Saving Space - Dehydrating Canned Tomatoes

The love affair with my dehydrator is more intense these days.  If it's not nailed down or consumed, more than likely food will find itself on a drying tray. 

Nine pints of tomatoes sat in my pantry that were a couple of years old.  There are a lot of conversations lately about how long home canned items should sit on the shelf and a lot more disagreement about the quality of the canning lids or flats, as Mom called them.  The debate is not about the sealing material, but about how much of that material is on the lid, especially during the last couple of years.  Ball, Kerr, Mason packaging states that home canned items should be used within a year and claim that has always been the recommendation.  Home canners are upset that their canned goods no longer have a 3-5 year shelf life as they had been accustomed.  There seems to be no resolution.  So rather than taking a chance on losing my good organic tomatoes, I dried them. 

As is typical, I forget to keep a camera on hand during the process.  The text version will have to do for now.

I drained the biggest portion of the liquid from the tomatoes, mostly water, then gently spread two pints of tomatoes on a dehydrator tray.  Gently spread the fruit on the tray, but don't press down.  You want to keep the good tomato flavor in tact.  Cut the larger pieces in half so the trays fit properly in the dehydrator.  Set the temperature to 125 and let the tomatoes dry overnight.  The next morning, peel the tomatoes from the trays, flip the tomato pieces over, and allow dry for another 4-5 hours.  When brittle, remove and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Use a coffee grinder, a blender, or food processor to make a powder.  Sift the powder into a bowl and reprocess the bigger chunks again.  Store tomato powder in a canning jar with an oxygen pack.  Results:  Nine pints of tomatoes yielded 1/2 pint of tomato powder.  A scant tablespoon of powder is equivalent to 1 cup tomato sauce.  The powder is a beautiful red color and has a fresh tomato smell.  It dissolves easily in warm water - great for soups!

Finished Tomato Powder

You may be wondering how much tomato "trash" was left.  Less than a teaspoon!  I could not get this to grind any smaller; it was mostly some of the "unripe" parts of the tomatoes that were hard when I packed the jars. 


Dried Tomato "Trash"

All in all, I'm happy with the results and happier with the extra pantry space.  Good timing - there are a lot of tomatoes in the garden waiting to ripen.

Sourdough Starter - The Gift that Keeps on Giving

        It's great to have a gift that has an endless supply of surprises.  Check my post about my birthday gift of sourdough starter.  This starter is a wonderful adventure for my tastebuds.  We love the French Bread, Pancakes and French Toast recipes.  Tried and true, these are made more frequently now.
        The latest success story was a batch of Cinnamon Rolls.  Holy Cow, these are good.... I mean really, really GOOOOOOOOD.  Light and tender, perfectly sweet - I felt guilty not sharing.  Not!

          Back to my standby cookbook, Sourdough Jack's Cookery, there it was under the heading Fruited Sourdough Breakfast Rolls just waiting to be whipped up.   All I can say is you gotta try this recipe.

¾ cup starter
1 cup evaporated milk
3½ cups flour
¼ cup soft butter
3 tbsp sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp soda
1½ tsp salt

3 tbsp melted butter (I needed 4)
¼ c packed brown sugar (I needed ⅓ cup), mixed with
1 tsp cinnamon (little extra never hurts)

Stir starter, milk, and 2 cups of the flour in a large mixing bowl.  Cover and let sit overnight in a warm place.

First night's dough

         Next morning, beat ¼ cup butter, 3 tbsp sugar and egg.  Beat into the sourdough mixture.  Sift together the remaining 1 ⅓ cup flour, baking powder, soda, and salt.  Add to the mixture.  Turn onto flour board and knead until soft and satiny.  Keep enough flour so the dough doesn’t stick  Roll out to 16” X 8” (mine was 16” X 24”).  Brush with butter, sprinkle with brown sugar mixture; add some raisins, dates, pecans if you desire.  Roll, starting with long side.  Cut into 9 (12) slices.  There was no way this was fitting in a 8" square pan.  The rolls were crammed into a 7" X 11" pan.
         Cover and let rise until doubled.   They were smelling good at this stage.

Rolled and Risen - one of these I cut a little too big.

        Bake 375 F (preheated oven) for 35 minutes.  Serve warm, if you want to wait that long.  Hot was good.

I made an icing with 1 tbsp butter, 1 cup powered sugar and some of the remaining evaporated milk and a splash of vanilla.  The icing was a little thick so it wouldn't melt and run off the roll.

        Yep, these were a huge success - definitely doing these again.  Next batch of this sweet dough may become kolaches.

Enjoy!!

Sourdough French Bread

For my birthday this year, I received a jar of Sourdough Starter.  Sourdough French bread would be my first project since Magic Man was traveling.  It was the perfect time to experiment.  Taking a deep breath, I ventured into uncharted territory.

Per the instructions, I measured 1-1/2 cups of warm water into my bread crock, added 1 tablespoon of yeast, 1 cup of room temperature starter, 4 cups flour, 2 teaspoons each sugar and salt.  Then beat vigorously for 3-4 minutes and set it aside to rise for 1-1/2 hours to rise.

