Dehydrating Fruit - What do you really need?

  Oh, the beloved dehydrator.  As much a part of my food preservation system as my pressure cooker, boiling water canner, and vacuum sealer.  I've been making homemade banana, strawberry, mango, apple and other fruit chips for years now, as well fruit leathers, dried veggies, dried herbs, and even some dehydrated dinners for the trail.  We eat them as the fruit chips as snacks and as part of homemade trail mix while camping, hiking, etc.  The kids are so used to real fruit chips, they won't even eat the store bought stuff - they think it's gross.  You know, the sugar-coated kind that comes in a clam-shell case.  A couple years ago, we were out running errands, it was one of those days I was not prepared with snacks in the car, and my son asked for some strawberry chips.  Okay, sure, why not?  As a special treat.  Well, why not is that they're covered in sugar and soaked in preservatives, but let's put that aside for a moment.☺ He ate one and almost spit it out.  "What's wrong with these?  They don't taste like your strawberry chips.  Here, you can have them.  I'll wait."  This from a hungry 2nd grader.  Oh, yeah, Victory for Mom moment.  When your little ones can tell between real food and processed, manufactured food.  I was so proud.

  
   So, for any who haven't delved into dehydrating, fruit is the absolute simplest thing to start with.  And you don't need anything fancy.  I started off with a hand-me-down dehydrator and trays like this one:

   It doesn't even have a dial, you just plug it in and it turns on.  The temperature is controlled by turning the top vent, and you rotate each tray from bottom to top (or vise versa) to get each tray dried at the same rate.  It worked great, and it was free, so I was all over that.

   Then Hubby upgraded me to this one from Sportsman's Guide (no, I don't make money off the link):



   He is so awesome. This has 10 trays, a 12 hour timer, and temperature control.  And he got me some liners for fruit leathers and mesh tray inserts for small stuff like banana chips, herbs, and anything else that would fall through the trays.  I am all set with this thing!  And I passed my other dehydrator down to my neighbor, who was enjoying my fruit snacks and asking about which one she should buy.  Buy??  No way, pass along the goodness of free useful stuff!

   Back to fruit chips.  What do you really need to make them?

• A heating device.  A dehydrator (homemade or store-bought), an oven, a hot car, a tray in the sun (this doesn't work in Michigan, but in those 'dry heat' climates it does).
• A cutting device.  A mandolin or other type of even-slicing device is handy and makes it go quicker, but if you have a knife and can make relatively even cuts, that will work fine.
• A holy surface.  Some type of tray that allows air to circulate all around the fruit. Dehydrator trays, cookie cooling racks, even window screen.
• Good fruit.  Overripe or under ripe fruit is no good.  If you put not-so-good fruit in, you get not-so-good dried fruit out.

   See? It doesn't take much.  To dry, all you do is cut the fruit, lay it on the trays, turn on the dehydrator/oven/sun and let it happen.  And it is so yummy, and cheap!  Have you looked at fruit roll-up or banana chip prices?  Eek!  Buying fruit in season and on sale and then preserving it (in any fashion) is an easy way to stretch your budget.  Getting fruit on the cheap is a post for another day, but as for dehydrating, I'll show the banana chips next.

Joyfully yours,
K

Mom's Muesli

   I have never heard of Muesli (pronounced mew-slee).  The name looks cool, so one might think it is very complicated, but it is so simple.  It is a cereal-oatmeal mix you eat hot or cold.  When I came across it in a The Appalachian Trail Food Planner, I knew I wanted to try it for home and trail food.  The recipe in the book called for wheat germ, dates, and other fancy things, but I had just gone out of my comfort zone and splurged on flax seed (one step at a time…) so I made it the way my mom did.  I call it Mom's Muesli. :)

   So, really, it is very simple.  Oatmeal, raisin bran cereal, brown sugar, and raisins.  Mix.  Add cold milk and eat.  Or add hot milk, let sit a minute, and eat.  Or add cold milk, microwave about a minute, and eat.  All ways lead to yumminess.

   I do have dry milk in my line of ingredients.  We were experimenting with adding the dry milk to make it trail friendly.  I'm all about quick Yummy foods on the trail.  So we had a bowl of regular Muesli (no dry milk) with hot milk to see how much milk it needed, then had another bowl with Muesli, the corresponding amount of dry milk, and hot water.  Well, that was too sweet.  Experimentation at its finest.  So a little less dry milk, same water, and presto! we have yummy Muesli mix ready for the trail. If you have ever been in the woods on a cold, damp, or rainy morning, you know what a wonderful thing it is to have something nice and hot to eat or drink.  We picked up some little rocket heaters years ago for that exact reason.  A bit of boiling water and a packet of this can really set a good mood for the day.

