Bible Study and a little rant, maybe some clarification, maybe

good morning y'all!!!          I sure hope you're doing well this morning.          we're in for another rainy day here in my neck of the woods.         we're about rained out, expecting to get between 6 and 8 inches over the next several hours.        can't say that I look forward to it, but it will be what it will be.       we went on our walk this morning and it was 20 degrees!!!!         yes, I said 20 degrees.        that's pretty chilly but we both dressed for success and we made it.      yay!!!        I hope and pray that if any of y'all are in harms way with the weather, that you stay safe.        if you need to leave, do so before you're trapped in a bad situation.         just praying that we will all be safe and stay out of harms way.       

----------------

y'all know I do a lot dehydrating.        I started dehydrating probably 30 plus years ago.          I started out with a single temp dehydrator.         I used it for years and had no complaints.         I didn't know what I didn't know.          the temp of the dehydrator was 165*.          everything that came out of the dehydrator was dark.        you couldn't tell what was what.         but, I used it all because it was food that I had preserved.         I'm not wasteful and never have been, so it was used, and I didn't know that my dehydrated food had to like that.         that was all I knew and I didn't know anyone else that dehydrated food.          as time went by, we moved from one house to where we have been for the last 25 years, and my dehydrator got put back and I almost forgot about it.       I was cleaning out the cabinet and seen the dehydrator and got it out and started using it again.        and still, I ended up with all dark produce, and still thinking that was the norm.       I started looking and trying to learn more about dehydrating and trying to find more info.       I found some people on youtube that was sharing their skill about their dehydrator and I seen that their food was dark just like mine was.        so it was good, right.

the kicker is this, they had the latest and greatest and was still getting dark food.      even with the latest and greatest adjustable temp dehydrators.       I got to looking on line at all the different brands and all the different temp setting for this and that.        I just couldn't get it out of my head that something isn't right with adjustable temps and seeing people still having dark produce, so that MUST be the way it is, right.        my mind was reeling and I just couldn't make heads or tails out of what I was seeing and what I was reading.

I finally started talking to my husband and he doesn't know anything about dehydrating but he does know about machines and how they work and the like.        his design engineering kicks in with every thing we talk about.       hahaha          so we talked about it for a while and what he is talking about is over my head and what I'm talking about is over his head.         hahaha        but we kept on kicking what little info we had around every once in a while and I finally asked my husband if he would agree to me getting a new dehydrator.         he was all for it.         so I got a weston dehydrator with my built up credit card points and it didn't cost any money outright.       and it was less than 70 dollars if I had bought it with money.      we always saved any built up credit card points for me to get small kitchen appliances with.        that's how I got my very first cuisinart electric pressure cooker about 20 years ago.     

anyway, after I got it, I got it all cleaned up and ready to use.        I just about memorized the little instruction manual that came with it.        so I got my first batch of onions on the weston and dehydrated it at the  recommended temp, I think it was 135 degrees.       I really  wish I would have documented  the process I done, but I didn't.         I don't think I even had a cellphone that took pics at the time.         when the onions were done, they were a very nice "dark" chocolate color.         not what I was wanting, but what I got.       I finally decided I would just do one half of an onion at a time, instead of doing a whole 6 trays full of onions.

I lowered the temp to 130 degrees and dried the half onion.          still dark.        next half, I lowered it to 125 degrees, still dark.        next onions I lowered it to 120 degrees and it was still dark.        you guessed it, next time I lowered it to 115 degrees, and now we're getting somewhere!!!!         the color is starting to look like I want it to look.        so the next onions I dehydrated at 110 degrees!!!!          folks, we're talking pure perfection!!!!!     

yes, it takes longer to dehydrate at 110 degrees!!          it does, it's not for the faint of heart.        but, I can tell you this, my dehydrated produce no longer tastes burned after it's dehydrated.        it no longer looks like it's covered in coal soot after it's dehydrated.        I can look at any jar I have and know what's in the jar by the beautiful color alone.         I still see people showing their dehydrated goods and using higher temps than necessary and I wonder why they never think about it.

along comes freeze dryers.          ok, so if they had come out when I was young woman, I would have  definitely had one, but it's not feasible at my age to get one, especially with a tight budget.        if money was no problem, I'd probably have one anyway.        but I don't.       so let me say this right out of the gate, I'm not against freeze dryers, because I would have one under the right circumstances.       if a company offered me one, I'd take it in a heart beat, but we can't afford to purchase one. 

what does bother me about freeze dryers is not necessarily the freeze dryers, but the owners.        as soon as they get a freeze dryer, they start talking about the quality of their freeze dried goods over the quality of the dehydrated goods.        well, I'm here to tell you that when you do that, you're comparing apples to fish.        you can NOT compare the 2 ways of preservation because they are totally different.

the owners will always say that their freeze dried goods are far superior to dehydrated goods.        in their minds, maybe.        the 2 processes are completely different.        you can safely freeze dry a lot of goods that are not safe to dehydrate because of the temp for the duration of the process being in the danger level.       a lot of people will still dehydrate foods that they shouldn't and they'll get someone killed some of these days.        yes, I would love to have a freeze dryer for the preservation of a lot of things that I can't preserve now.        but I don't have one.         I'm not knocking them at all.        I just don't like for the owners of freeze dryers  to kick dehydrating either.       it's like they have forgotten where they came from.        

and I'll put my dehydrated goods up against anyone else's dehydrated goods any day of the week if we're comparing nutrients or loss there of.       over lots of time and studying the process, I have learned that what makes the produce turn dark at high temps is the natural sugars and starches in the produce.      the sweeter the produce or the starchier the produce, the darker it will turn at high temperatures.       in my process of learning what I now do, I found that keeping my temps no higher than 115 degrees, and preferably 110 degrees or lower  will preserve the natural color, the long term flavor and I'm 100 % convinced that more of the nutrients are also preserved.        

will my dehydrated goods have more nutrients preserved than freeze dried goods?       I absolutely do not know.         that's comparing apples to fish.          but I'll compare my dehydrated apples to anyone else's dehydrated apples any day.        I do not fear that comparison at all.        and if you have learned to dehydrate what I call, "low and slow", you have nothing to fear either.        knowing what I know about food and what I have learned about dehydrated goods in general over the last few years, I'd say that my dehydrated goods have retained much more nutrients than most other peoples dehydrated goods.      

dehydrating at the recommended high temperatures for produce just sets us up for poor quality and poor color.       do the manufacturers know that?        I doubt that anyone working in any of the companies have ever used a dehydrator.       if they did, they would the temps are too high!!!        I'm convinced that poor color can and does lead to poor quality and less nutrients.        do I have proof?          no, I don't.        I don't have any more proof than the people with freeze dryers saying that their product is much better than dehydrated products.         I say prove it.       they can't and they don't.        again, I'd love to have one, but I can't afford it and I'm not buying something like that on credit.        so, I'm not trying to beat anyone up.        all I'm saying, is don't lord it over those that don't have a freeze dryer, that your products is MUCH better than dehydrated products, because it's not.       at best, it's just different.       

