Dehydrated Watermelon, YES!!!!!! hahaha

good morning!!!!          I'm happy to report that the storm system has now pushed on thru and getting away for my neck of the woods.          also thrilled to report that we had just over 2 inches of rain from this system.        slow and steady all night long.        they was calling for high winds, but thankfully, we didn't have those.        after the storm back in late february that took down trees of the neighbors, that landed on us, we are so thrilled that the line of trees between us are no longer there.         the neighbor finally had them removed.        it had come down to her knowing that they would fall on our house eventually and with this particular event having taken place, she could no longer turn a blind eye to it.   I think one of her other neighbors told her that she would definitely be responsible for the outcome of trees falling on our home, after seeing and knowing what had just happened.        I don't know if that's why she had them cut, but we're grateful they are gone.       

so as I sit here listening to last few rain drops falling before the system pushes on through, the only sound I hear coming from outside is the occasional train that rolls thru.        it's strange that there's not even any dogs barking in the distance.           I'm not hearing any traffic from the main road or even from the road in front of our house.         it's just a strangely odd sound, quiet.       I'm not real familiar with quiet.        but it's a nice peaceful sound.

this time of year is painful to me.      physically and mentally.     physically, all my arthritis get's angry and flares on me and it really gets me down.        mentally, the nights are long and it's also during the next 3 or 4 months is when I've had a lot of loss and a lot of changes that has taken place over the years and it's always a reminder of who and what we've lost.        it's just a hard time to deal with.      I told my husband yesterday, that the lack of green out in nature this time of year is painful to me.         the long nights and short days are painful to me.         I wait with baited breath, for the first day of winter, then the actual days will start getting longer by seconds.        but I love every one of those seconds.         while the days are getting long during the cold of winter, I hope to be planning my next growing season.        thinking about other things and getting my mind off the gloomy and painful days of winter, makes me feel better.          I hope it does you too. 

but thru all of this, I keep trusting God and His ways, plans and purpose for my life.       who am I to complain about anything, knowing what He has faithfully brought me through.       knowing that nothing happens without Hiim knowing about it makes it all so much easier to walk through.       so we move forward with our heads up, shoulders back, ready to press through.        Lord, please keep us strong and ready at all times.

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let's get back in the kitchen for a "2 minutes in the kitchen with me".         do ya know what this is???  take a guess, go ahead.         well, if you guessed watermelon, you are right on.        that's what this is.  dehydrated watermelon.         why???, you might ask.        my answer would be, "why not?"  or, "because I can", or...well, I could go on and on as to the "why's".          but let me tell ya something, this is a game changer.            tell me, have you ever eaten watermelon that's as crispy as the crispiest potato chip you've ever eaten?             I hadn't either till earlier in the summer.           if you have a dehydrator, I'm telling you, you're missing out on a special treat.  I set the temp at 110* and the time for 48 hours or as long as it takes to become crispy.  

I peel the watermelon into one big ball.         and then I slice off about 1 inch thick discs from the watermelon.          then I split each disc in half and work from the flat edge to the outside making as thin and straight slices as I can.           I start laying the long pieces on either side of the round heat vents in the center of each tray and when I get both side filled in, I'll take some of the smaller pieces and fill in the tray just to maximize usage and time.         when I get all trays filled, onto the dehydrator they go.    I put the rest of the watermelon in the fridge.

(we may eat on it or I may save it to be put on after a batch gets done) it takes several hours to get it crunchy crispy.        you have to slice it thin to start with.       about 1/8 inch, slightly more.      but you don't want it much thicker than that.       if you've never done this and you have a dehydrator, I encourage you to try it.  

one word of caution though.        remember, when you eat this, 4 oz of dehydrated watermelon is roughly the equivalent of 1 lb of watermelon.        the sugars are concentrated in this and if you have a problem that requires you to pay attention to your sugar levels, then just a bite or two of this is all you should eat in a days time.         I do encourage you to eat responsibly of anything where the sugars are so concentrated.       (even if you don't have health issues, you may still wish to consider eating this responsibly.)       it is delicious.  

this truly is our favorite way to eat watermelon.      

