good morning friends. I hope that you have survived the hubbub of Christmas. or maybe you was like us and didn't have a hubbub to survive. we stayed home and enjoyed the day. no hustle and bustle at all. a most pleasent day and we remembered what the day is supposed to be all about.
it's gloomy day here and we need to get out and walk in a little bit. maybe that'll get me woke up. I need get a pot of beans on and get some bread made. 2 kinds of bread, so it will be a long day for me, if I get it all done. we'll see what happens.
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let's go to the kitchen for a quick "2 minutes in the kitchen with me". well, we love dried beans. we eat a lot of dried beans. we both, was raised on them and we still LOVE them. nothing better than good old comfort food and that's what dried beans are for us.
so I had 2 lb bag of great northern beans. I always, always, always, sort and wash my beans. my sweet Momma taught me well and she still cooks beans and guess what, I know her routine well. so I started sorting and didn't think I would find anything other than a few discolored beans. that's usual and also a few floaters. I was just about done sorting and all of the sudden, in a hand full of beans was this big old honkin piece dirt with sticks and twigs in it. I know most people sort thru their beans and wash them. but if you happen to be one of the few that doesn't, then this may be of some influence to start sorting and washing them. I always wash them at least 3 times in my bowl that I sort them in. the first time the water is always gunky. the second time, less gunky and the third time clear water, so that's my story for today. I've shared similar to this before, only because I keep finding strange and unusual things. and in all fairness, they do have on all bags to sort and wash before using. it's there for a reason. and these beans will be sooooo good!!!! they are in my electric pressure cooker, yay!!!
I've seen people making videos for youtube just cut open a bag of beans and dump them in!!!!! I want to scream when I see that. what in the world are you thinking!!!!!! sort and wash those beans!!!!!!!
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Who wants a good read today? If you do, grab your Bible and turn to 1 Peter 2 and read the whole chapter. It tells us how we are to live in this world, this is not our permanent home. We are sojourners just passing thru this land. If you long for something different, just know, that's heaven calling. "This world is not my home" keeps rushing thru my mind and below is a portion of that song.
""This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh lord you know I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home then lord what will I do
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.""
There is also another beautiful hymn that keeps coming up too, "This is my Fathers world". This is a portion of that song:
""This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world,
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas,
His hand the wonders wrought.""
I love the nature side of my Fathers world as described in this sweet hymn of faith, but not so much the side of humanity that we are seeing today. So, while I think of rocks and trees and skies and seas, I also hear the angels beckon me from heaven's open door and I don't feel at home here anymore.
I can't possibly be the only person with a heart that is longing for heaven, but I also long to see God's people do right by one another.
Torn between two worlds.
Anyway, this is where my heart was this morning.
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warning: this is long!!! but if you dehydrate produce, it may be a good read for you. so I gave you a fair warning. so no complaining it's long. hahaha
let's do a "2 (10 or 20) minutes in the kitchen with me" segment this morning and talk about some of the things we've talked about in the past. I hope it's helpful to someone. let's just sit and drink our coffee and have at it.
this is just what has been on my mind as of late, just because I'm getting ready to start dehydrating produce. what I grow and what I find on sale or at farmers market or road side stands.
this was some of the items I dehydrated last year. start with a little and it turns into a lot by the end of the season. you can grow your own produce or you can find it on sale at the stores, farmers markets, road side stands. which ever way you get produce, consider dehyrating as a great means of preservation.
it's very easy, extremely safe, and fun to use later on. all of it works well in soups and stews, as snacks. one thing to remember is that dehydrating does cause the structure of the produce itself to change.
if you don't have a dehydrator, I would recommend you getting one with a temp and time setting. if you get one of the less expensive ones that doesn't have a temp and time setting, it will dehydrate at a temp of no less than 145* and they can be as high as 165*. these are not good for produce at all although they say they are. on the other hand, you don't need one of the those that costs 3 to 5 hundred dollars either. my preferred machine is less than a hundred dollars with removable stackable trays with the heat system on the bottom that forces the hot air up thru the trays with the hot air being expelled out the the lid of the dehydrator.
a lot of people go for the ones that are cabinet style and very expensive. the reason I've never been interested in those is because you can't dehydrate a lot of different things in them at the same time. for instance, I'll have a tray of onions, a tray of garlic, a tray of tomatoes, a tray of zucchini, a tray of pineapple and a tray of apples. the average person would say "you can't do that". you can't do it in a cabinet style, but in a stackable style, YES, you can do it.
this is how: start with apples on the bottom, next pineapples, next zucchini, next tomatoes, next onions and finally garlic. the heat coming from the bottom will be forced up thru the trays. the apples, pineapples, zucchini and tomatoes don't have any strong aromas. the garlic and onion does. tray placement is the key for for your produce not smelling like onions and garlic. if you put this mix of produce in a cabinet style dehydrator, everything will smell and taste like onions and garlic. since it's just the 2 of us, this is how I like to use my dehydrator to its greatest capabilities. if I dehydrated a lot more than I do, I would probably have 2 dehydrators. one for fruits and one for veggies. and since I first wrote this, I do have 2 dehydrators now. my newest one is a Septree brand from amazon. it's the smallest cabinet style they make with 4 trays and it's a fantastic little dehydrator.
