Pioneer Woman at Heart

  Our weather is all over the map. One day it was sunny and 65°F, the next dreary and rain all day, and then the next?  Cold and snow.  Yep.  That's how it's been.  Now we roll into a a cold snap. I have had some later than usual work.  I filled the dehydrator with parchment lined paper, and got busy with about 10 heads (or bulbs) of home grown garlic.  I apologize to those who have already read posts about making garlic powder.  Back in 2020 I hosted an online Pampered Chef party to help out a friend.  Never in my life did I think so many people would order, and I ended up with lots of free items.  Two items were the garlic peeler and slicer.  The above is the "peeler" for the garlic cloves.  You do separate the head of garlic, then place a few cloves inside the tube, and roll it back and forth in with the palm of your hand.  The dried peeling will crack and very easily come off the clove of garlic. I use disposable latex...

  The tool on the left is used for removing the garlic skins.  you place the garlic inside the tube and roll it with your hand.  The tool on the right is used to slice the garlic. You put the top piece of the slicer back on top and twist the bottom as you press down the top. I have learned to not over fill this, making it much easier. I know this is a repeat post, and I do make it yearly most garden seasons.  If you have never made garlic powder you can click on my post below on how I make it, after the garlic is dehydrated.   My very first years making garlic powder, I would hand peel, and hand slice.   How to Dehydrate Garlic and Make Garlic Powder Tips: -Use latex gloves. -Rinse all the tools/knife if you are not going to do dishes right away.  Garlic dries rock hard, making washing things difficult. -I only have 4 mats for my dehydrator, so I use parchment paper some times, so that I don't lose the very small bits of the garlic.  I d...

  I finally got around to dehydrating garlic.  I typically do this when I can open my windows, but saved this job for this winter. You put your cloves into the rubber tube, roll gently pressing to remove garlic skins.  My tools are from Pampered Chef, but I am sure Amazon sells something similar.  I got mine free, and love them!  It is so much faster than hand peeling/slicing. Put the cloves in the slicer compartments, and press and turn to slice garlic.  Not real easy to clean, but works great. I first started doing this all by hand - hand peeling, hand slicing then grinding.  I sliced my cloves onto parchment paper this time.  It just makes it easier to get it all into my coffee grinder to grind up. I am dehydrating the garlic on 125°F in my Excalibur for 8 - 12 hours.  I store garlic powder in an air tight jar in my pantry.  Unlike onion powder, it will not collect moisture (best way to store  my onion powder is in an airtight ja...

I posted yesterday that I was dehydrating garlic.  I realized I don't think I've made a post about making garlic powder with dehydrated garlic.  First, peel all the cloves, and slice thinly.  Place on dehydrating trays.  If your trays have larger holes, cover them with parchment paper first. The holes on my trays worked fine.  Once the garlic is crisp (use the guide book that came with your dehydrator for temperature and time), you will remove them from the trays.  I did not use parchment paper, so I line my counter top with a sheet of waxed paper.  I gently push all the garlic off the trays. I hold each side of the waxed paper up so the garlic goes to the middle and they can slide easily off the waxed paper and into a coffee grinder.  You then grind them until it turns into a powder form. I am lucky to have a glass container that fits a canning funnel.  I pour the powder out of the grinder and into the jar....

If you are wondering, I have not had time to learn to knit socks.  I have been that busy most days.  I guess that's a good thing, but I have hopes in coming out of this pandemic learning something new. It's been a cold April here too.  We also ran out of cut/split wood, so the heaters are back on sadly.  Hubby has been working on the car after work and there was also a fuel problem, so that meant more parts and more work. Not much I can do in the garden without the help of my husband so the peas have yet to be planted.  Yesterday snow was in our forecast again (which we got a little of) and then rain. First thing in the morning, I dug out my fusible web (which took time to find) and some scrap fabric.  I had to patch one daughter's favorite pants. I filled 3 large trays with garlic yesterday.  Not my home grown, but home grown in another state.  I rely on the farmer's market for a spring batch of garlic powder.  I made another one ...