years ago when I was looking at machine embroidery sewing machines I went to every sewing machine place in 3 counties looking at all the available machines.       the first thing that would happen when I went in, they would start talking about what a different brand would NOT do.         they had more to say about their competition than they had to say about their own product.       after the first five minutes of listening the spiel, I stopped the person talking and asked if I could say something.       I just told him that I wasn't interested in learning about any other brand than what you sell here.       I'll look at all the other brands when I'm ready to.          but for now, I want to learn about this brand.      he was really dumbfounded and couldn't even tell me about his product because he had his spiel down pat on what the others wouldn't do.          I finally told him thank you and left.        I never knew what his machine was capable of because he didn't know.

after about 30 years of working with and dealing with my dehydrators, I know what they'll do and I know what to expect every time.         I've learned that low and slow gives me what I want.       it gives me beautiful produce.       it takes up much less valuable space.       and I'm convinced that it gives me quality, nutrient dense food.

so, for now, I dehydrate a lot more than any other way of preservation.       a one gallon jar will hold about 15 to 20 lbs of diced and dehydrated onions.         that same jar will hold a ton of diced bell peppers.       that same jar will  hold many many lbs of dehydrated mushrooms and I could go on and on.        so in a small space, I can store a LOT of food.          and, if I put it in the proper jars with proper lids and make sure everything is bone dry, cracker crisp, and rock hard, my produce will last me a good 5  years or longer.         I can't complain about that one little bit.        and I'll not let anyone make me feel bad or cut the process of dehydrating down by bad mouthing it.         I'll not do it.       and if you have your process worked out and you're getting beautiful healthy produce, you don't have to let anyone make you feel bad about dehydrating either.

I also put a lot of produce in the freezer and I can.         I just don't have a lot of space to store canned goods.         so I opt for dehydrating.          and from what I have been able to see from others sharing their freeze dried goods, their goods  don't shrink  at all and they take up as much space as does canning.         I guess they can store their bags of goods in boxes and that may take up less room.        but for now, until someone gives me a freeze dryer, I'll still be very happy with my 2 dehydrators.       😂😂😂        you be happy with what you've got too.          sounds like a plan to me.        now, off my rant box.          but I do plan on revisiting this in the near future.

------------------------

it's time for our "giggle for the day":

what did the horse say after it tripped?

help, I've fallen and I can't giddy-up!

🤣🤣🤣

-------------------------

we're picking up with Ezra Chapter 1 today.

the book of Ezra shows us that God kept His word, the temple is important to God as well as proper worship.     it also shows us that when we remain faithful to God, He will continue to bless us.       we are living in a time when we need to remain faithful to God, more now than ever.       our times are perilous, almost to the point of biblical proportions and we need to draw close to God and stay there, that's where we will find safety.      

one of the things we see in this book is the struggle to restore the temple and the need for spiritual reformation.        God kept His word and it shows us that when we stay faithful to God He will continue to bless us.       we also see that Ezra studied the law of God and he put into practice what he learned and he also taught the law of God.         these are 3 very good practices that we should be doing today.      study, learn, teach, repeat.        each one teach one is a message that I used to hear.      

we need to keep seeking Gods heart and let Him stir ours to action.        when we seek the heart of God, He can and will give a bold faith to do what we could not do on our own.        when we seek the heart of God, He can and will stir us to true repentance.         these are some of the lasting lessons to be learned from this book.          because Ezra listened to God, he is seen as one who played a huge part in restoring the value of scriptures and the need for God in their lives after the captivity.  

Jesus is seen in every book of the Old Testament and this book is no different.      Jesus is seen here as being the perfect priest that leads us to freedom.        that's where our freedom comes from, Christ.        Ezra prayed on behalf of Gods people and Jesus pleads on my behalf.         

Ezra also speaks against marrying people who are not believers.        Ezra called them foreigners.      most of the time, foreigners worshiped other gods and Gods people had been marrying these unbelievers and worshipers of foreign gods.        have you ever stopped and thought about that, I have.        I can't imagine being married to someone who doesn't know and love Christ.        I don't know how a man could love his wife if he doesn't know and love Jesus and I don't know how a wife could love her husband if she doesn't know and love Jesus.         marriage, at best is hard, but take God out of it, and I can't imagine being married.     

Ezra took courage because the hand of God was on him and if the hand of God is on us, we can be courageous too.       when he read the word of God to the people, they wept, because the law revealed their sin.        the main message in this whole book is that God kept His word.        we can count on God always keeping His word.       read Psalm 119, some say  that Ezra  wrote it  and more than likely he did.       a beautiful testimony of God keeping His word.

years ago a very dedicated man of God preached  a sermon telling why it's not safe to come near the cross.        one of those reasons is because our sin is exposed when we come near the cross.        and that is so true.        nothing can bare our souls like getting in the presence of the Lord and Savior.        but that is the only place we'll ever find saving grace.      

next time we'll start in Nehemiah.

----------------

well, I guess that about wraps it up today.         stay tuned to find out how much rain we get.        stay in the word and keep seeking the heart of God.         God will never turn His back on someone who is looking for Him.        blessings on each of us and our day today.      may we all find a way to serve the Lord in all we do.        hugs and love, patty

Soup from Dehydrated Veggies

good afternoon beautiful people!!!       it's been a day or three since I've gotten a post up and for that, I do apologize.         I've had a rough 3 or 4 weeks and it finally caught up with and slowed me down.     I don't like to admit it, but I'm getting older.        well, it is what it is.        hahaha         what started out to be rheumatoid flare in my right knee ended up being a little more than that.       at this point in time, I'm still not really sure what's going on.        but I'm hopeful I'll find out soon.       but just praying that I can hurry up and get over this, and soon.        I'm ready to do some serious container gardening and I can't do that with a bum knee.         but I do know that God is good all the time and He is in charge of this situation.        I have had to ask His forgiveness several times over the last few weeks and just last the couple of days.        patience is not a gift of mine, but I think He is working on me.        I just need to pay more attention  to Him and less attention to the noise around me.        so, I you or someone you love is dealing with knee or any joint problems, just pray for them, because they can sure use the prayers.

well, enough about me and my problems.         lets do a fun project.      not only was it fun, but it was also delicious.         these are projects that I can sink my time and teeth into.       hahaha        hope you enjoy it.

this was last friday when I made this soup and I've had a hard time getting it posted, due to my knee issues, so if you want to, you can check with the calendar to see when I actually done this.    so with this, let's do a "2 minutes in the kitchen with me".

this morning (I think it was April 26th) was "prep for the week" morning. I usually prepare what I call our "fast food" for the coming week on fri and sat. we wanted some plain old vegetable soup.       I had been wanting soup for a couple of weeks.       I went thru my store bought canned goods and got those pulled, opened and in the electric pressure cooker (epc).        next, I brought out some of my dehydrated goods.        and that's what I'm sharing, more than anything and the very last picture is a mishap.

