Paste Tomatoes ~ Spearmint ~ Cucumber Powder ~ Bell Peppers

I'll admit, that some things suffer this time of year, and yes that is a big ol' pile of towels on a kitchen chair.  It's been there for 2 days now, as I have been very busy, and too tired at the end of the day.  We still need to eat and we still need to have clean clothes and linens.

Tomatoes are still rolling in.  I've canned ketchup and Lemony-Basil Tomato Soup, and a 2nd batch of ketchup.

I've put a start on dehydrating spearmint finally.  I've also made dehydrated cucumber powder.  Spearmint is for tea and both of them are for Tzatziki Sauce this winter.  It is the first year to make cucumber powder, and I am researching the uses for it.  It sounds like it would be great in sauces, dips, and other recipes.  I had a few cucumbers getting too soft to make a salad, and didn't want to waste them (although I am sure the chickens would have loved them).  I do have a better plan to keep the cucumbers "fresh" after picking them.

The weather is heating back, so any dehydrating is on hold now.

I used some of our regular beefsteak type tomatoes to make fresh salsa.  I just throw it all in my food processor.  Our jalapenos are hot this year.  Woooweee! 

I have a few more bell peppers to take care of, but we found our newest, favorite breakfast. 

 I stuffed them for breakfast with some sage sausage, egg/cheese mixture with spinach.  The one in the middle spilled out, but you can't get "perfect" bell peppers when they are homegrown ha ha!  These were so dang good!  I used a recipe online from The Recipe Rebel, and just used the sausage vs. ham.

Has anyone frozen halves of bell peppers to make these over winter?  If we get more bell peppers in the garden, I may try freezing some in halves, just to try this breakfast.  I'm just wondering if they will be too soft after freezing.  Anyway, that is a quick catch up on what's going on here.

I found a quick pattern, to use up leftover cotton yarn balls, and I have a small container (one of the kids hand crafted me and gifted me one Christmas), in my kitchen now.  It's holding the leftover yarn, so I have a special place to work on them while watching the sauce reduce or canning. 

They are cup coasters, and after making 2 with the leftover balls of yarn, I had enough yarn to make one facial scrubbie, and still had a small bit of yarn leftover.  These are balls of yarn leftover from knitting dishcloths.  I do love the edging.  I now have learned a new stitch believe or not.  I'll get a better photo to share.  I plan to sell them all at the last, and only fall craft show this year (which I still have to locate and sign up).

I thought I took a photo, but will be back with that, as I am wondering what to do with the last small bit of yarn leftover.  I may call the local school and ask the art teacher if they could use it.

I am still putting up paste tomatoes, and may be doing it all next week. I am devoting Saturday to a day off from them, as we need to get the chicken coop worked on.  It seems that everything was put on hold, because of tomatoes.  I'm too tired at the end of the day, and I am my husband's only help.  If I am not available, it's not getting worked on.

We got a hot minute of porch time last night.  We grilled burgers and topped them with home canned pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese, and grilled corn on the cob.  The weather was oddly chilly.  The Labor Day weekend will be hot, with temps up in the upper 90's.  I'm glad I did not turn the AC off.

Dehydrated Oregano

 

Tip:  I drop my hydrated oregano (and other herbs) off of the dehydrator tray, and onto a piece of waxed paper.  I gently take the dried leaves off the stems.

I hold each side of the waxed paper, and with a canning funnel in the top of a quart canning jar, slide the dried herbs into the jar.

I do not crush the dried herbs.  I wait until I am cooking and then crush what I need.  It helps them retain flavor longer.

Another tip:  Check those lids you get on anything you do buy.  I saved a lid from a jar of organic mayo we bought over winter, and it fits perfectly on my quart canning jar.

It's a task, but I wash and dry all the trays before dehydrating another food in the dehydrator.

Happy Harvesting!

Fire Powder ~ How I Make It ~ Tidbits

 You can dehydrate the last handful of hot peppers in any form, but I place them in my food processor and grind them up to small bits.

(dehydrated in the photo)

I then spread them out on parchment paper and dehydrate in my dehydrator.  If you have an air fryer, most have a dehydrate option.