   The book also says their recipe is great as a dry snack, and I'm sure it is with the added figs, walnuts, sunflower seeds and the rest they put in there.  Mine as stated here - not so much.  I did have 1/2 c. sunflower seeds in the first batch, but then I ran out.  I will probably add more dried fruit (I make my own) for my mix on the trail.  I encourage you to do your own experimentation, add different ingredients, see how you like to eat it.  Enjoy your food.  Prepare it in ways that suit your tastes and lifestyle, and then try it another way.  My recipe is below.  Feel free to copy into your own recipe book and send a link to your friends.

Joyfully yours,

K

Mom's Muesli:

2 1/2 c. quick oats

1 c. raisin bran cereal

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. raisins

  **For the trail, add 1 Tbsp dry milk per 1 c. mix

To eat:

At home, add equal parts mix and hot or cold milk.

For the trail, add equal parts mix and hot water.

Christmas Spice Tea

   When I was growing up, we did not have much money. We weren't so bad as to need food stamps or government housing, but we had free lunches at school and lots of second-hand clothes.  So our at home food choices growing up weren't that broad, either.  There was a lot of noodles, oatmeal, canned goods, and other cheap and easy foods, but fresh fruit and veggies weren't always available, let alone name brand foods and special treats on a regular basis. One of the treats we did get was spice tea. At least I thought it was a treat.  Growing up we usually had frozen juice, milk, water, and generic Kool-Aid to drink. Sometimes, though, we had Friendship Tea, which is basically instant ice tea, orange drink mix (Tang), cinnamon and cloves.  So when I came across a recipe in a church cookbook for Christmas Spice Tea, it took me back to my childhood.  Thank you Patty Compton, whoever you are, and the Immanuel Lutheran Church of Altona, IL, for bringing this back to me.  I'm pretty sure copyright keeps me from putting the exact recipe here, but it's from the Divinely Delicious book, Celebrating 150 years.  Maybe they still have some copies.

   Anyway, it's made from orange drink mix (Tang), ice tea mix, sugar, a packet of lemonade mix, cinnamon red hots, ground cloves, and ground cinnamon. Google Friendship tea or Christmas tea, you'll find something close.

   

Don't the red hots look like holly berries in there? So cute!

   It's pretty simple. Mix everything up, pour into hot water, and enjoy!  Ah, the simple things.  This is going to be great on a cold night or morning on the trail, too.  I think next time I'll try it with less sugar, since there's already some in the orange drink stuff, and try again without the lemonade packet.  I like to experiment. :)

But right now I'm going to have another cup.

Joyfully yours,
K

Making Energy Bars

   Hubby was getting ready for a winter hike last weekend, and I had a brand new trail food book I haven't made anything out of yet.  What is a girl to do?  Well, the stereotypical girl wouldn't have a trail food book in the first place, but I'm not her, so I tried out some new recipes for them to take.  My mom actually found this recipe for Energy Bars in her newest Midwest Energy Cooperative magazine (p.10).

   First I mixed peanut butter and honey, and then added the oats, one cup at a time.  That was an arm workout, let me say.  It could be because I worked out the day before, but it was a tough mix.  Then in went the flax seed and chocolate chips.  The recipe called for a cup of mixed seeds/nuts/grains as you like, so I used cut-up mangos, raisins, sunflower seeds and crushed peanuts.  It looks yummy.  Note the chunky balls of mixture.

   Then grease a pan, sprinkle coconut on the bottom, and press the mixture in. 

   Top with more shredded coconut and refrigerate.  Yum!

   Failure #1: It came out crumbly.

      Remember that photo of the mix before it was in the pan? Well, that's pretty much how it looked when we took it out of the fridge and tried to cut it into bars.  Did I mention I've never made, or seen made, bars of any kind?  Obviously I did something wrong.  I have two theories.  1: Not enough peanut butter-honey for it all to stick together and/or 2: I should have pressed it into one big mass before putting it in the pan.  I will make it again with those changes and see how it goes.
   I almost made that a half failure, because it is Delicious! The kids like it, Hubby and the big boys took it as trail mix, and I found it is yummy with plain yogurt.  Side story here: I got a good deal on some plain yogurt a week ago.  Then I discovered that, while it's perfect for smoothies, not so much for eating by itself.  Maybe I'm spoiled by Greek yogurt with honey or even vanilla yogurts, but plain yogurt is just too … plain.  It's bland.  Eating it with this stuff was the first time I didn't miss the flavor in the yogurt.