so dehydrated sliced tomatos will not rehydrate to use as a slice of tomato you would put on a sandwich, but it will be good in soups, stews or casseroles. also, even though there aren't any in these pics, I do love to dehydrate sliced tomatoes. they are great as a snack. you can sprinkle a little of previously dehydrated onion and garlic that has been powdered, and little dehydrated parsley on them and dehydrate them and you have a very special snack.
the main thing to remember is to get everything crispy dry. any moisture left in the produce will set the stage for mold. and goodness, we don't want to lose any of our hard work because we failed to get something completely crispy dry.
just a reminder too, that just because an instruction manual says to dehydrate something at 135*, it doesn't mean they are right. thru years of trying to figure out why I wasn't getting the desired results, I started changing, actually lowering my temps and my produce started looking much better. the desired color in the finished product comes with lower temps. to be quite honest, I never go above 115* anymore, and for some items like onions, I set my dehydrator on 110* because of all the natural sugars in onions.
some things like potatoes require a lot of rinsing to get as much of the natural starch off. if you don't rinse and then blanche, and lower your dehydrator setting to 115*, you'll end up with a bunch brown/black dried potatoes. I usually rinse my potatoes 3 times before they hit the blanche pot and then once removed from the boiling water, they're put in an ice water bath to stop further cooking and cool completely. they come out perfect every time.
I've found also, that a lot of produce doesn't have to be blanched. for instance, if you blanche onions, guess what, you lose most of the good onion flavor in that blanch water. and the same it is, with most every other types of produce. some of your hard root veggies like potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets....things like that will benefit from blanching. those are just about it that I even consider blanching.
something else to remember, if it goes in the dehydrator raw, it comes off the dehydrator raw. the dehydrator does not cook the produce, it's only removes the moisture. and even for the items that I mentioned that I do blanche, those items will need to be cooked.
I can't remember if I've already said it or not, but I never go above 115* with my produce, fruits or veggies. a lot of people will dip their produce in lime juice or lemon juice. to be quite honest with you, it's pretty repulsive to have lime and lemon on EVERYTHING!!! I do NOT recommend that. what I do recommend is for everyone to learn to use their dehydrators correctly and then you can leave the lemon and lime juice alone and your produce will taste like it's supposed to taste. keeping your temps low, 110* to 115* (and 90* to 95* for herbs), is the to key to avoiding the citric juice bath for all you produce. but, if you like everything to have a that taste, then go for it.
a lot of dehydrated produce is great for snacks. just remember to drink some water or something as you enjoy them. and for the fruits, rememeber that in the dried form, it's really easy to over eat. I love to make dehydrated watermelon, but it's really easy to overdo it . once you have a lot of different produce dehydrated, you can even consider grinding it to make your own "cup-a-soup", or seasoning to go in or on your dishes. think about powdered onion, garlic, bell peppers, celery....things like that. you can also experiment. I'm a big encourager of experimenting with what you have and see how many different ways you can use your stash. if you have a dehydrator, when you start dehydrating, learn to portion a new item out in what would be a serving size or in the size of a whole piece of produce you would use.
if you want to know how much dried diced onion is equivalent to a whole onion, then dice one whole average sized onion and place it on a dehydrator tray separated from the others. when the onions are completely cracker crisp dry, weigh the one diced onion by itself. I prefer to weigh in grams. write that weight on your jar somewhere and you'll know how much to use for 1 average sized onion. and if you can keep up with how many onions you have done, when you get your storage jar filled, you'll be able to know how many onions you have in that jar. I think I got about 40 average sized onions in my gallon jug last year. hahaha
one thing I do when I'm using my dehydrated produce, when I get to end of my jars, I start dumping everything all together. then I'll take out my dedicated to produce, coffee grinder, and I'll make a blend of everything. let me tell you, it is delicious!!!! I'll put some in soups and stews and casseroles. I can even make "cup a soup" with it.
and it feels good to start getting rid of jars with just kibbles and bits in it.
well, I think this is about it for now. I don't know if anyone will read the whole thing, but if you do and have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'm sure I'll have more to add at some point in time, so maybe be on the look out. be blessed and dehydrate!!
top 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.
bottom pic: jar 1 has pea hulls. when I pick peas, I shell and dehydrate the hulls. 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 leaves 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 at a time and it all adds up.
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well, as I'm still dreaming of my spring garden, I guess I'll wrap this blog post up. I hope you seen something here today that is an encouragement to you, or that you have learned something. maybe you just came away with a couple of new songs to sing to the Lord. what ever your takeaway is from this blogpost, I hope you'll make plans to join me right back here really soon.
until then, blessings of love, joy and peace be yours today. hugs, patty
