Kale Chips

The last of the kale, tossed with olive oil, sesame oil and fancy ancient sea salt from Utah. I left the stems on the smaller leaves. Dehydrate at 105°F until crispy. Really tasty.

Before Drying

Tastes a little like Korean style nori

Almost Tuesday!

Here are some pictures to make up for missing a day in my updates from home...

Bandit on the long green grass

Hendrix on the stairs up close

Jordan is home from Tucson!

Happy Hendgy

Sweet Bandit

APS

Our Joid is off to his first professional meeting, to present a poster at the American Physical Society in Tucson.

Dehydrators

Some dehydrator thoughts for firstofmany.

I can't say I have too much experience, but I do like the Nesco much better than the old Ronco I had. Key elements are a fan (no need to rotate trays) and temperature control. Ours doesn't have a timer or digital temp change feature, but I don't feel I need it.

Another thing I like is that the heat comes from the top. My old one had the heat at the bottom, and consequently food drips were kind of burning as they hit the elements. This is the source of my Salmon "Sauce-Bearnaise" Syndrome.  I had been making salmon jerky, maybe 1990 or so. Still have trouble with the smell of salmon.

Here are two links.

Amazon for the Nesco we bought (scroll down to customer reviews, very helpful)

DehydratorBook (nice reviews and tips)

Bedtime

i love it when i call to the dogs "bedtime", and they sleepily but happily stagger to the bedroom with me. they can be so sweet.

they are missing their pack though, for sure. when will everyone else come back home?

Grapes

Dehydration continues. Working through the backlog in the fridge, three kinds of grapes.

Green and Purple from Erin (local). Large Red commercial (Cutler, CA).

The local ones have seeds, so I'm juicing them and trying some dried fruit rolls. We have plenty of jam now, and the MathMan isn't here to drink the juice. The red seedless got washed and checked in boiling water. They seem so big, so I went ahead and cut most in half to decrease the drying time. Raisins!

the pre-raisin state

processing in the china cap

Monday Morning (you sure look fine)

Hanging in there here, beginning of a long week. Cool and grey outside, raining. Tell MathMan I shut off the sprinkler system for now. Hendgy, in a fit of unusual neediness, actually came down to me sitting in my room with Pinkman in tow. Placed him on my lap. I don't remember him ever doing that before (although this sort of visit is a daily occurrence with Bandit).

So back to the kitchen for me, keeping busy processing produce, keeping the dogs company.

Apples and Pears for the Dehydrator

Pinkman and Hendrix

Bandit: "I hope it doesn't thunder"

weather is supposed to be sunny and cool today, low tonight 35°F

pups and boy

bandit has one evil glowing eye which refused to be edited out.

do you still have extra eggs?

joid called around 10p to see if he could come get a dozen eggs. i gave them two dozen. and pears, peaches and apples. they didn't seem to want any more habaneros...

Late Night Produce Selections

as kind as summer

"He was... as kind as summer"
   speaking of Elrond, in The Hobbit, Chapter 3

An Elrond collectible fell out of some laundry in the washer (I was trying to clear out some old packed boxes of miscellanea) and he ended up taking Jasmine's former roost on the windowsill. I'm hoping he brings some summer sunniness to the tomatoes there.

Tons of green and partly ripe tomatoes still on the vine. The garden gets little sunshine now until late in the day, evenings are down into 30's and 40's, it's already snowed once. Time is running out.

Set out into sunshine for ripening

Hoping for some late vine-ripening

The Elrond Tomato Ripening Area

Dehydrator Madness

well, the car dehydration method didn't work out. the ambient air here is dry, but it's not hot enough to sustain the drying, the downside to a short growing season, by the time we get tomatoes it's past the best summer heat.

so we bought a dehydrator. it's great! Nesco FD-75PR 700-Watt, it has temperature settings and a top-mounted fan. i used to have a ronco (no temp control/no fan) which worked alright, but this is way better.

*All* the tomatoes for now are done, bagged up in the freezer. It's crazy, but we only have one zucchini squash left in the house (after a super glut of them taking up refridge space), they make great chips (even without oil). I'll be chipping up some yam next, and I'm eyeing the cantaloupe...

Nesco in action (pears within)

Dried and Fresh Pears

Awaiting their turn...