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this was a meal I fixed for us a while back.         it's one of those easy meals that I keep on the rotation plan for our meals.          quick, cheap and easy is the only way to go and this is all those, plus a whole lof deliciousness.

I cooked it in one of my electric pressure cookers.  

1 lb of ground meat--(obviously mine isn't ground. it's Aldi brand "never any" breakfast chicken sausage, 2 pkgs thawed in the epc on saute and then I took them out and made tiny slices.     use what you have to make it work for you.)

1 large onion, diced

1 tablespoon (or more) diced garlic

1 box of red lentil pasta

1 24 oz jar of marinara sauce, your choice

2 cups of water (I used chicken bone broth, homemade)

put first 3 ingredients in epc on saute until the meat is browned and onion and garlic softened.  

cancel saute.

flatten these ingredients out over the bottom of the epc.

dump 1 box of red lentil pasta on top of the meat mixture and spread out evenly.

empty the marinara sauce over the lentil pasta.  DO NOT STIR.

pour the 2 cups of water or broth in the marinara jar and rinse and pour this over the marinara sauce.  DO NOT STIR.

lid on epc set to sealing.       9 minutes cooking time.        when it goes off, do a quick release and pull the pot liner out of the epc to keep the pasta from getting hotter and cooking more.       stir well.      and it's ready to dish up.        grate a little parm, sprinkle a little hot pepper flakes, maybe a little parsley, and BAM, beautiful lunch!!!!

while the pasta is cooking, make cornbread.       I know, cornbread is usually not the bread of choice for pasta, but it is in our house, and that's all that matters.        hahahaha      feel free to eat whatever bread you wish, but as for me and my house.....😂😂😂.....we will serve cornbread.      cornbread wedges, that is.  

anyway, there you have it.       this is what's on the menu at my house for lunch and plenty of left overs, maybe some for the freezer.     

and remember don't stress about the meat, use what you have, make it work.     it will be delicious!!

this is always a big hit and with lots of leftovers to delight in for a meal or two.    I can always put it in the freezer too.        it's really good.

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this will be a lengthy "2 minutes in the kitchen with me".       but if you dehydrate, it might be worth it.  I hope so anyway.              hahaha             I loaded up my dehydrator with kibbles and bits from the garden and fridge.              I try to have a full load, so sometimes that means cutting an onion, but...nothing goes to waste.               be sure and click thru to each picture.

the very first pic shows all the trays as good as I could get them all in one pic.          there is tomatoes,  onions, celery, carrots, bell peppers, shishito peppers, 5 color peppers and okra.      I sliced and diced and chopped and slapped a little.      hahahaha           each tray was full and you can notice how much it shrinks when the moisture is removed.              got the trays loaded and set the dehydrator and walked away Monday morning.               this morning I checked on everything and ta-da, it was ready to be jarred up.               as I type this, there is about 5 pieces of tomato and 5 or 6 pieces of bell pepper still drying, but it won't take long.              if everything is NOT crispy crunchy, you want to leave it on the dehydrator.               they will go in the jar as soon as they dehydrate.

when I started removing everything from the trays, I quickly decided to put it all in a large jar and work on a "something is better than nothing dehydrated soup mix".               the thing about this is that all the veggies we really need will be in it.             I can and will add beans and or corn as I use the mix.        I got what came from my trays in the jars and you can see in the first pic, there was about 2 and a half cups or so of produce that I had just dehydrated.               remember in the back of your mind, "something is better than nothing".                 that is what I'm always thinking about when I'm doing this.                  I knew I will continue doing the same thing over and over dehydrating whatever is left from one week to the next.                   I've been doing this for a long time.  so, I have a lot of little kibbles and bits.                I looked at the jars to see what I could add to the soup mix that I had just started.                    by the time I was done, I had cleaned up and emptied 8 jars and my soup jar is almost 2/3rds full.               I added a label on the side so I would know what all is in it.          all from what I call "kibbles and bits".           on the label there is a short line under one of the items.           that is the stopping point from what was taken from the dehydrator this morning.              everything else on the label was dehydrated sometime earlier this year.               all from what others may have tossed in the trash because it wasn't enough to do a lot with.               but as you can see, those "something is better than nothing" refrigerator clean outs really do add to something.             and a lot of this is produce that I have grown myself.             woohoo!!   thank You Jesus!!!!