Until the next challenge,

Joyfully yours,
K

Homemade Strawberry Pie

   First off, I am not a baker.  Not in any kind of sense.  But I want to be one, at least a decent homemaker-type baker.  Simple breads, cakes, pies, etc. from scratch.  I can make yeast bread in the bread machine (why I don't make it all by hand is a future post), and simple from scratch quick breads, noodles (is that baking?), cakes and  cupcakes.  One thing I've never been able to do is pie.  It's not the filling that gets me, it's the crust.
   I offered to bring pie for our family's New Year's Eve party, since that was the only thing not covered.  I bought one pie from the store, and took it as an opportunity to challenge myself to homemade strawberry pie - the cold kind.  I don't know if that needs to be said, but I have had many two-crust hot strawberry, strawberry rhubarb, and strawberry-berry pies.

   Failure #1: Burnt pie crusts.

   This was totally my fault, and doesn't really have anything to do with bad baking skills so much as bad habits.  I had a box of Jiffy pie crust mix, which made 2 crusts.  Mixing was fine, though the crusts looked pretty sad once rolled out.  Did I mention I'm not a baker?  So I pop them in the oven, set the timer, call my Dad to chat……..and go upstairs where not only can I not hear the oven timer, but can't smell or see the smoke.  (Did she say smoke?) So there I am, chatting away, and the smoke alarm goes off. Seriously? I did that? Ugh. <shake my head at myself> I know better that that.  So, burnt things outside, ceiling fans on, windows open, smoke alarms reset.

   Okay, Take 2.  I pull out my new baking book, The Fannie Farmer Baking Book.

   I've actually had it for a few months, but hadn't got into it yet.  So I use the basic pie crust recipe. The newbie version with detailed instructions is on p. 46.  If you've been through the pie crust rodeo, see p. 54.  Right away I could tell the dough was turning out much better than the Jiffy mix.  *Nothing against Jiffy - I toured their factory here in Michigan and got an assortment of box mixes while I was there.  They have a nice, clean facility and they have wonderful people working there.  Back to the story - I added more flour this time around, and paid attention to the shape before I started rolling it out.  Oh, and I didn't leave the kitchen!  Much better.  I even had a enough extra for a little third crust.

   Then it was on to the filling. I probably should've started this first, since I started with frozen strawberries, but...oh well.  The recipe for the filling was in the same book (p. 83).  It calls for fresh mashed strawberries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice to go in the pot, cook it, cool it, mix with sliced fresh strawberries, and fill the crusts.  Easy as…ha!…pie.  Since I started with frozen not fresh, I had to mash them up as they started to cook/thaw.

   So while my strawberries are cooking, I'm softening a brick of cream cheese and thawing the half the strawberries that get sliced.  I discovered frozen strawberries are a little tough on my food processor, so I'm letting them thaw.

   The strawberries mix in the pot start mostly white and thick, then gets thin as the sugar melts, then thickens and starts to look clear. Yummmmm….

   That looks about right.  I think.  Let's go with it.  Into the freezer for a quick cool down because, well, I didn't make this the day before - it's already 3 o'clock and this is for dinner.  While that is cooling, I work on a bonus to the pie I got from Dad.  A small layer of whipped cream cheese on the bottom of the crust.  Somewhere online I got the simple instructions for it. One brick of cream cheese, 1/4 c. milk, whip, done.

Failure #2: Homemade whipped cream cheese.

   I don't have a picture of this, but it was the consistency and texture of pancake batter.  Hm, well okay then, that didn't work.  Fine.  Do I really want to even put this in?  "Handsome Boy! Come to the kitchen and taste this!"  One spoon just strawberry, one spoon cheese stuff and strawberry.  The vote is a huge grin - cheese goes in.  So, okay.  I will pour it in the crusts and stick them in the freezer to harden before the filling goes in.  Perfecto - it worked!!  It looked like a nice glaze on the bottom.  Mix in the sliced (chopped) strawberries to the cooked stuff, pour into crusts, and…

   YUM! The little white dish was an extra bit from the mix fiasco, which went in so much later than the main two pie crusts that it didn't burn. So I had enough for two and a half and a quarter pies.  Into the freezer again for a bit, to stiffen up the filling, and then off to the party.

Failure # 2 1/2: Runny filling.

   I call this a half-failure, because it was delicious and no one cared that it ran.  It wasn't actually runny, but it didn't keep its shape when cut.  You know, like in the commercials, where nothing is like real life, or like when you cut a pie too soon after coming out of the oven.  I think it didn't chill enough in the crusts, or it needed to thicken up on the stove more, but those are easy fixes to try next time.  Bottom line is the kids and adults both loved it, and we didn't even use whipped cream on top.  Happy dance!

   So in the end I successfully made homemade, from scratch, strawberry pie.  I don't know if I can all myself a baker, but it's a step in the right direction.  I've gained the confidence of making pie crusts, and now I don't have to buy them anymore.

Joyfully yours,
K