When they are all dried, I put them in a coffee bean grinder (used only for grinding dehydrated items), and grind into a powder.  I store in an air tight spice jar.

Add the ground powder to any recipe to add flavor.  I use it a lot in our breakfast casseroles/frittatas and scrambles.

Yes there are Christmas towels in there😂

I fear for our world we now live in.  More and more people we know are sick with covid.  It's spreading like wild fire in our area.  A co-worker of my husband's could use prayers.  He is the same age as me, and was moved to a different hospital with covid.  Both of his lungs collapsed.  His name is Lauren (not sure if I'm spelling it correct).  We last saw him in 2020.  

Dehydrating ~ Tomato Season Ends ~ Seed Saving

 The storms are over, so the dehydrator was back at it.

Rosemary made it's way into it first.  Once that was ready to come out, trays were cooled and washed.

Cayenne peppers made there way in next.  

Tomato season is officially over.  I am freezing what I have left.  Sort of a sad tomato year, but thankful for what we did get.

My layers are slowing down in egg production, which has me thinking of water-glassing them again for long storage.

Seed saving continues, and I feel it is very important to do, especially this year with how things are going with our food system.

The insurance company has attempted to deliver my Mom's 14 free meals 4-5 times now.  So far, nothing has arrived (other than the first shipment with warm rotten food).

Woke up to 55°F this morning.  I'm pretty sure the hot pepper season may be coming to an end.  I guess we'll see.  We better start stocking up on firewood.

Grilling ~ New Recipe Tried ~ Dehydrating

 

We got more rain yesterday and woke up to a foggy start for the day.  More rain possible today.

Santa Fe Chicken Fajita marinade (for the grill). First time in a year to have to buy organic bell peppers.  There is a cold salad/relish that is great with this, but I do not have a green pepper.

New recipe tried - Strawberry Cheesecake Ice box Pie.  Yeah, I cheated on the crust, but I didn't have the crust ingredients on hand.  I froze it, then topped it with remaining whipped cream and froze again.   It's been tried and sampled.  It's not thick like a cheesecake, but more on the lighter side.  Everyone loved it.  The strawberries are pureed with a bit of orange juice.  I think it was called an "ice cream" pie, but I'll look for it and link it up here later.

9 trays of oregano went into the dehydrator.

I got my green onion starts in the ground before the rain arrived again.

 

This and That

I had so much mundane tasks to do Monday, the onions never made their way to the dehydrator.

 Tuesday they finally got into the dehydrator.  

My yarn totes are made their way back to my bedroom closet sadly.  They were headed upstairs until one daughter moved back in last March.  I can't live with my office full of totes, so I'm making room (again) back in the closet. Then I can use my office once again.

I made 3 new recipes.  We loved the rosemary walnuts and the Southern sausage enchiladas with sausage gravy.  We will be cutting the Kamut granola bars and tasting them today.  All recipes are online.  I am thinking of trying a new recipe for dinner tonight.  The breakfast dish I made a few changes - left the seeds in the jalapeno, and I used butter (vs the grease left from the sausage) to make the gravy.  The original photo of the breakfast dish makes it look like you have lots of ooey gravy, but you don't.  It tasted great though.

Rosemary Walnuts  -  Sara Moulton online

Southern Sausage breakfast dish - online with Spicy Southern Kitchen

Kamut granola bars - online at the Kamut direct site.

I'm slowly cleaning the fridge again.  One shelf a day.  It's been crazy lately with trying to keep things stocked up for whatever happens in this crazy year.

 

Feverfew ~ Catnip ~ Canned Hot Pepper Jelly

The rain went right off the radar on Tuesday.  Not a drop.  Rain on the radar on Wed. went right off the radar as well.  Sigh.  I had to pick and choose what would be watered, considering the well isn't getting filled up.

I finally got some feverfew put into the dehydrator for winter tea if needed.  I'm hoping if we get rain, I can dehydrate more (it's in a pot vs. the ground).

Once that was dried I loaded it up with catnip.  I make catnip tincture as an ingredient for my bug off spray.  I will also make some catnip pillows for our cats and Mom's cats if I have enough for both.  I want to make my tincture with fresh catnip.

