Air Fryer, Dehydrating and Black Friday........hahaha, who's shopping?

good morning!!!!        did y'all "gobble till you wobble" yesterday?         we didn't have your traditional turkey dinner, we had bbq, baked beans and coleslaw.          hahaha           how's that?         we ate it and enjoyed every bite of it.        then we had some snacky things later on and we also enjoyed that.         it was a nice quiet Thanksgiving day for us and we enjoyed it.          I hope and pray whatever y'all done, that you enjoyed your day yesterday.     

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you know the drill, let's do this, another "2 minutes in the kitchen with me" segment.          no pictures to share, but I made pancakes this morning and I always add some oats and flax seed meal to mine to make them heartier and healthier, plus a little cinnamon and cloves for the fall season.        yum!!!     well, much to my surprise and disappointment, I was out of flax seed meal.          I bought a little coffee grinder at CVS years ago when it was on sale.            I think I got it for about 5 bucks.        worth it's weight in gold!!              when I seen I was out of my flax seed meal, I took my bag of flax seed I had gotten at the Amish store ($1.78 for 2.5 lbs!!!) from the freezer and started grinding some more flax meal in my little Mr Coffee coffee grinder.            I keep my flax seed in the freezer, it never goes bad.  plus, it is soooo much cheaper to buy the seed and grind your own.             I use the little grinder for all kinds of seeds and nuts and spices.            just thought I would share a couple tips about a coffee grinder and flax seed meal.             hope y'all have had a wonderful day today.

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this is something that I have been doing for a while now.        it really is good.        while this batch is doen with pork, it's also delicious with turkey bacon.         I had to make an Aldi run the other morning while doing errands.           And this had been on my mind to try to fix again.         Well, I did!!!!       I just picked up Aldi brand bacon and dill pickles.         Wrap each pickle (after pressing pickles in paper towels to remove dill juice) in a slice of bacon.        I put my rack in the air fryer, to keep from having to turn them and set rack in a small cake pan to catch as much of the grease as I could.         Set my air fryer to 400* for 15 minutes and "wa-la"!!!          Oh my gosh, they are so good and NOT greasy at all.   These could be baked in the oven too, just sayin'.        hehehe         So delish!!!!

after having done these several time now, I split the bacon; turkey or pork; down the center length ways amking 2 long strips.         then I also split the pickle spears down the center lengthways too.         it stretches the bacon and pickle spears.         that's a win.

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just a little funny to share with y'all today.  

well, it's a sad day here in my neck of the woods today.         it really is.        I was doing a load of kitchen towels, never a fun task, but ya know, it don't do itself.          so as I was saying.......heck done forgot.           hahaha  anywho, took my towels from the washer into the dryer.         went about doing what I do and the first thing I know, the dryer stopped.        woopee!!!!         so.....I took the towels and started folding them.  

with each towel, comes a clear sharp snap when you are shaking the dryer wrinkles out.      snap, fold, snap, fold, snap, fold........snap, rip and surprise...one of my favorite towels was now 2 very useless pieces, a piece in each hand!!!!          piece of junk!!!         they don't make anything like they used to!!! 

I was totally upset at the complete loss of one of my favorite towels and there wasn't even enough left to make a decent dish rag.          after all, it had been loved and washed.          I was studying the situation over, still fuming over the fact they don't make stuff like they used too.           well, after much deliberation with myself, I finally realized that poor "old" kitchen towel was over 44 years old!!!       it was!!!!          it was one of the few that I hadn't had the heart to throw away years before when I was cleaning and going thru my kitchen towels!!  

the moral of the story, I guess they did make good stuff at one time.        I know I'll never have any more towels that will last as long that one did.           it was a Christmas towel from our very first Christmas.  so, as I contemplate what comes next, I toss the pieces in the trash.         you, little Christmas Teddy Bear towel, was a very good towel.          boohoo.........moving on.         hahaha

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yuo, you guessed it, let's do another "2 minutes in the kitchen with me" this morning.         hahahaha     

I was working on some lunch prep a couple of years ago and while I was, my mind is always pre-occupied with what I'm going to dehydrate next.         I was splitting some cherry tomatoes in half.     and as I was thinking about what I was doing, I got my phone and a took a pic.         just wanted to share a little tidbit with you if you are an avid dehydrator.  

when I slice cherry tomatoes, sometimes I'm not paying attention and just want to get the job done.    but over the last couple of years I have figured out how to slice them for them to dehydrate a little quicker.            notice the picture. 

 #1 is the tomato and you see the stem end.         #2 is the tomato sliced from the stem end to the bloom end, north to south.            #3 is the tomato sliced around the circumference of the tomato, east to west.

 #3, east to west will dehydrate quicker because all the moisture and seeds in the tomato is exposed.  #2 will take FOREVER because all the moisture and seeds are still enclosed in the meat of the tomato. 

the purpose of my slicing them this morning is insignificant, but if I was slicing them to put on my dehydrator it would be very significant.          as I was slicing them stem end to blossom end, I was fascinated at how hard it is to actually slice them where the seeds are exposed, but slicing them east to west, the seeds are always exposed.  

