Fruit Blizzard

While the road report for the state of Wyoming looked like this today…

and outside my door looked like this today…

I somehow found it within myself to stay inside. I’ve put in my time being out in blech like this… I found things to do.

I printed off more blog entries.

I cleaned my house… though my floor remains in its semi-disgusting state.

I did laundry.

I planned my garden some more… and looked at *another* garden catalog.

I called my sister.

Just a little FYI… I was gonna keep finding stuff to keep me in this warm house!

Then I decided to be productive and dehydrate some food!

I have a tendency to get fresh produce, especially fruit, and then find no one eating it. My guys are meat and potato eaters… throw in a veggie and they’ll eat that too… but fresh fruit sitting on the counter? Neh. Not so much.

HOWEVER. Dehydrate those apples, throw them in a baggie, and leave them in the pickup…

GONE!

BAM!

MAGIC!

Back in the day, I could live on apples, cheese, and crackers. Now with my loss of sweetness, apples are just bleh. And if they’re mealy apples… yech! I’ve got to have CRISP apples! BUT, if I dehydrate them… the flavor intensifies, and the mealiness goes away! SCORE!

No waste!

Gotta love it.

Today I dehydrated tomatoes, apples (with cinnamon sugar on them!), mangoes, parsley, and some corn! I bought this Excalibur dehydrator last year… and just love it. I have a big jar of mixed fruit in my cupboard, and the guys just come along and grab a handful. I do separate out the bananas. I hate bananas. They ruin the rest of the fruit. I hate bananas. I have lots of dehydrated tomatoes hanging around, and my stash of herbs has grown into pint jars instead of miniscule containers. I hate bananas.

Whoops. My mom’s voice in my head says “I don’t care for bananas.” So, forget that I said “I hate bananas.” I was raised to say, “I don’t care for bananas.”

Oh, those voices in my head.

Back to my dehydrator. Best thing I’ve ever dehydrated? Watermelon. I kid you not! Slice it up just like anything else, dehydrate it down to a fruit leather slice of heaven. Yum.

If you find yourself wasting too many fruits and vegetables… you might want to think about dehydrating them instead of tossing them!