the first picture is every one of the jars that I used in this soup. 

the first jar from left to right: onions yellow and white; 

next is a jar of carrot chunks with a jar of garlic on top (I blended the garlic and then spread it on the solid tray and when dry, broke it into pieces and put it in the jar); 

next is a jar of mushrooms and a jar of mushroom powder on top; 

next is a 21 blend jar of all kinds of mixed veggies just blended to make a very coarse grind and on top of it is my homemade imitation chicken bouillon; 

next is a jar of soup veggies of all kinds and a jar of diced potatoes on top; 

and the final jar is my green onion blades.       (after it was finished, I realized that I didn't put my dehydrated bell peppers in this soup, boohoo)

I don't measure, I just use hands full.       when I got ready to close the epc up I probably had 3 cups of all of these in there in addition to the canned and rinsed produce I use.       greenbeans, corn, mixed veggies, green peas, spaghetti sauce, a 32 oz box of chicken stock, and probably a cup or a cup and a half of water.

the next 2 pics are close ups of the jars I just shared.             

then there is a pic of the soup.       (the smell of this soup is incredible from the dehydrated goods I added) 

the pic with the spoon shows a piece of my diced potato as compared to the potato in the mixed veg that I used.  

I do a half inch dice on my cubed potatoes.        it rehydrates so good.

now, for the last picture, it's baby bella mushrooms that I dehydrated about 2 or 3 weeks ago.

   

I got them dehydrated and they were cracker crisp  and a piece would even  crumble, that's how dry they were.        well, I started to leave them on the dehydrator for another 24 hours, but I didn't.       so I jarred them and conditioned them for a week.        (watch them daily for a week and shake the jar daily to make sure there is no moisture causing them to stick or become soft.)       well, after a week I set them in the cabinet with the intentions of getting more and start working on a large jar of baby bellas.        I was going to put some of these in the soup.          I opened the jar and it was under pressure, it hissed and spewed at me!!!         the mushrooms, in less than a weeks time had gone bad!!       I have never ever had anything to form gas to the point of making a hissing sound when I opened a jar.       this is a first in 25 years of dehydrating.       that gut feeling I had of keeping them on the dehydrator for another 24 hours, I should have followed thru with it.

I shared this about the mushrooms just a reminder for me that even when I do everything right, something can go wrong.          always smell everything while it's fresh, as your preparing to dehydrate, as you dehydrate, as you jar it and as you open it each time. train yourself what absolutely everything smells like and then when and if you come across something like I just did, you'll know by smell that something isn't right.          there was not much an off smell, not strong at all and if I wasn't in the habit of smelling everything all the time, I may not have noticed and would probably have put them back on the dehydrator.          when I opened the jar, I was so startled at what happened, there was no question that it was going in the trash and I dumped it before I got a picture.        this picture is from the trash can. hahaha       when I dumped it in the trash it was soft, just as if it hadn't even been dehydrated.       I didn't leave it on the dehydrator long enough,   plain and simple, even though it was cracker crisp and crumbly.          if I hadn't found the jar today, it would have been a jar of mold in a month or two.  

everything I dehydrate is for long term storage and that's why I always dehydrate all my produce till is "cracker crisp, rock hard and bone dry".        today was just another reminder for me to always follow my gut when it comes to more time or not.        more time is always better than less time. well, it is for me anyway.

well, this is all I have this go around.       I need to rest a bit and get my leg up for a little bit.         I hope you seen something here that you like.         tell someone today that God is good all the time!!!          I hope and pray that you all know this.       sometimes it's easy to forget just how good He is when we're going thru something.        but just always remember that we're never alone.         of we may not see Him at our side, but we can certainly feel His presence.        I'm so thankful God in my life, especially in the difficult times.        but I'm also thankful for His presence in the good times.         He's the giver of them all and He is the sustainer thru it all.         sometimes it's hard to remember to be thankful in all things, but His word tells us too.       Paul said that he had learned to thankful in the times of abundance and in the times of lack.        we should all try to be thankful at all times.       in season and out of season.       to me that means at all times.        

Father God, help me to remember that You are good all the time.      help me to remember that You made a way for me to be in right relationship with You thru the shed blood of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior!!        help me to remember that You gave us Your Comforter in the form of Holy Spirit.       You have given us so much and for that, I'm grateful.         Thank You Father God for loving me!!!   amen

remember that God loves you and wants to be in right relationship with you.       I love y'all too.        hugs and blessing to all, patty   

It's Sunday Morning Y'all

good Sunday morning my friends.            it's 39* here in my neck of the woods and I'm  not loving it.         an old old friend of mine has come to visit and I'm not very happy about it.           I had hoped and prayed that I would never see this friend again, but alas, this friend showed up and now this friend is here and I have to deal with this friend.        what is this friend?          a horrible flareup of my body when we have a lot of cold, cool, damp weather.           I started feeling it thursday, but pushed on thursday.            with all the rain we've had, it actually popped into my head on tuesday or wednesday of this past week that I haven't had any signs yet and then there it was thursday morning but I ignored it.        a little worse on friday, I still ignored it.         yesterday, I couldn't ignore it any longer.         I did get a batch of bread made yesterday and by the time I got that done, I was done for the day.        I got my shoulder heating pad on and wrapped up in that and the heat in my recliner going.        I had a tear in the muscles across my back at the lower part of my shoulder blades about 40 years ago and I guess that's why this particular area of my body is so affected by arthritis and ra.         not only my upper back and shoulders and neck, but my wrists and certain fingers and my ankles and certain bones in my feet along with my hip joints.        so it seems to be everywhere.          it's everywhere, it's everywhere!!!!         hahaha          oh well, just wells to get a little grin out of it.          hahaha            my good friend that lives in arizona sent me some essential oil blends and that is what I'm using to get me thru this.          I'm so grateful to her for all she has done for me.         it's about the only thing that has helped me keep my sanity.

so, I didn't make a post yesterday and that's why.          I think I've missed 2 days since I got started back to blogging in november.         that's the best record for me, ever.          I've got to get it worked out so I can post about 3 days a week and keep the routein.            especially with spring and summer just around the corner.          so we'll see what I can come up with.

thursday, I filled my dehydrator with produce in the fridge that needed to be dehydrated.        plus a bag of frozen corn and some oranges.         I got all that going and took a couple of pictures in the process and I truly wish I had taken more.           this is where I feel like I'm failing right now, not getting enough pictures for good explainations.         I guess that's something to work on.          anyway, I'll share what I did get done.

this is the pictures that I did get.            first off, let me say that I dehydrated oranges, bell peppers, tomatoes, green onions and a bag of frozen corn.           the corn went on the bottom tray.         next tray up from the bottom was the bell peppers cut up and that took only a half tray.          so I filled that tray with cherry tomatoes,    the next tray up, was another tray of tomatoes.         the next tray up from the bottom was orange slices and then the top 2 trays was green onions.  

