Dehydrating

Today marks the rise of my home-making attempts! I recently remembered that my mom dried fruit when I was growing up.  So, I called her up and asked if she still had her old dehydrator.  Lucky for me, she still had it, knew where it was, and didn't use it anymore!  So, I inherited the old thing, and today I began the adventure of dehydrating...

There are many things you can dehydrate to make into tasty snacks:  fruits, veggies, nuts, meat, etc.  I hadn't made a special grocery list for things to dehydrate, so I just used some blueberries, a banana, and then pureed some strawberries and blueberries (separately) to make fruit leather.  I'm pretty excited to see how everything turns out! The only downside to using a dehydrator is that it's like a slow-cooker... takes WAY too long! So, unfortunate for me, I didn't start the process until about 4 pm today and therefore will not be able to analyze the results until at least 10 tonight.  

Oh, and I also made crackers today! This was my second time making them, and they turned out well.. I definitely think that using a pizza stone makes a difference; I made a couple of the batches on cookie sheets, and they just were not as crisp.  I also took Michelle's suggestion to season them with rosemary, garlic salt, and parmesan cheese (all separately) and they are delicious!! 

This post has little value besides a brief insight into my attempts at being a simplistic home-maker. :)