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid.  Luckily, my husband was able to stay home and chase after our 21 month-old son who is in that lovely get-into-everything stage.

So, now on to my point.  I really felt like a nice bowl of chicken noodle soup.  My husband gets after me because I never use a recipe and it always turns out different.  I was still feeling sick and didn't feel like chopping a bunch of veggies to put in my soup.  So, here's what I did:

Chicken Noodle Soup (all from my pantry)

4 cans of Swanson's low sodium chicken broth

1 can of chicken (that I canned myself here)

1 cup of dehydrated carrots (which I dehydrated and vacuum sealed myself)

1/2 cup of dehydrated celery (this came from a #10 can, but I have dehydrated it myself in the past)

1 cup of corn (I actually used corn that I had frozen last summer, but I do have some dehydrated corn on my shelf that I did here)

1/2 cup pearled barley (a great comfort food when sick)

2-3 tablespoons of my dried onion soup mix made here)

I let this cook in my digital pressure cooker (one of the greatest inventions) for 10 minutes.  Then I opened it up and added in a handful of whole grain noodles and just let them sit in there until soft.    Then I added some salt and pepper and tada!  

Sorry there are no pictures.  I wasn't thinking about posting this until about 10 minutes ago and dinner is all put away for the night .  My soup was a little thick, my husband called it chicken noodle stew, but I liked it.  It had a little different taste to it and I think that was because of using my homemade dry onion soup mix instead of just plain onions.  

So, we had a nice quick, healthy easy dinner that was great for a family still getting over the sickies!  (My husband isn't feeling to great tonight and our 7 year old is the only one to escape it so far).  

I hope you all (and me included!) have a good night's sleep tonight and maybe enjoy a nice bowl of chicken soup sometime.   

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Potato Latkes

Each month I put together a dry pack canning project for my ward at church.  We usually can items like wheat, beans, flour, oats, etc. that the LDS Cannery offers. This month, I decided to try something different and we canned potato shreds and potato slices (dehydrated) from Winco.  It was a huge success.  We canned almost 300 cans (the big #10 ones).

Since lots of people have them now, I decided to post a yummy recipe using the potato shreds.  I made these tonight for dinner and even my SUPER picky eater thought they were pretty good.  

Here's my can (I had bought this awhile ago, it's not one we just canned)

Here's the recipe:

POTATO LATKES

 (I always forget how to pronounce them. . . )

Boil 4 cups of water (it doesn't have to be exact)

Add 1 1/2 cups dehydrated potato shreds (turn stove off0

1/4 c dehydrated onions (or you can use fresh and add in with other ingredients)

Let sit for 10-15 minutes

Drain water out 

Pour potatoes/onion into a medium sized bowl and add the following:

2 eggs (I used real, but I might try powdered next time to make it a great food storage meal)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Mix ingredients together

Scoop 1/4 cup of mixture into a frying pan with hot oil and flatten a little

Brown for a few minutes on each side

Top with sour cream and applesauce-- or I just like ketchup

Here are my re-hydrated and drained potatoes:

Here's my mixture (my daughter loves to help):

Here they are frying on the first side:

And after I flipped them:  

Place them on a paper towel to drain the excess oil.

I used an electric skillet to cook mine and I had the temperature set to 300 degrees.

And there you go!  Enjoy!

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Apple Cinnamon Fruit Leather

After canning 124 quarts of applesauce, I still had some apples leftover.   I got a GREAT deal on them at $.13/lb at my local orchard.  So, I decided to make apple cinnamon fruit leather.  My blender was having issues, so I used my food processor to chop the apples up.  It was a little chunkier than when blended, but it still turned out fine.  All I did was wash, quarter and cut the seeds out of the apples and then put them in the food processor.  I added in some cinnamon (sorry, I don't measure a lot) and kept mixing. Then I spread it out on my trays and stuck in my dehydrator. 

Here it is out of the dryer. 

And the final product all rolled up in plastic wrap.  It is delicious!

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Dehydrators

So, since most of my posts lately have involved dehydrating, I've had some questions about what kind I have. I have a 9 tray Excalibur. Here are some of the features listed on this website: http://www.harvestessentials.com/exmoded2.html








*The Ultimate in Versatility - Removable door and trays – This is a MUST- in order to use every other tray or no trays at all, allowing you to dry large items, make yogurt, raise breads, dry crafts, bloom rice, dry sprouted breads, dry pie crust and more.. You do not have to take apart to check drying or add more food.
*Almost unbreakable - FDA approved for Food Contact trays. Inserts make cleaning a snap.
*Controlled environment for a wide variety of uses.
*24 page recipe book included with each unit
*Adjustable Thermostat 85 - 155 degrees
*CE Safety Certified

*Complete drying system in rear (includes thermostat and fan).
*Easy to clean... Spills fall on seamless bottom.
*Horizontal drying provides even drying, eliminating tray rotations. Fast drying...
*Adjustable thermostat allows perfect drying every time.
*Square design increases drying area "25%" with no holes in center of tray.
*Versatile... Trays can be removed to expand drying chamber.
*Controlled environment for a wide variety of uses, i.e. making fruit roll-ups, trail mixes and drying flower arrangements, herbs, art and crafts, photos.