when you learn how to use your trays, in a stackable dehydrator, you can dehydrate all kinds of thing together.          my heat comes from the bottom, so I start with what ever has the least aroma on the bottom, working my way to the top with the most aromatic on the top.          if you have a stackable that has the heat unit on the top forcing heat downward, then you would reverse that order.         this right here is how you can dehydrate all kinds of produce together and not have apples smelling like onions or garlic.           it works.         I've been doing it this way for years. 

when I got my produce from the fridge, tomatoes and bell peppers were well shriveled.            I look at that as a lot of the dehydrating having already been done for me.             wash and inspect each piece really well before you cut and maybe get some bad pieces mixed in with the good pieces.           as you can see, when I got to the tomatoes and bell peppers, there was stuff I had to cut away.              notice on the left hand side of the picture, some of the stem ends of the tomatoes had started turning black.         so with my good sharp knife I just sliced that off and then cut the tomatoes in half as usual.           just inspect each piece and do a good smell test and if you have to, taste a piece and see if it tastes funky.         if so, toss the other half.           

in the bottom right hand corner is where I was cleaning the bell peppers.            I washed them and cut the tops off them.         I had 4 bell peppers and when I got the tops cut off, I started cutting away the flesh from around the stem area.            gotta save all that good yumminess.           when I got to the last one, the biggest one, I turned the stem end over and it was molded on the inside, just at the stem.          so I made another cut across the pepper, cutting off a ring about 1/4 inch thick and then sliced off another sliver and tasted it and it was fine, so I cut that one up too.           but that's something that you have to watch for in bell peppers, especially the little snacking bell peppers.           those stems get hollow as they get dried out in the fridge and will allow bacteria to come up thru the stem into the pepper.           so when you're cutting them, be sure and check for mold on the inside, especially if they have started to shrivel a little bit.

at the top of the plate is the way I cut my tomatoes in order to expose the insides in the best way.         the top one is how I used to cut them, the bottom one is the way I now cut them.           yes, the top ones will get dry, but not as quickly as the bottom ones.            I would suggest you to try it next time you dehydrate grape tomatoes.               

so this is what was in the top pic, just a more closeup shot of it.           cutting them east to west always exposes the most of the insides possible.            you can see the top one looks like it still has seeds hidden by the interior design of the tomato and it does.

this is my green onions that I dehydrated.          notice all those lovely roots.            I let that pkg of green onions stay in the fridge until the roots had grown.           there was 15 green onions in that pkg and all but 1 grew roots.         the root area of the onions had been cut away from that onion in the pkging process.           but the others still had the root bed intact, so that's why they grew.          

this is how much I cut away from the green onions to save.            I got them all cut up and on my dehydrator and then the fun started.             once I got the dehydrator completely loaded, I went outside, in the 60* temps on thursday and planted all these lovely green onion roots and I fully expect them to make it.          if they don't, it's no great loss, but if they do, wow, free onion blades all summer long!!!!          

green onions make a wonderful powder that is super fantastic used as a garnish with a ton of flavor.       I also love to just crush into fine flakes and use it that way as a garnish.         I love to use it on deviled eggs, potato salad, pasta salads, open faced tuna salad and the list goes on.            larger crushed flakes is good in salsa.       if you buy a jar of salsa and it's lacking something, try adding some green onion flakes.         it's always good to put in stews, soups and casseroles.           I always say that I'm only limited by what I can't think of, when it comes to using my dehydrated goods.           there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to using them, we just have to use them.          and have fun.

this next little picture is a pic of my little measuring spoons.            the tiny little things are so hard to take a picture of.          I think they are shy because they are so small.           hahaha           these are the "bees knees" as far as I'm concerned.             the tiny one on the left, the "nip" is what I use in my vanilla powder when I make my breakfast bowls.          these came from a local Amish store.          I'm sure there are other places to get them too.         

well, I think I'm gonna get off here and try to get a little rest for this dreary body.           I feel good other than where I don't.           hahaha           but I keep thanking God for the winter I've had up to this point and I know He'll see me thru this bump in the road.         Lord give me some sunshine.            but I'll take what ever You give me.           it did feel so good to get out thursday and get my hands in the dirt while I was planting the onion roots.          if/when they come up, I'll take a picture of them. 

I pray that you all have a wonderful Sunday.          let's keep God at the top of our list and keep Him first place, and even the days that hurt won't hurt so bad.           you'll still have your joy that comes from knowing Him, and with that joy, we can handle it all.          Lord, bless us all with a great day and may we share Your love with someone that needs to know You.    

blessings of love, joy, and peace be yours today.          hugs and love, patty

Vanilla Powder, who knew?

good morning y'all, it's  another  balmy nippy  morning in my neck of the woods coming in at 0* at 7am.           in case I haven't told y'all yet, I'm so over it!!           hahaha       oh, I guess I've mentioned a time or 20 since Alaska decided to move to TN.        hahaha              I'm cashing in my winter card for my spring card.            hahaha             ready to move on.            but the good news is, we are supposed to warm up with a lot of rain.           that will at least get rid of the salt from the roads.            we are so ready to get back into walking.            I'm hoping we can walk between the rain drops.           hahaha

**************************************************

I got to thinking about something that I had done back in august of 2023 and thought it would be a good project to share, since I'm getting ready to do this again in a little while.           this will be a good refresher course for me and hopefully give y'all some fresh ideas too.          think outside the box with everything we do.          when we do that, we can come up with some amazing things.

I love vanilla, real vanilla extract and flavoring.           not the stuff they use to scent candles with.        a short story: my husband and I was out just driving and seeing interesting things and stopping and going in.          there was a huge store on the outskirts of a larger town where we used to live and we stopped and went it.     they had a lot of christmas stuff year around.         and I forgot to mention that this was just a family owned and operated store.         it was fun to browse.            we stopped and went in one saturday afternoon and they had just gotten a new display of vanilla candles and it was right in the front door area and the fake vanilla flavor was so strong, and I don't know what else was in it             but it was so strong that it just hit my face like a wet blanket.           had it not been for my husband, I would have hit the floor like a rock!!!         he had me by the arm and got me back outside about as quickly as that happened and we never went back.           so I can't do imitation vanilla at all.            even smelling imitation vanilla in desserts, I can't do it.       

