Dehydrating Pan Drippings

Here's a new one for you...

(Or rather, it's a new idea to me!)

 

Pan drippings and what to do with them!

 

After the pot roast was finished cooking

and I used as much of the dripping as I needed

for making gravy, I continued cooking

down the extra juices/dripping in my crockpot.

(I left an air vent when putting the cover on)

 

After refridgerating, I scooped off the

fat and those left behind carrots.

It is LOTS easier to 

remove at this point... 

 



 

 and then I poured

it onto the solid plastic 'fruit roll sheet'.

This has a lip so nothing will spill out and

nothing will leak through!

 

 

 Here's the chicken broth left over from

roasting a chicken ...  I did not cook

this down. I put it into the fridge so that

I could remove the fat easily.

 

 

One minute in the microwave and

then poured out onto another

solid sheet for the dehydrator!

 

(I did them differently to see which

way works the best for me!)

 

It's suppose to take about 6 hours...

but, I'll let you know!

 

STORAGE:

This is suppose to look kinda like

jerky when it is done. After it's dry,

it will be cut up into roughly, 1 1/2 X 2 inch

strips and stored in Mason jars in the freezer.

 

USE:

These pieces become like bouillon

cubes only better!! NO SODIUM or

CHEMICALS!! Add a piece to

soup for wonderful flavoring or

add to a bit of boiling water

and thicken for gravy!!

 

UPDATE:

I re-hydrated the chicken pieces

to use in gravy...  very tasty!

One thing I would do differently

is to make sure that the pieces

are totally dried! Mine weren't

dried to the point of crispness... I think

there was still some fat in the drippings

so it didn't dry as well as it should.

Maybe I didn't have the temp. high

enough, maybe I just didn't wait long

enough. I will try this again!

 

 

This post is shared on

Simple Lives Thursday

Please go check out all

the awesome ideas!

Kohlrabi

Have you ever tried kohlrabi?? I tried it years ago... I remember it being an odd vegetable, one that I wasn't too sure what to do with!

This year when we planned the garden and we were looking through the seed catalogs, we decided to try it again! SO... how does one describe this veggie?

I was telling my mom that is looks like a little sputnik and that made Pete & my mom laugh... but it's true, AND we all knew what shape to think of when trying to imagine it! The edible part grows on top of the ground and has large leaves. It has a long root that grows under the ground shaped similar to a carrot!

Here it is.... still growing and here's a bowl of them ready for me to figure out what to do next!! After peeling it, slice it or dice it but definitely taste it raw!! The flavor is a cross between a cabbage, broccoli, celery and has the texture of a cooked potato or turnip!

It's really rather good!! We'll be growing these guys again next summer! :)

What to do with it???  That's the journey I'm on today....   I've had one amazing dish (THANK YOU PETRA!) called rahmgemuse, which is basically a creamed veggie. Today I'm going to investigate the possibility of cooking then dehydrating!!

SOUPS,  KOHLRABI CHIPS, CREAMED....  etc. Just getting my thinking cap back on for the beginning of the fall garden round up!!

When it was all said and done...   I ended up with 1 1/4 cup of dried kohlrabi! This doesn't sound like much, but it should reconstitute to make a 9X13 baking pan of kohlrabi au gratin using the recipe in my book "Making & Using Dried Foods" by Phylllis Hobson.

Sun Dried Tomatoes ... Who Knew?

Who knew it was this easy?!

We LOVE sun dried tomatoes!
(Ok, technically... dehydrator dried!)

It is nearing the end of the garden season and 

I am TIRED of canning tomatoes.

I never thought I'd say that...  but I am.

I think it is mostly because the more I can, the more space

I need to come up with to store it!

(But that's a discussion for another day.)

I decided to give the dehydrator a try. Check this out!

Saturday night was my test run was with 2 apples and

one tray full of fresh picked cherry tomatoes ...

washed & cut in half!

I sprinkled the tomatoes with a little bit of sea salt

(didn't do that for the following batch)

and I lightly sprinkled the apples with cinnamon sugar!

Can you say DELICIOUS!!! I AM SOOO ExCiTeD!

Sunday night I loaded up the trays with more cherry tomatoes

and left them overnight (roughly from 9PM to 5AM)

and they came out perfectly!

Storage for these little guys is a mason jars

with olive oil and in the back of the fridge!

There is a total of 7 dehydrator trays in these 2 jars.

It doesn't look like much... but it is!

You ask, 'now what?'... 

I can't wait to use them in pesto-chicken,

turkey sandwiches and can't you just smell

the bread cooking!?

Ahhh, I'm going to start drooling if I don't stop now!

I'll share pictures with you as

I figure out more recipes to use them in!

The apples came out awesome too!

I only did two apples... but everyone like them!

I'll definitely be doing more of these as well,

but, most likely without the sugar!

