Come into my Kitchen » dehydrator

Roses

Catherine — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:44:30 +0000

I love roses. I have lots of rose bushes in my yard & they are all a fragrant variety. Love to cut them & put them in vases in the house. This morning, as I was emptying a vase out, it hit me. Even wilted & sad looking the roses smelled really good. I should make potpourri. I’ve been adding the old blooms to the compost pile. No more!

: Dried rose petals waiting to be bagged.

So I started carefully pulling the petals off the stems. Spread them carefully on the dehydrator & plug it in. Oh how I missed having a dehydrator last year. In about an hour, the petals are dried & ready to stash into a bag until I have a sufficient number to make a batch.

Dried Basil

Catherine — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:04:17 +0000

Today, I decided to pull out the dehydrator & put it to work. Early in the spring, I bought a basil plant & have carefully tended to it. Fresh leaves from the plant have been used several times as I’ve cooked, but now I’m thinking I need to get started drying some to use this winter. Pulled out a pair of scissors. Made some snips here & there on the plant & have a decent pile of clippings to dry. Washed the clippings under cool running water & gently patted them dry. Separated the leaves from the stem. Placed them carefully on one of the dehydrator’s trays, put the top on it & plug up the dehydrator. After just a couple of hours, I have dried basil leaves to bag for my use. I bag them whole & will crumble them as I need them.

My basil plant getting ready to get a "haircut".

Dried basil leaves ready to come off the dehydrator. It was covered before they were dried.

Figs, Part 2

Catherine — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:16:08 +0000

Before I went to bed last night, I washed & cut up about half of the figs I had. Carefully laid them out on my new dehydrator. Hadn’t been used since I bought it this spring. Found it at a yard sale for the whopping price of $3. Would have been foolish to resist it at that price! It’s the American Harvest Snackmaster Elite. Has 4 trays & even has a fan. Wonderful bargain & I’m feeling very pleased with myself for picking it up.

Dried Figs on the Dehydrator

Got up this morning & checked my figs. Most of them were almost dried. I thought that was doing great as I didn’t go to bed until VERY late. Sorted the dry ones out as they finished & bagged them up. Will be using them shortly in some recipes I found that call for dried figs. That’s why I dried some of the figs.

My next step was to start cutting up figs to make fig preserves. I cut the figs while the sugar & water boiled until the sugar was dissolved. By that time, the figs were ready. Added half of the figs as the recipe said. This mixture then simmered for 30 minutes. Wasn’t hard to keep going back into the kitchen to keep an eye on the mixture as it was beginning to smell good. When the timer went off, it was time to add the rest of the figs to cook. Now it was needing me to keep a closer eye on it, so it wouldn’t stick to the bottom of the pan or burn.

Now it was time to go into the basement to pull out enough canning jars to put the preserves in. My lids & rings were already upstairs. Washed everything good in hot soapy water so I would be ready when the preserves were done. By now, the fig & sugar mixture has turned to a beautiful golden-brown. The

The finished fig preserves.

directions had said to simmer it for 30-40 minutes to a suitable thickness.At 30 minutes, I felt it was still too runny & set the timer for another 10 minutes. Add the lemon juice that was needed. Just a little bit more & I would have preserves ready to pour in the jars.

By the time the timer went off, I had 3 pint canning jars sitting on the kitchen counter just waiting on preserves. Using my wide-mouthed funnel, I carefully distributed the mixture between the jars. One jar was a slightly skimpy fill. While the mixture had finished cooking, I had started heating my water bath. Using the tongs, I carefully spaced the jars in the boiling water. Took great care to make sure none of the jars touched each other or the side of the pan. Made sure the jar lids were well covered with water & set the timer. When the bell dinged, I carefully pulled the jars out with the tongs. The lids popped almost as soon as I put the jars on the towel on the countertop. As you can tell, the preserves stayed a golden-brown. If I get any more figs this summer, I will definitely be making another batch of fig preserves!