I have to keep real vanilla on hand at all times.            last summer I got to thinking about vanilla beans.          I couldn't find any info on anyone dehydrating vanilla beans.           I did find that "grade a" vanilla beans are a lot more oilier that "grade b" vanilla beans.        those are the preferred beans for making vanilla extract with liquor.          but in all honesty, I had no idea that vanilla beans were oily, but learning that info helped me realize that "grade b" is the grade I needed for what I wanted to do.       

so I set out and ordered my vanilla beans from amazon.             there are a lot places to get vanilla beans from, so you can get yours where you wish to get them.          I need to get some that was affordable and had a good reputation on amazon.          I can't remember exactly where these came from, but when I need more, it's in my amazon history and I can find them that way.

this was a bag of 25 or 26 vanilla beans, vacuum sealed.        they were about 6 inches long.          and they smelled so good.

this is a tray of my weston dehydrator.          as I took them from the bag, I had a paper towel and I wiped each bean down real good, just to get some of the oils thats on them, off.          oils on the dehydrator can and more than likely will, go rancid.          so I wiped each bean real good.           I wish I had taken a pic of the paper towel that I used because it was amazing to see the oils that came from these beans, being grade b beans.          during the dehydrating process, I would keep a paper towel close by and I would check on my vanilla beans and wipe them down again.          I probably wiped them a half dozen times during the dehydrating process.           I spent way more time with the vanilla beans than I ever have spent witth any other product that I've dehydrated.           but it was worth it get the finished product.

they are off the dehydrator and ready to be put in my dedicated mr coffee, coffee grinder.            I don't grind coffee, but I do grind herbs and spices, so this is my herb and spice grinder, now vanilla bean grinder.    hahaha            I broke each bean into smaller pieces and you can them on the paper plate.          and as I was putting the pieces in the grinder, I broke them even more.           

my motto for dehydrating is "cracker crisp, rock hard, and bone dry".           these were cracker crisp, breaking like a crispy cracker.          if they don't snap when you bend it, it will gum up and probably mold when you put it in a container.          but you won't get a good grind.            so if you try this, just make sure you get them crispy.            and my temperature was 110* as per my standard temperature these days.          I know it took more than 24 hours, but I don't remember how much more it took.

 

as you can in these 2 pictures, I got a really great grind on my vanilla beans.            I used my brush that I keep in the kitchen to clean my grinder with and you can see the bristles are a little oily.         I wouldn't want to even try dehydrating grade a vanilla beans, seeing how oily these were once I got them done.           but I did get a good grind on them.            I even went searching for grade c vanilla beans and apparently they don't have that grade, just a and b.        

I really wish there was such a thing as smell-a-vision.            hahaha, you would love the smell of this if there was such a thing.          the smell truly is incredible.            

this little jar is a 4 oz jar and that's how much these ground up vanilla beans made.           I have used it every day since I made it and I still have about half of it left.          I have these measuring spoons that have measurements smaller than regular spoon measurements and that's what I use.           the smallest one is a "nib".           and that's what I use everyday.            a nib of vanilla bean powder in my breakfast bowl each morning and it gives a wonderful touch of vanilla.

so I have another vac bag of vanilla beans and will dehydrate them a little later on.           I'll keep a bag handy at all times just to dehydrate when I start running low on my vanilla powder.          it will be interesting to see how much longer this little jar will last before I have to dehydrate the other bag of vanilla beans.           I recently came up with a recipe for "instant dry egg nog mix" and I've been using a half of a teaspoon in the mix, so it's going down a little quicker than it would if I was just using in my breakfast bowls.     

**************************************************

I guess that's about all I have today.            I hope you enjoyed this adventure into making dehydrated  vanilla bean powder.           I enjoyed making it and I also enjoyed sharing it with y'all.    

I hope and pray that we all remember to keep God first place in all we do today.          if we do, it'll be a good day.           blessings of warmth, grace and mercy be upon us all today and every day.           hugs and love, patty

Dreams of Gardening on Christmmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve y'all.          I hope y'all have all the your preps made and are ready to celebrate and be thankful and grateful for the Greatest and Most Wonderful Gift that this world has ever known!!!          that gift is Jesus Christ!!!!!!!          in the hubub of all the doing around, don't forget to thank God for all His blessings and for the most wonderful of all Gifts.         So let's remember the reason for the season.          Happy Birthday Jesus!!!!!!!!

as I started on my post this morning, I'm still dreaming of my 2024 garden.           seed catalogs and seeds in hand and I'm ready to do something.         but I gotta wait.       waiting is not my strong suit.    hahaha          but I'll do it.         I'll just take the time to do more dreaming.          hahaha

*******************************************************

this is some more of me dreaming about the days to come.           sharing more of what I had not shared on my blog, so I hope it helps someone.          it certainly helps me seeing what I have done and looking forward to the days to come.

so, let's do a "2 minutes in the garden and kitchen with me" today.         back in mid april, I had gotten a bunch of green onions.           I always do this at least once a year.         I cut the root end off the onions; just about a half inch of the bulb with any tiny existing roots.          I had some empty pockets on the top layer of one of my greenstalks.         I had 11 onion roots and I stuck 2 or 3 in each empty pocket.      those things took off like wild fire.          I kept aiming to give them a "hair cut" sooner, but I would get busy with something else and here it is today, the middle of June and I finally got them cut them back.  those onions had grown by leaps and bounds.         the base of the onions is larger than my thumb and they were smaller than a standard pencil when I popped them in the soil.       I done a drastic cut on them, so I'll see if they come out of it and give me more onion blades.

anyway, you can see there was a huge bunch of onion tops in the collander.           I washed them and let them drain for a bit and then took my kitchen shears and started clipping.           I didn't figure that bowl would be half full, but it was 3/4 full!!            I got 4 trays on my dehydrator filled, but what about the 2 empty trays?           I like to have a full dehydrator if at all possible.            so I had a pkg and a half of grape tomatoes that was starting to shrivel some.           they are still perfectly wonderful.          I know they are because I nibbled as I cut them up.         they are just that good.            hahaha  so actually, there would have been more of the tomatoes if I hadn't been sampling them.            the tomatoes filled one tray and I was stuck with another empty tray.            I dug around in my salad box of prepped veggies and found a bag of sliced up mini bell peppers and that was just enough to put on the empty tray to fill it and make good use of all my trays.  once getting the trays filled and on my dehydrator, I set the time for 48 hours and the temp at 115* and we're off to the races now.           I'll keep a check on it  and see when everything gets dry.            it may take more time than 48 hours and that's ok.           I let it go till they are cracker crisp.           and then start the conditioning process and then put them in my dehydrated goods cabinet.            yay and yum!!          oh, and it smells so wonderful in the house!!!!     a lot of people don't like the onion smell, but I absolutely love it!!!!

so, this is a good start on putting back good stuff to use later on.          the onions came from Aldi, but technically, those onion tops came from my garden, right.           hahaha  I can't wait to get more.          by this time last year, I was already getting peppers, tomatoes, squash.             it's just been a strange weird year and I'm behind in my garden this year.               but I'm happy that I even have anything in the soil!!  anyway, just wanted to share. 

I got a gallon jug filled with dehydrated onion greens.           thats a pretty good return on 11 green onions from Aldi.

*****************************************************

I bake bread ALL THE TIME!!!!!            so I don't know if I have shared this recipe or not, but it's a good one.

Ok y'all, I baked another loaf of bread today.         I had found my little notebook from years ago that has tons of recipes in it for the bread machine and I'm trying them again.        Here is the recipe for the one I made today if anyone is interested.

Honey Oatmeal Bread

1 c water, at least room temperature

1/4 c honey

1 tsp. salt

1 Tbls Butter, real butter cut in tiny cubes

1/2 c oatmeal

3 cups all purpose flour or bread flour

1 1/2 tsps yeast

put in bread machine in listed order.