I need to do some more investigating,

but I've seen both tomatoes

& apples stored in zipper type bags (remove air)

and store on a pantry shelf or in the freezer.

 I'll let you know how that all works out!

Next up.... regular sized tomatoes. I'm going to try thinly slicing them and then adding a little basil & sea salt before dehydrating them!

(Posted on Healthy 2day Wednesdays )

Kale... It Isn't Just For Decorations Anymore!

About three years ago that I discovered how delicious kale really is! Up until this time, the only thing I knew it was used for was to decorate a plate with a couple of slices of twisted oranges in restaurants! How wrong I was! It grows pretty hardily here in the north east... maybe it grows well everywhere, I really don't know.

I was invited to a friend's house for a visit and lunch one day....  she made Portuguese Soup. I'd never tried it before but basically it has a clear broth with white potatoes, mild but spicey Portuguese sausage and kale as main ingedients. It was VERY good! But KALE... ??

Well, I decided to buy some and to try my own hand at using this new, odd veggie! I came up with my own version of Kale Soup. It has been a HUGE HIT at our house ever since!! I've shared the recipe before... check out KALE SOUP if you want to check it out it!

After purchasing the kale and making my soup, we decided to try growing it...  viola! We discovered it grew VERY WELL! Still being on the learning curve, I wasn't sure how well it would 'freeze' or 'dry' or 'can'...  I did try to freeze it and it was... ahhhh, ok. THEN... I pulled out the dehydrator to try that method and can now say, it is totally amazing! The 'queen of green' has found its way into our hearts! :) 

Last year I dehyrated a few batches... enough to fill up a 60 oz. plastic 'pretzel container' that I get when I buy bulk and then I crushed some to fill a quart sized canning jar. (An easy way to add the nutrition to spaghetti sauce or other sauces!)

THIS YEAR... I have already picked three times! My newest discovery is that the more often I pick, the more I'll get! It keeps growing back ... like spinach! I am already almost done filling my second LARGE plastic container and I have at least a couple months left!

Maybe you already know all this .... but just in case you didn't, I wanted to share with you! Plant kale, pick often, try new recips and methods of food storage! You'll be glad you did! Oh and by the way... check out the nutritional value too!

Sharing this on Simple Lives Thursday!

Kale...

Kale is a new to me vegetable over the past couple of years! I had a kale soup at a friend's house and REALLY liked it! After coming home I came up with my own version of Kale Soup and posted it here. I have done some research on the nutrients found in kale... VERY IMPRESSIVE INDEED!

Now, I'm working on my kale patch from the garden... YIKES it just grows and grows and GROWS!!

I've frozen some and now I'm working on dehydrating some too!! A friend of mine told me that she does this, so I thought I'd try it too! IT IS SUPER EASY!!

Pick, rinse well, tear or cut the leaves off the spine and put them on the dehydrator racks...  turn the machine on and roughly 4 hours later...   we have dried leaves!!

I took one batch, put them into a zip lock bag and crunched the leaves down to more of a powder. I think this will be a fun way of adding kale to spaghetti sauces and other soups etc. for a little bit more of a nutritious boost or if I ever get around to figuring out how to make my own pasta... I can see adding some kale powder to that too! :)

The rest of the dried kale leaves I've put into a large plastic container for storage! This will be used for kale soup or other soups where I want to have the leafy textures added in!! I've also read that you can bake the leaves spread out on a baking sheet sprinkled with a little olive oil and seasoned salt for kale chips!

I've shared this on Simple Lives Thursday hosted by Sustainable Eats! Check out this site for more recipes, tips and ways others have found to make their lives simpler! There are some very creative people out there!

Dehydrating??

Here's another new adventure to check out..... the art of dehydrating fruits & veggies! I was looking online to see if I could find any second hand dehydrators when Pete reminded me that we had one! (I thought we had gotten rid of it years ago!)

I found it right where he said it would be! Now, I need to clean it up and RE-try this whole dehydrating process! I liked the idea years ago, but had too much on my plate to give it much attention! Food storage could take up so much LESS space, and space is a huge commodity around here!  I'd like to try something easy like blueberries, mushrooms or peppers.... I'll keep you posted!  :)

UPDATE!!!  We cut up mushrooms and started the process of drying today! For the first three hours they are suppose to be at 95* and then the final 4-10 hours at 125*!!  This is what they looked like when we started it up......

Seven hours later this is what they look like....  and they have a couple more hours to go!

What would normally have fit, all cut up, into 1 gallon sized zipper bag, is now almost filling 1 quart sized zipper bag and is storable (without the possibility of freezer burn) in a cool, dark place like a pantry shelf!

(Recommended 60*F in an air tight container, ie: zipper bags or tightly sealed glass or plastic containers!)  Now on to batch number two!