In my words, I LOVE it.
-I love how the trays come out and I can put my jars of yogurt in to culture.

-I love how I can use every other tray if I am drying something that is taller and I can't fit every tray in.

-I LOVE how big it is. It really makes dehydrating worth it. I love dried apples and with my old little cheapo one, all the of the apples would be eaten by the time they were dry! :) I like doing things in larger quantities.

-I LOVE the thermostat and how big of a range it has. I really like how easy it is to use. This is right on the dehydrator:

It tells you what temperature to dry your fruits, veggies, yogurt, jerky, etc.

Now, I have had mine for at least 2 years now, I can't remember exactly when I got it. I bought it on ebay, new, at the best price I could find. I'm not sure what prices are the best right now, but I would look around at a few places to search out the best price if you are interested in a really good dehydrator. It is so worth the investment if you can do it.

Just a note: I just got some leather sheets for my birthday. I was looking on Amazon.com for the sheets that go to this dehydrator and found some others that were A LOT cheaper and from the reviews were even better. So, I was so happy with that discovery and I have really enjoyed them. When I bought my dehydrator, it came with 100 pieces of parchment paper that I used for leathers. Well, I used those up and I love my new leather sheets. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Premium-Non-Stick-Dehydrator-Sheets--Excalibur/dp/B001PLE1O4/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1297054168&sr=1-1

Now, another dehydrator that I have heard is an excellent one is the

8-Tray Garden Master Dehydrator.

Here's the product description:

The FD-1018 Gardenmaster Pro Dehydrator is Nesco / American Harvest's top of the line dehydrator. In fact, the Gardenmaster Pro Deyhdrator is more powerful and larger than any other. Expandability? The Gardenmaster Pro Dehydrator can expand to an enormous 30 trays, which allows extremely large quantities of dehydrating! Power? 1000 watts ensures you complete drying capabilities.In addition, the Patented Converga-Flow® fan forces heated air up the exterior pressurized chamber, then horizontally across each individual tray, converging in the center, for fast, even and nutritious drying. Flavors simply won't be mixed, and you don't ever have to rotate trays!The Gardenmaster Pro Dehydrator has a fast, powerful fan that operates quiet at 2,400-RPM motor. This on top of a specially designed 4-1/2 inch fan mean faster, more nutritious drying. Additionally, the Gardenmaster Pro's adjustable thermostat allows temperatures to be changed from 95 to 155 degrees, which gives you the opportunity to adjust temperature settings for all your different foods (total dehyrdrating flexibility!)On top of all of this, the Gardenmaster Pro's Vita-Save® Exterior blocks light to help retain natural nutrients and vitamins during the drying process.

1000 watts of drying power!
Patented Converga-Flow®
Adjustable temperature control
Includes 52-page recipe and instruction book, 1 solid
sheet, 1 mesh sheet, and 1 packet jerky spice
4.5" Fan, 2400-RPM motor, adjustable thermostat, 1,000 watts
Dries in hours, not days: Fruit rolls, 3-6 hours; beef
jerky, 4 hours; apples, 4-6 hours; bananas, 5-8 hours;
pineapple, 4-6 hours
Opaque Vita-Save® exterior (blocks harmful light)
Expandable to 30 trays
1 Sq. ft. per tray
NO tray rotation required

So, those are my top recommendations. Take it for what it's worth. :)

Long Term Baby Food

I know that some pretty strange things get me excited. . . and this is one of those. :) I saw this on another blog and just had to try it. I had read about people making vegetable powders, which I thought was great, but never got around to doing it, until, I saw this incredible use for it: baby food! Not just any baby food, because, honestly, there are easier ways to make baby food, but this is baby food that can be stored and preserved for years! Great for your food storage and for 72 hour kits if you have a baby.



So, here's what I did. I bought four butternut squash, washed, cut them in quarters, seeded them, put them in baking dishes, and baked them on 350 until they were soft (I really should time these. . . sorry). Note: I didn't think about putting foil over the top, but I will next time because they tops were a little tough. Then I pureed the squash and spread it out on my fruit leather sheets on my dehydrating trays.