I hope this helps some of y'all with dehydrating your cherry tomatoes.          it works like a charm.

try it, you'll be suurprised at how much quicker #3 will dehydrate as opposed to #2.  

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so, what did you get up singing this morning?          this is what I got up singing, so I thought I would share it with y'all.           it's a classic, favorite, old timey hymn.          I just can't get enough of the good stuff and I'm happy that this is what I was singing when I got up this morning.         just one more thing I'm thankful for today.

Tell Me the Story Of Jesus

Tell me the story of Jesus,

Write on my heart every word;

Tell me the story most precious,

Sweetest that ever was heard.

Tell how the angels in chorus,

Sang as they welcomed His birth,

“Glory to God in the highest!

Peace and good tidings to earth.”

Refrain:

Tell me the story of Jesus,

Write on my heart every word;

Tell me the story most precious,

Sweetest that ever was heard.

Fasting alone in the desert,

Tell of the days that are past,

How for our sins He was tempted,

Yet was triumphant at last.

Tell of the years of His labor,

Tell of the sorrow He bore;

He was despised and afflicted,

Homeless, rejected and poor.

Tell of the cross where they nailed Him,

Writhing in anguish and pain;

Tell of the grave where they laid Him,

Tell how He liveth again.

Love in that story so tender,

Clearer than ever I see;

Stay, let me weep while you whisper,

“Love paid the ransom for me.”

Tell how He’s gone back to heaven,

Up to the right hand of God:

How He is there interceding

While on this earth we must trod.

Tell of the sweet Holy Spirit

He has poured out from above;

Tell how He’s coming in glory

For all the saints of His love.

I hope you join me in singing this sometime today.

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what to do when you find mushrooms on sale.         it makes a wonderful addition to any meat dishes, also works as a sauce thickener.         it's really good.        and very easy to do if you have a dehydrator.  I wash them first and slice them a little less than 1/8 inch thick, set the dehydrator at 110*F and walk away.         they will be done when a slice of mushroom breaks like a crispy cracker.             then, quickly get them in a blender or coffee grinder and make powder.         if, while making powder, they absorb ambient moisture, make a tray from parchment paper and put your powder on it and spread it out and set it on the top tray in your dehydrator for maybe an hour, at the same temp.             110* F and that will dry your powder back out.              I do keep moisture absorbers on hand for items like this that do absorb a lot of moisture.       this is just about the only thing I use them for.       the best thing to actually do is use a jar that holds the amount of powder with no extra room in the jar.       that's why I save any and all sizes of jars.      anyway, just wanted to share this.     just watch for mushrooms when they are on sale and you can dehydrate them and make your own dehydrated slices or powder.

with all the mushrooms I dehydrated, I got that jar full up and it's been a blessing.

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I have had a mandolin for many years, but it was getting dull and dangerous.           with as much dehydrating as I do, I needed something!!!          I wanted to share with y'all what I got a year or so ago.           as I said, I've had couple of mandolins for many years.             but they have gotten dull and dangerous.            anything dull in the kitchen is a potential hazard.            I had actually gotten to where I wouldn't use them and they couldn't be sharpened.              so they were useless and taking up space.               I got to looking on amazon to replace what I had.           this is what I came up with.  I tried to capture as much of the box as I could, so you could see what it does.            I also got a professional meat processing glove like they wear in meat houses, or so they say.         I know I did get the 9mm thickness instead of the 5mm thickness and it also came with a liner glove.         I used this setup to slice 4 limes as thin as I could and it only took about 2 minutes to slice them as opposed to 10 or more minutes to slice them with my chef knife.           I can do that, but this was much more efficient.            I can also say that the heavy chainmail glove saved a finger this morning!!        you can't be too safe when using something like this.             I have been using this for a while and just hadn't thought to share with y'all.              they are quite dangerous, but they are also quite efficient.      if anyone does lots of slicing and dicing and you want an easy cleanup, this is the way to go.         also, the other blades have a nice storage box.   

I would not recommend anyone getting one of these mandolins withour getting the gloves for protection.            it's awful easy to get hurt with one of these and that's NOT the goal.        we want to be safe and the gloves make it about as safe it can possibly be.

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well, are you shopping today?           as for me, nada, zilch, no way, no how.        hahahaha           maybe a little online shopping, but probably not even that.        there's nothing in the stores that I would go elbow to elbow with anyone for.       hahaha         they can have it.        so while others are out shopping, I'm home enjoying the peace and safety and comfort of our home.         sounds like a good plan to me. 

I hope and pray that you all have a wonderful day and enjoy all the leftovers.      let us continue to be thankful today and everyday for the blessings of God on our lives.    I hope you seen something here today that you may not have known.          I hope you seen something that you can share with someone else.        I hope you will thank God today for His daily provision over your life.         He is a wonderful provider and protector.           I pray that you know Christ as your Lord and Savior. 

blessings, hugs and love to you all, patty