Set machine for "Basic"  and "Light"

For those of you familiar with making bread but don't have a bread machine, mix all the ingredients as listed in a bowl and go thru the usual mixing, kneading and rising process and shape it and put into a pan and let it do it's final rise and then bake.          Find a trusted recipe similar to this and bake accordingly, for temp and time.

I haven't cut this loaf yet, but this is a great loaf of bread.  

The next recipe I'm gonna do is "Golden Sandwich Buns", so be on the lookout for those and the recipe.         These can be made into either regular hamburger type buns or hotdog type buns.       Your choice.

Pictures is of all 4 sides and the bottom.           I was in the kitchen when it done it's last kneading process and I lifted the dough ball out and took the little paddle out of it and that's why I shared the bottom of the bread, because there's only a small hole in the bottom instead of the place where the paddle was when it was baking.

homemade bread can't be beat.          and you always know what the ingredients are.         that is more important thatn ever these days.         I haven't purchased store bread in YEARS!!!         we love my bread.   

************************************************

these was fresh from the garden back in the summer.      

this is my lemon squash that I air fryed tonight.           beat an egg with a couple tablespoons on milk, in one dish.         in another dish I had 3 tablespoons flour, 3 tablespoons cornmeal, 3 tablespoon.      dipped slices in egg mixture and drained excess then dredged in flour mixture, coating real well.       put on plate and popped in freezer for about 10 minutes for coating to set.          spritzed both sides with avocado oil.          airfryed for 17 mins on 400*.           wonderful!!          next time I will add onion powder to the flour mixture, I just forget it this time.           it's delicious.          can't wait for more of my lemon squash to come on and hopefully it won't be long till I have some cue-ball zucchini.  

doesn't that look good!!!!!   

we love all things airfried.          it's not greasy like everything skillet fried.         we can eat it without getting heart burn or even sick to our stomach from all the grease.         absolutely nothing has ever been greasy.         I've been using an air fryer for at least 10 years and we both feel better because we don't have the stomach issues associated with greasy skillet frying.

**************************************************

that's about it for today.          I pray that your day is beautiful and that you keep Jesus Christ at the forefront of all you do.          blessings of love, joy and peace be yours today.       hugs, patty

Dehydrated Projects from 2022

Good afternoon my friends!!! I hope that you all are having a most glorious day, Happy Easter!!!!! The tomb is empty this morning and Christ has Risen indeed!!!!!!! That is some of the best news this world has ever gotten!!! The world we live in is filled with evil and we all know it. Our only hope is the Hope that we have in Christ. Scripture tells us just how evil and wicked this world will get and it's gotten there pretty quickly. But scripture also tells us that Christ has overcome the world!!! So if you know Christ as you perconal Lord and Savior, you are an overcomer through Him. Praise His Holy Name!!!!! Again, Happy Easter!!!!! Thank God today for this blessing!!!

*********************************

I have compiled several of my dehydrating projects and am sharing them here, all in one long post. Well, a lot of them anyway. It may not be all, because I've done an awful lot of dehydrating and taken many many pictures. Probably way to many, but now you get to see some of them. hahahaha also when I was putting up the pictures, a lot of them got in the wrong order, but I know y'all can figure them out. I am really sorry about that, I tried to fix, but the more I tried, the worse it got, so I just left them alone. again, I'm sorry about that.

********************************

Since I had some produce to put on the dehydrator, I thought I would share how I do it for us. There is 6 serrano peppers on the left side of my dehydrator tray. I split each one down the middle and then split them in half, making 4 pieces. I know when I reach for my serrano pepper jar that 4 pieces make 1 pepper. when I do my shishito peppers, I will just split them down the middle and that's it. 2 pieces will make 1 pepper. They are usually smaller and shorter than my serranos. When I do my fresno peppers, I'll split them down the middle and then split each half down the middle again. They don't get as long as the serranos, but they do get fatter. Again, 4 pieces will equal 1 pepper. It's just an easy way for me to know, without really having to think about it, how many pieces I need when I'm going to be using them. If I can work out a system like this for any of my dehydrated goods, I do. It makes it easier to use. It makes it easier to powder. I can have a good visual of how much 4 pieces of my pepper will make when powdered. Just work on your own system of use and write on your jars any calculations you come up with. Sometimes, my jars look like math projects that went awry. hahaha Just a word of caution, when working with HOT peppers, do wear a glove on the hand handling the cut peppers. If you don't, you will wish you had. hahaha Especially if you rub your eye a week later. hahahaha



This is what I took off my dehydrator, just before laundry took over the house. (Clean clothes are over-rated, but necessary once in a while and my dehydrator lives on my washer. hahaha) The tomato is in a 10 oz jar. It was a big fist sized tomato and I had to cut a couple spots out of it. It dehydrated down to about 2 1/2 or 3 tablespoons, diced. The mixed veggies was a can of Allens 6.6 lb of mixed veggies. Once I poured the liquid off and rinsed, there was 4.6 lbs left. Once dehydrated they weigh in at 0.05.8 lbs. They are in a 16 oz vlasic pickle jar and it's not full at all. I just thought this would be a good visual. About the Allen's mixed veg, my Momma got them and asked me if I would want to dehydrate them. I had never gotten a BIG can like this. From my experience with them, I personally, would not recommend them. The picture shows more color than they have in real life. Everything is in shades of dark green and grays in real life. They are not appetizing or appealing at all. But, this is just my experience. I dehydrated @ 120* for 38 hours. They were ready to be taken off last night when I went to bed. I didn't feel like getting them off and it was easier to just let it run and it assured me that everything was 100% dry. Now, they are conditioning. I don't think I'm gonna give these to my Momma. I want everything I give to her to be perfect, and these are far from it. But it is a good visual as to how thinks shrink and that is to be expected. So, I cry for the rest of the day till my washer is unused.





We went to an amish store on Wednesday and I got a couple boxes of frozen rhubarb. 3 lbs worth. I get it at least once a year. Since it's frozen, I let it thaw in the fridge a couple days and then pressed as much liquid from it as possible. I wish I had taken a pic of the before, but just didn't think about it. 3 lbs went down to 3 oz. But it makes a wonderful powder to use in just about anything. Then I had some mandarins in the fridge that needed to be used. I had already peeled about a lb and a half so I finished filling my dehydrator with them on the top rack. I didn't weigh them before or after. I put some back on just now, because they weren't completely dry in the center. These will be turned into powder and put into something "chocolate" for my hubby. Some of the mandarins are darker than others because of the sugar content in them. Some were sweeter than others. I done these at the same time on 125* and set the machine for 48 hours and forgot about it. When the other mandarins get done, that jar will be full.