there is something else I want to share with you.             I've been telling you about how I have worked on dehydrating with a lower temp so as not to brown the natural sugars and to try to maintain the natural colors of my produce as well as I can.               the last 3 pictures I want to share is of some jalapeno peppers that I grew last year.               they were as beautiful as the ones you can buy from the store.                  I grew these so that's why it pains me to share these.               while I was looking thru my jars, I came across these black jalapenos.              I had dehydrated these in June of 2021 and at the time I was dehydrating these, I was at 135*.                 when these came off the dehydrator they were really dark.                     I don't remember if they were this dark or not, but they were darker than I wanted them to be.                 I decided in that moment, I would lower my temps.               I didn't have any more jalapenos to compare with, but I did have some shishitos that I done in Sept of 2021.        they were dehydrated at 120*.                   you can definitely see the major difference in color.                     in reality the jalapenos are a thicker skinned pepper than the shishito.              the shishito is about the same thickness of the cayenne.                 cayenne is a thin skinned pepper.   so I'm thinking that the sugars in the jalapeno turned dark.                   we don't think about jalapenos having a lot of natural sugars because of how hot they are.              but they do have more than we realize.               and that is what happened, the sugars caramelized.              onions will do the same thing.   

now, I have lowered my temps to 110*, and no higher than 115* and it helps to maintain the colors of my produce even better.          this is the temps I use for an and all produce.         nothing ever higher than 115* and my produce is always beautiful and pristine in color.

every day is a day to learn something new.           I had forgotten that lesson until I pulled that jar out.  fortunately there wasn't but about 8 or 10 pieces of pepper in that small jar.          I just went to the garbage can and dumped it and then I realized I needed to share this.       so, if this helped you in any way, you can thank me for digging in my trash can and getting these few pieces out.       hahahahahaha  just kidding about that, although it was pretty funny.         if my husband would have come thru and asked what I was doing, I would have told him that I was rummaging for our lunch.        hahahahaha   mean, I know.      hahahaha

well, that's about it for today.       "something is better than nothing" soup will be on the menu sometime soon and I hope I remember to share it with y'all. 

and since this picture was taken, I now dehydrate at 110* or 115*,  nothing higher.        your produce will thak you.

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have you ever wondered how to dehydrate potatoes?          if so, then this is for you.

always remember that the temps in a dehydrator does not get hot enough to "burn" anything.        but, it does get hot enough to cause the sugars and starches in the produce to darken.         when we are cooking in other ways, we call that caramelization.         that's what happens to the sugars and starches in produce if the temps are too high.       they caramelize and turn dark.

with potatoes, it's starch in the potatoes that can turn gray or black.         when I'm working on potatoes, they are in cold water the whole time.         I peel a potato and drop it in cold water.        when I get them all peeled, I use my my mandolin slicer and put the slices in fresh clean cold water.        when all potatoes are sliced,         I drain the water and put fresh cold water.        every time I do this, it takes more and more starch from the potatoes.            then I get my blanch water boiling and I put my potato slices in and blanch them for 3 to 5 minutes.           I take them from the blanch water and put them in an ice water bath and let them get ice cold.            then I put them on the dehydrator.       all the rinsing of the potatoes is a must if you want really nice looking potatoes.  

now, if you happen to have some potatoes that have gray or black spots on them and you know for a fact that they broke like a crispy cracker when they you took them from the dehydrator and put them in a jar and made sure there wasn't any moisture on the sides of the jar or that the potatoes doesn't stick to the jar, they are good to use.         they will be fine and as a general rule, that color should leave once you cook them in a dish, but it may not.

my favorite potatoes to dehydrate is red potatoes and yellow potatoes.       they are less starchy and they resist having some of the black spots that russets can have.        but use what you like best.        I have used all kinds of potatoes.         it's just a matter of getting in the habit of making sure your soak them from the time you peel them to the time they go on the dehydrator.       not only soaking, but changing the rinse water 3 or 4 times during the process leading up to putting them on the dehydrator.

as you can see, these are beautiful potatoes.          they're as pretty as any boxed potatoes you can find,  but mine don't have any preservatives or chemicals on them.          that's a win all day.         they're easy to make  a side dish with, drop in soups or stews, rehydrate and skillet fry.         just about anything dish you can think of, you can use the potatoes to make it.          I got that jar full and four more just like it.  