I dehydrated them for a LONG time. I wanted to make sure they were really dry. They were in there for over 24 hours--probably close to 30 hours. Sorry I am so exact!! Ha ha!

Then I put the dried squash into my blender and powderized it. FYI, it is LOUD. It scared my baby, so I had to finish when he was napping. :)

Here's my bag of squash! I haven't done this yet, but you can now vacuum seal this in the jar (do it in the ziplock bag so it doesn't plug your sealer, but poke a hole in your bag with a pin) and it will be good for years!

I am excited to do more of this over the summer when there are lots of extra veggies that need something done! And it doesn't just have to be for baby food. You can use vegetable powder to sneak in nutrition to other meals--not that any of you have picky eaterslike I do, I'm sure.

Mine didn't turn out super powdery. I probably could have blended it up longer. Once I reconstituted it it was a little grainy, but my baby didn't seem to mind.

So, that's it! A little involved but such a great way to be prepared with a young baby.

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Dehydrated Green Peppers

Have I mentioned yet how much I love my dehydrator? Well, I do. :) Now, in the fall, things are so busy with harvesting and canning that I don't always have time to get everything done that I'd like to. I picked a bunch of green peppers from our ward garden at the end of the season, chopped them up and put them into the freezer. I filled a gallon sized ziplock bag with them. That was quite a few peppers! Now, the freezer is a fine place to preserve your chopped green peppers, but I had other ideas in mind. I love preserving food--but even more so, I love getting it out of the freezer and on to the shelf.

Last night, I finally finished my green pepper project. I took out my bag of green peppers and put them in the dehydrator last night. (I had some of them thawed already in the fridge, so I took the rest of the bag out of the freezer and ran them under hot water to thaw them out, just because I was impatient).


They dried up beautifully! I put them all into a quart jar and it only filled half of a jar! Then I vacuum sealed it.

Ta da! All those green peppers that were taking up space in my freezer are now in a jar sitting on my shelf ready to be used in any recipe that I need them for.

Just a note--normally you have to blanch veggies before you dehydrate them. When you freeze them (or even buy frozen veggies on great sales) they no longer need to be blanched before you dehydrate them (sorry, I don't have the scientific info on that). The part of the vegetable that gets broken down during blanching also gets broken down when they are frozen.

**I just found another brilliant idea and am going to try it and post it. Stay tuned! :)

Yogurt Chips

In case you haven't noticed. . . my dehydrator has been working nonstop lately! I have been wanting to try these yogurt chips for awhile, and I finally did it today!



It was sooooo simple. I scooped a small spoonful of strawberry yogurt all over my trays and stuck them in the dehydrator.






I put them in my dehydrator about 9AM this morning and took them out at about 7PM. They do take awhile, but they turned out great!




They are soft, pliable and tasty! What a nice healthy snack. :)

Fruit Leather

I have the secret to perfect fruit leather! Mix your fruit with applesauce or pearsauce! I made fruit leather yesterday and I mixed purreed peaches with pear sauce that I canned last summer. The ratio I used was about half peaches and half pear sauce. Here are some of my lovely peaches (by the way, I never peel fruit that I make into leather, I just blend it all up, skins and all):

And here is my pear sauce:

All I did was blend it together with a little lemon juice and pour it onto my trays.

Here's what it looked like out when finished drying:

Since I end up with huge pieces of fruit leather, I tear them in half, roll them up, and then roll them in plastic wrap. My girls were chowing these down like candy all day today!

For any other fruit leather you want to make, you can use 1 cup of pureed fruit to 2 cups of applesauce or pear sauce. The sauces help it to turn out more pliable and not so crispy (I tend to over dry sometimes, so I used to get crispy leather). This also helps to stretch your fruit further.

I made some with nectarines a few weeks ago, 1 cup of nectarines to 2 cups of pear sauce. It was so good I didn't even have a chance to take pictures! It just disappeared!

Dehydrated Corn

So, instead of doing freezer corn this time, I decided to try something a little different. I dehydrated it! I think it will be perfect to throw in soups or stews, but we probably won't reconstitute it and eat it just as a side dish.



First, I shucked it, of course. :) Then boiled it for three minutes.





And then I put it into a bowl of ice water.




Next, I cut it off the cob and spread it out on my dehydrating trays.

I filled my dehydrator last night and this morning the corn was all dried and looked great!

The last thing I did was put the corn in jars (it filled a 1/2 gallon jar and a pint jar) and vacuum sealed them! Ta da! I am so excited about this! I can open them up whenever I make soup or stew this winter and sprinkle some corn right into my pot and then vacuum seal the lid right back on! Nice!

Oh, the things that make me happy. . . :)