more dehydrating projects. BOTTOM pic: jar 1 has mixed veggies from where I cleaned out some of my boxes that I keep prepped veg in. Jar 2 has 3 sliced yellow squash. Jar 3 has green onion blades from my freebie roots that I planted from a batch of green onions. Trying to fill that jar. Jar 4 has 2 zucchini. TOP pic: jar 1 has pea hulls. I'll have more to put in that this afternoon, when I pick peas. Once dehydrated, I'll grind the pea hulls and add it to green powder. Jar 2 has cherry tomatoes. Before I get more at the store, I'll dehydrate what I already have, so nothing goes to waste. Good snacking. Jar 3 is leek greens from the roots of some leeks I purchased and planted the roots. Trying to get that little jar filled too. Sticking to my motto "something is better than nothing". do a little and it adds up. (pictures got mixed up when I uploaded them)






building my stash from unused veggies I prepped earlier in the week. plus, some zucchini and yellow squash for the purpose of dehydrating. I don't do anything on large scale. I mostly salvage what I have in the fridge on a weekly basis. but, it all adds up. "something is better than nothing". pic 1: each jar of squash has 6 in them. I want to get some more dehydrated. maybe mine will kick in and start giving me some to dehydrate. the jar of pepper strips was started last month. and it's just about full. pic 2: that small jar is of my serrano peppers. I split them length ways and then cut them in half, making 4 pieces per pepper. I know it takes 4 pieces to = 1 pepper. the next jar is tomatoes, I filled it up with what I took off this morning and the last jar is mixed veg. I added about a half inch of diced celery. all these little kibbles and bits add up to meals in the future. yay!!







russet potatoes for dehydrating: peeled and sliced in 1/2 inch slabs, then made 1/2 inch sticks and then made 1/2 inch dice (not all are the same length, some a little longer but if thickness of slices and width of sticks are good, the length can be a little off). put in bowl of cold water as I was peeling slicing and dicing. drained water 3 times and refilled with cold water each time. total rinse time was about 45 mins. while rinsing got my boiling pot ready and put potatoes in, let it come back to full rolling boil, started timer set at 5 mins. immediately lifted from boiling pot and put in bowl with ice water. let sit till most of ice is melted. pour off that water and put more cold water over and let potatoes cool completely. I gently stirred them in my strainer so the cold water would reach them all. drain well and put on dehydrator and don't worry about time. I dehydrated at 120F till they were rock hard. plenty of rinsing before blanching washed off a ton of starch. each time the water was almost cream colored just from the starch being washed off. I am thoroughly convinced that plenty of rinsing and blanching for the right amt of time, especially with the starchier potatoes will prevent blackened potato slices. I have another batch of potatoes to get done and I will do them the same exact way. I also cut off any noticeable black spots on the potatoes as I'm peeling them. I think that helps with some of the discoloration too. hope this helps anyone that's having issues.










I was working on some lunch prep just a few minutes 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. 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 was insignificant, but if I was slicing them to put on my dehydrator it would be very significant. slicing them east to west, the seeds are always exposed. my main problem is that I have a hard time remembering this until I have a tray or 2 already full!!





stocking my stash: 3 jars of recently dehydrated produce. onions, bell peppers and potatoes. I also took a pic down in the tops of the jars. the onions and bell peppers are absolutely divine to smell. I can eat them straight from the jars. hahaha the bell peppers are quickly becoming a favorite chip. will be using the onions and bell peppers as a crunch factor on salads. anyone that could come up with a kitchen deodorizer spray that smells like these could make a fortune!! hahaha onions and bell peppers are crispy like a cracker or chip and the potatoes are hammer hard. hahaha I hope to get onion jar full and then get 2 more jars the same size filled with bell peppers and potatoes. this is the finishedd dehydrated potatoes from earlier up in the blog post, they are done now. yay!!















this jar is of zucchini and I weighed some before I dehydrated it and dried it separately so when it was all dehydrated, I would know what it should weigh when I ehydrate it to put in zucchini bread. that's what you see on the jar. 11 grams of dehydrated is equivalent to 2 cups rehydrated. so when I rehydrate it, it should weigh 344 grams for the recipe I like to use this in. this is a good way for you to know what the amount for a recipe should weigh. weigh it before dehydrated and then weigh it after and then you'll know what the rehydrated weight should be.



I finally got my Micro Mini Marshmallows off the dehydrator after 48 hours at 125F. that is my preferred time for most things. I had to keep my spiced pumpkin marshmallows on there until the morning at least. you can't rush the process. time is the one thing that most instructions get wrong and it causes a lot of frustration with people that are new to dehydrating. and people telling their times can also cause frustration. so I always say "set your machine to the highest time setting and leave it alone". if it's dry before the time runs out, then YAY. if not, add more time. when you have to deal with a lot of humidity, that adds a lot of time. when I was testing these to see if they were dry enough, my husband was my tester. he really likes the pumpkin spice ones and he kept saying "I need another one, I just don't know, I really need another one". marshmallow thief!!! I'm down about a quarter of bag when I realized he just wanted to eat my marshmallows even if they weren't crispy. he better be glad Santa has already been around, he would gotten a rock in stocking for such a mean trick.










got another batch of my cornbread swirls made with MORE of my dehydrated and ground up veggies in them. these are so stinkin' good. this jar of ground up goodness come about from having bits and pieces and scraps and dabs left in jars. I couldn't just toss out my hard work, so I emptied about 19 or 20 jars that had the scarps into my nurtibullet and let the good times roll. it smells wonderful and I think I have my new favorite way to make my cornbread swirls. I think the recipe for these swirls are in a post that I made within the last couple of weeks. anyway, just wanted to share that I put MORE (3 heaping tablespoons) of this goodness in this batch and they are the "business".
this is my recipe: I use my bread machine to mix. this is a YEAST bread, so it has to have the rise time. I mix it in my bread machine over the course of an hour and a half. if you use a bread machine, put ingredients in as your brand recommends. otherwise, mix and let rise and mix more and let rise and mix more over the course of an hour and a half.
Cornbread Swirls
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 box jiffy corn muffin mix or a mix of your own
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tablespoon real butter
mix in bread machine or by hand till dough ball is well incorporated and holds together.
spread a little cornmeal on your work surface and flatten with rolling pin till about 10" by 18". brush top of bread with a tablespoon of melted butter. use a skewer or dowel rod as a straight edge and pizza cutter to cut strips , try to get at least 17 or 18 strips. lightly roll each strip to form a swirl. put on parchment lined baking sheet and let rise for about an hour and bake at 350* till browned the way you like. these are delicious!! I also sometimes make twisted sticks instead of the swirls.
(I also add in 2 tablespoons of vital wheat gluten. you don't have to have use it, I just do. also 2 tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt, especially if you are adding in dehydrated produce like I did.)
ATTENTION**************adding the veggies to this mix will make it very sticky. I have hand and arm issues, so I have to use a bread machine to do the mixing of all my doughs and I watch it closely. I had to add a little more flour to this particular batch, because I added 3 heaping tablespoons of my mixed veggies. just add flour 1 tablespoon at a time. if you add too much flour, just add a few drops of milk or water at a time.










cornbread swirls made with 3 heaping tablespoons of what's in the jar, my Master Mix, to cornbread swirls and they are delicious and will be wonderful with soup. you can taste the veggies and they smell so good.
just wanted to share a different way to use our dehydrated goods. this is my master mix of all the veggies on the side of the jar and this is what I put in my bread. all dehydrated and ground up for this purpose. sorry about deleting the picture.