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bully or bullied, which one?

if you are shown love, most of the time, you show love.       I'm a firm believer that if you're a Christian, the saying "to whom much has been given, much is expected".       since Christ has forgiven me "much", I have to forgive "much".       sometimes it's difficult to do that, but I still have to remember what Christ has done for me.  

by the way, in the story below, this same teacher spanked me 2 times that year and they both were unjust spankings.      the second time, the girl behind me was copying my homework and I had no idea she was doing it.         I didn't even have a concept of what cheating was at that point in time.      she was up on her knees behind me looking over my shoulder and copying my homework.      she didn't get in trouble, I did.         I also asked the teacher about that at the same time we was talking about the other incident.  

so I guess if I could make one suggestion to any teachers out there, be sure and get both sides of the situation before disciplining.         I wouldn't have been half as upset if we both got the same punishment in both incidents.        but it was just me.        I lost all sense of trust when it came to teachers during my school years.           there was 2 or 3 that I appreciated more than others, so I'm happy about that.  

I try not to hang out in this situation.         but I am thankful for the memory.          if for no other reason, it helps as a reminder to get both sides of a situation.          it also helps me to remember and love the people in my life who worked so hard for me to have beautiful clothes to wear to school.  

This a long read, but it might be worth your time.

 I  choke back tears when I think about about some of the situations that took place when I was in the first grade.

The spring and summer before I started to school, my Mom and Grandmother, (we always called her Maw), gave me a Sears and Roebuck catalog and a crayon and told me to look thru the catalog in the little girls section and circle any dress that I seen and liked and wanted.      Well, I was circle happy and I circled most of the little dresses in that catalog.        I had no idea what I was doing or what was happening at the time.          Looking back, I realize just how big a feat it actually was for my Mom and Maw to pull off.

They got busy sewing.         My Maw could look at a picture and then cut the pattern pieces and that's what she did.          I guess she used news paper print.        I guess they also had some purchased patterns, I don't remember.         I just know they worked and worked and worked.         Each dress had at least 2 different pieces of fabric in it, because they were using scraps and small pieces of leftover items from other clothes they had made.         My Aunt Dovie also worked at a Sears Roebuck store in Dayton Ohio for a time where they sold remnants and she would get fabric from there and bring it down to Maw and Mom.           So, I'm sure some of that fabric was used.

When they was done working feverishly for several months, the first day of school started.         In my closet was 36 brand new, freshly ironed and starched, beautiful dresses and they were all MINE!!!  Coming from a family with 5 older brothers, there was hand me downs for the guys.       But for me, there was just a few.         I had some hand me downs from 2 of my cousins, but not many.        When I got them, we were tickled to get them.  

That closet full of dresses that made me feel like a little princess.         I never wore one dress twice, till they all had been worn once.         On the first day of school, my teacher liked my dress so well, that she took me around and showed me and my dress to the other teachers.       She done that a lot.       I think it upset my Mom at the time, because she thought I was being made fun of.       I never thought that and still don't think that to this very day.        My mother and grandmother were exceptional seamstresses and very creative.        My dresses had bows, buttons, ribbons, ruffles, ric rac and more stuff that I can't even think of.         All I know, I was the happiest kid you ever seen and felt like a million bucks in my beautiful dresses that my Mom and Maw had made just for ME.

I'm so thankful for my Mom and Maw and their love of working with their hands!!         As a result of knowing what their hands made for me, I learned the art of sewing myself.        And in the  early years of our marriage, I could have beautiful clothes, because I could make them myself.         Had they not sewed for me, I probably would never known the value of it.         And I am happy to say that I have made several "show stopper" items over the years.