We love hot pepper jelly (now that I know how to really make it hot).  We love it as a go-to snack for gatherings or snacking.  It's great with cream cheese on a cracker.  I couldn't find hot cherry peppers, and did not grow them this year.  I used habanero, serrano, hot banana, hungarian wax, and jalapeno.  We'll taste this in a few weeks to see if it's a good as last years.

The sunrise is quickly moving to the south.  Sigh.  I'm not even ready to pull root veggies (if they even survived this drought).  Just another sign we need to start winter prep.

I overslept again.  Gonna down some nettle/oat straw infusion later, but first I have some work to do.  I forgot to marinate chicken, so dinner is a change of plans, but I need to stick to my list today.  I totally missed some things yesterday.  It's gonna be a very hot above 90 degree day.  Praying we get rain.

How to dehydrate garlic and make garlic powder

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.  It smells and tastes much better than anything you will find in the store.

Rainy Day Work ~ Flooded Out

Dirty dish pile started early Thursday morning.  Sausage/potato egg burritos with cowboy candy.  

I canned more strawberry margarita jam.

Froze more strawberries.

The rain just poured down on us.

I also diced up a bunch of onions and popped them in the dehydrator - homemade onion powder.  My supply is getting very low.  Also for winter, when I we get a lot of snow and I need onions to cook with.

I had herbal infused oil to strain, and a tincture to strain.  I had dishes to wash of course too.

I made an iced coffee for an afternoon "pick me up" since Hubby gets home so late now.  It was organic brewed coffee, cooled, a bit of milk, a splash of Bailey's and ice. Mmm!

It' literally poured and poured all afternoon.  I had to turn the dehydrator off until the thunder and lightning stopped.  I also couldn't feed the chickens until it stopped.   The front of our yard flooded and the field across the street.

When I did get out to the barn, and to the mailbox, my heart sank.  My potatoes and radishes were completely underwater.  By evening,  the field east of us flooded, spilling over the highway and into our front yard, flooding the road.  City crew came out with signs, just as I was calling them.  Didn't matter though.  I literally poured a glass of wine and sat on the porch.  I thought I would be calling 911, since idiots ignored the signs.  I saw a truck fish tail and a jeep just about wipe out.  Just a few people slowed to drive through it, but almost every other one plowed through it, throwing water twice the height of their vehicle.

Friday morning, the sun came up brightly, and we had zero rain.  Whew!  I checked on the potatoes when I fed the ladies.  Oh, speaking of the ladies, I am pretty sure out of the 7 chicks I bought, I have 2 ladies and 5 gents.  So, I'm planning on keeping two, giving one to a friend, and offering 2 to a family member who mentioned they want to start raising chickens.  We'll see how it goes I guess.

I got the new grill parts were installed and we fired it up for dinner Friday night.  What a beautiful day!!  The weekend will be dry, sunny and beautiful!  

How to Make Onion Powder and Onion Flakes

It's time to re-stock my onion powder and onion flakes.  Here is how you can make your own using a dehydrator (you could also use your oven if the temperature goes low enough).

Simply peel your onions, and chop them up.   You can use a non-electric hand chopper or simply dice them up quickly in a food processor. You can also dry them in slices if that's what you need for future meals, but they are too large to fit into a coffee grinder to make into powder.

Spread the chopped onions on parchment paper lined dehydrator trays, and dry in your dehydrator according to the instructions it comes with.

When the onions are dried, simply break apart your diced onions for "flaked" onions.  Place the remainder in a small coffee grinder and grind until it becomes a powder.

Store the onion flakes in airtight glass jars in your spice cabinet.  These will also collect moisture, so you may want to store them using my next tip.

Store the onion powder in your freezer to keep it dry and prevent it from hardening.  If you place it in your cabinet it will quickly harden, unlike garlic powder.  You can also put some white rice, a few beans in it, but I typically don't shake mine out.  I measure with a measuring spoon, and it's much easier for me if I don't have anything in the onion powder.  Shallot powder also hardens over time.

I recycled a jar the size of a half pint to store my onion powder, using a screw top lid.  My canning funnel fits in it perfectly to pour it out of the grinder easily.