I'm done with marshmallows. just plain marshmallowed out!! the pumpkin spice ones gave me fits, but they did NOT win. I can now make pumpkin spice powder. I think it will be good on sweet potatoes. gonna find out, for sure. anyway, just thought I'd share. blessings on all.



so, I just wanted to share an experiment with y'all. my husband had mentioned "banana pudding". well, I got to thinking about that. I knew I didn't have any bananas, or did I? no fresh bananas, but I did have some dehydrated bananas. challenge on. how do you make a banana pudding with dehydrated bananas? I set out to find out how to do it my way. I had a box of mini vanilla wafers, 4 vanilla pudding cups and a box of cool whip. I got my jar of dehydrated bananas and got about 25 or 30 slices of dehydrated bananas and broke them up in bowl and poured boiling water over them and let them set for a while, then added a little more water. I wanted them to have a little extra liquid so they would thin the pudding down some. I popped them in the fridge to cool them down. I then mixed the pudding cups with rehydrated bananas and then added some cool whip, next I added in the vanilla wafers. got it all mixed up and put it in the bowl, put the rest of the cool whip on top and crumbled a few of the vanilla wafers on top. let me just say this. No, it's not a banana pudding made from scratch, but it is VERY good. no more of the banana slices than I used, it is very banana tasting. it's good and it won't be the last time I make this. I see more dehydrated bananas in the near future. I'm always thinking about ways to use my dehydrated goodies and I hope y'all are always thinking about how to use your goodies too. sometimes we have to think outside the box.










this is some leeks and green onions that I grew from the root balls of of some that I had purchased about a month ago. dehydrated the original leeks and green onions and have them in my stash. stuck the root balls in pots and let them grow. cut them tuesday and got them in the dehydrator on thursday. took them out this morning. my new motto is "something is better than nothing". this is a very little something, but it was free. I'm all over free. I'll see how many times I can cut from the root balls and dehydrate the cuttings. examine everything and see if you can get more than one use from it. do your own experiments about how to build your dehydrated stash. a lot of us look for sales and jump on them. when you're looking at fresh, try to figure if you can do the "cut and grow again" method. I grew carrot greens last year that I dehydrated and also a few beets greens. both from store bought carrots and beets and then I got to add the fresh greens that I grew to my "green stash". "something is better than nothing" and this is my something today. first pic is what I cut off, onions and leeks. second pic is dehydrated, leeks and onions.






I challenged myself to use as many of my dehydrated goods as I could in one dish. this is what I came up with. chicken corn chowder. I used carrots, yellow squash, white onions, mushrooms, sweet bell peppers and celery. I used about a half cup each and in a couple instances I just used what was in the jar. basically, 3 cups of dehydrated veggies. I covered that with 6 cups of homemade chicken bone broth and put in 24 oz of frozen corn, 1 pkg of ranch mix , 1 can of rotel and 2 cups of chicken that I had cooked and made the bone broth. it showed about 9 cups of everything all together. cooked it in my electric pressure cooker for about 40 minutes. once it was done, I added 1/3 of block of velveeta cheese and a whole block of cream cheese. we had it for lunch and my husband wanted to know what was different and that it was the best I had made of this particular dish. been making this for about 3 or 4 years. I told him it was full of my dehydrated veggies. it really is good. I challenge y'all to use what you have to make wonderful meals. I have a few pictures to show the progression from jars to bowl. be sure to click thru and see each picture. start to finish.






























comfort food, grits, made with this particular blend that I call my "master mix". it is made with just bits and pieces and scraps of jars that are still in their jars. I empty them all in the nurtibullet and blend away. there are no measurements to make this, just little bits and dabs. it has parsley, asparagus, parsnip, green onions, red onion, zucchini, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, turnip, cilantro, rutabaga, jerusalem artichoke, celery, yellow onion, fennel, carrots, okra, jalapeno. I put about 3 tablespoons of this particular mix in my grits and it truly is delicious.




this is some of the produce I've been working on here lately. the second picture has carrots, chinese 5 color peppers, yellow potatoes and lemon squash. the next pic with some jars in it are mix of hot and sweet peppers in the first jar, cherry tomatoes and shishito peppers in the other jars in that pic. it's good to have different ways of preserving our foods. dehydrating is my fav way.




























some of my goodies are dry!!! yay!!! the potatoes turned out very nice. 125* for 15 hours. this temp really does work well to maintain the color. you can actually burn some things if you set your dehydrator too high. the temp is one thing that I do watch closely. time is just a number, if it's not completely crispy dry, then time means nothing. you have to keep it going till it snaps when you break one, after it's come to room temp, and these do!! yay!! this will be enough to make what would be the equivalent of 5 store bought boxes of scalloped potatoes. I really hope to get the jar full. the ones I done yesterday are yellow potatoes. but they are translucent, almost like vellum (paper) and that's you want. now, I put them in the jar and keep them out for a week, shaking and checking the jar for any condensation, which there should be none. if you are dehydrating and notice any, then back to the dehydrator they go, because that sets the stage for mold. and, we don't want that. these will also be good to powder and make instant cup of potato soup. they also work good for a thickener in just about anything. you can break up the slices into chunks and toss a handfull in a batch of veg beef soup. you can rehydrate them and make skillet fried potatoes and onions. anything you can do with a fresh tater, you can do with these. I plan on making some shredded potatoes too, for the shredded hash browns and stuff like that. the first pic, tall jar is a gallon sized pickled okra jar. (don't judge me, I like pickled okra
hahaha) that was approximately 4 lbs of potatoes. the second pic is a shot directly down the top of the jar, I do love looking at them. the third pic shows just how see thru they are. when I do some white potatoes, you will be able to see thru them better. so, I still have my carrots and onions on letting them finish up. the humidity will affect dry time, so it may take a while longer for those. anyway, just wanted to show y'all my "taters" and I do have more to share in a hot minute.


and just so ya know, I did get that potato jar filled up!!!!! it took LOTS of potatoes, but I done it!! hahahaha
************************************
well, that's all I have for this time. I hope you enjoy all the dehydrating projects and are maybe inspired to do some dehydrating too. it's fun and I enjoy doing it. it sure beats letting your produce go to waste. it's also great to have a purpose for it and I use it all the time. I can't wait to start replenishing everything now that Spring time is here and the garden will soon be growing again.


I'm so happy you found your way here and I hope you come back real soon. remember that God made a way for us to be in right relationship with Him thru the shed blood of Jesus Christ. He loves us that much!!! He wants to be your Lord and Savior and I pray that you will admit that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness and accept Christ as your savior and repent of your sins and believe on Him. if you do that, He'll be the best friend you've ever had or ever will have. Jesus loves you and so do I. blessings, hugs and love, patty