The sad thing is that there was a bully in my classroom, even in first grade.          I look back now and I realize she was probably starved for attention.         I don't know what her problem was, but she was hateful and hurtful.          When we was out on the playground each day, she would make fun of me and my "crummy old hand made dresses"!             I would cry and run off.         This happened many times, every day of the week.           For some reason, I was her target, her victim.        I don't know why I decided to stand up for myself one day, but I did.       You see, she wore the same dress every day of the week, for 5 days.             She wore the same socks every day of the week for 5 days.           Her hair was combed on Monday and that was it for the rest of the week.            With each passing day, her clothes got dirtier and dirtier.

Anyway, she cornered me on the playground as usual and started making fun of me and my hand made dresses.            Well, I hiked my little hand on my hip and turned around and looked her right square in the face and I said "at least my crummy old hand made dresses are clean EVERY day and my socks are clean EVERY day and my hair is combed EVERY day!!!"            She looked at me and went running thru the playground screaming and bawling like I had just beat the snot out of her, and she ran to the teacher and told the teacher that I was making fun of her!              She had just been making fun of me and had done it for 2 months and had me crying every day on the playground!!

Guess who got the spanking?             Yeah, if you guessed "Me", you would be making the correct guess!!!                The teacher never asked me a thing, she just took me in the hall and gave me a spanking for making fun of her.            The truth of the matter, I was NOT making fun of her, I was just telling her the truth after she had been harassing and torturing me for the last 2 months.          So, yes, I was the one who got punished for that situation.

One of the things that I know for sure in this life, "once a bully, always a bully".      Because she is still a bully and I still don't have any use for her to this day.            To be honest, I don't know her today and I don't want to know her today.              But, rumor has it......and that comes from 2 very trusted sources.              She was always a hateful hurtful bully all the way thru school, BUT she found out that I would NOT tolerate that crap from her in the first grade.           I was no longer her target.         When she targeted someone else, I would put a stop to it.

Later on, after getting out of high school and marrying my husband, I went to church with my first grade teacher.           She came to me one day at church and told me that I had always been one of those stand out students that she always remembered.             That didn't sit very well with me, because I remembered the spanking that I got was unjustly given to me.        I asked her if she remembered it.   She looked really sad and said that she didn't remember it.              I just said that I wish I didn't remember it either but I do.           She asked me to refresh her memory.             I told her the story, and how she never asked me for my side of the situation, she just spanked me.           She had tears in her eyes and she apologized to me for that.               After telling her how that incident had skewed my vision of teachers and school all throughout my 12 years of school, I accepted her apology.   

I have wondered thru the years, if her approach to the situation would have been different, how that would have affected the rest of my school years.           I can't answer that question for myself or anyone else.           But what I can say is this, I can NOT and will NOT tolerate bullying.       If you was a bully as a child, you are still a bully.           I don't care who you are.            You may fight hard within yourself to tame the bully, but that nature is still there just waiting for your next victim.               After all these years, more than 53 years, she is still a bully, going strong.

What I do remember from that time in my life is the fact that my Mom and Maw worked hard so I could have some beautiful clothes to wear to school and I LOVED every dress they made for me.       I would love to turn back the hands of time, as an adult, and look thru my closet again and touch the dresses that their hands lovingly made for ME!!!!!!         I will never forget that.           I realize how blessed I am to have a mother and grandmother that would do that for me!!!!

I do believe that God can and will help us stop bullying others, but we have to ask for His help.      And if you're not concerned enough about your behavior to ask Him to help, then you will keep on victimizing others.            We either help people or we hurt people and the choice is ours.          And, there is NO excuse for bullying!!!    None!!!      Zilch!!!        Nada!!!!           No excuse for it all and parents that don't deal with it are a disgrace to parenthood.

   

Just some of my musing for the day, as I wipe a few tears. 

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I thank you for joining me today.      I'm appreciative of the time you spend with me.       I hope you seen something here today that can be of some benefit to you.        if you seen something good, share it with someone.        I hope you have wonderful rest of your day.        hugs, love and blessings be your today, patty