My first batch didn't absorb the flour and was a little thin for the initial rise, but it still worked well in the end.  I added more flour with the baking soda step.  Batch number 2 looked better, but the end results were the same.

Before rising

After rising

Now it's time to mix 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda with 1 cup of flour, keeping an extra cup of flour handy.  Knead in the flour & soda mixture to the dough, working in additional flour as needed to minimize the stickiness.  Knead 5-10 minutes until the dough is smooth and satiny.  Shape into loaves, lightly grease baking pan, then lightly coat pan with cornmeal.  Gently place dough on prepared pan and score the loaves.

Shaped and Scored Loaf

Cover and let this rise until double in size again.

Loaf Doubled, Ready for the Oven

Here's where the book and I part directions.  Preheat the oven to 400F.  Place the baking pan on the lower 1/3 part of the oven.  Spray the inside of the oven with water to create steam.  Close and bake 15 minutes.  Spray a second time and bake another 10-15 minutes.  The loaf will be a deep golden color when done.

Baste the loaf with butter.  Wait impatiently to be cool enough to slice.

Finished Sourdough French Loaf

Second Batch Finished.

I love kneading sourdough.  It is the softest, silkiest dough I've ever handled.  It kneads and shapes beautifully.  

Awards and "It Must be a Sign"

What a weekend...

     In case I failed to mention this tidbit, Magic Man and I moved from the Big City to the Big City North last summer. My job keeps me racing back 300 miles to the Big City every couple of weeks, but that's another story.
     This past weekend, my dear friend M and I headed south.  He did not know he was the recipient of the prestigious "Volunteer of the Year" award at the FRC Regional event.  Surprise!!  Neither of us could participate this year due to conflicts, but I had to get him there for this one day AND keep the award a secret.  It was good to show up, even for a few hours.  We missed the kids, the volunteers, the coaches - and they missed us (hurray!).  Good, good times.

M sharing the joy with another recipient

      Did I mention how much we enjoy the kids?  These students are great!  They are innovative, creative, and a lot of fun.  They ARE our hope for the future.  STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) events are an inspiration to learn and apply learning.  They are, contrary to popular belief, not always the "smart kids."  They simply have a hands-on activity that gives them the desire to learn and to express themselves.

Teams create and design their uniforms and work clothing...

All-girl team sporting their work aprons

Team Shirt

... and are responsible to keep their machines running.

Quick maintenance between matches

     This year, each team made a shirt for the EmCee to sport during introductions.  This one is my favorite.  Can you find the shark?  Poor guy, he had over 50 shirts to wear over 2 days.

EmCee and the Shark Shirt

It was a fun day.  Lots of wonderful memories.

     On the way home, we detoured by Mom's out in the "Middle of Nowhere."  I love it there, so does M and his wife L.   A quick night's sleep, breakfast, and we were on the road again toward home (after raiding Mom's garden - shhhhh!).  But first, we stopped at the Tomato Stand, a little self serve place just off the FM road.  You don't see these places much anymore in these parts, so I frequent them as often as I can.

Tomatoes

And more

     20 miles further up the road is the Egg Farm, another self serve spot off the road.   It's an understanding with the customers; no sign needed - and Mrs. B only sells eggs.
     Finally, there was a quick stop for lunch.  This sign made me laugh as is evident by the poor quality of the photo.  I couldn't take a better picture.

Take a Number Please

    It was good to get back home.  I missed Magic Man and the Golden Girls and Granddaughter..., oh and her parents.

Bacon and Lemons

It has been a long time, a very long time, since I've posted anything here.  Life seems to get in the way of the blog life.  A new granddaughter, changes at work, moving 300 miles (closer to my granddaughter), ailing family took up time.  Couple that with not having a camera handy when it's most needed.  Excuses, excuses!    My Grandmother told me that excuses are the sign of a weak person.

So back to busy-ness.  A few weeks ago, I discovered pay dirt in the form of a tiny, nearly hidden butcher shop in my new town.  Keep in mind I frequently read and am inspired by Cowgirl and Ohio Farmgirl.   These ladies can do ANYTHING and they DO everything.  Blend them with Maxine and you have the perfect woman.  Well, that would be the woman I want to be.

So, this week has been productive and fun.  We came back from a cousin's wedding, snagged back my dehydrator from Mom's.  (I had no room for it in the apartment, but now in a house - woo hoo, I can stretch my kitchen wings again).

Last week, I purchased a big bag of lemons. Today I sliced them in 1/8" slices and cranked up the heat (155 F) on my little Excalibur.  Six hours later, dried lemon slices.

 

Lemon Slices Drying

Then I purchased 20 lb of pork belly from the butcher yesterday.  It was frozen solid.  Really solid.  So solid, the butcher had to saw the slabs (frozen together) to make a sale.  Seven hours ticked by, then I could pull the still frozen slabs apart.

Slab set 1 of 2

OK, I'll get back on track.  The pork is beautifully streaked and very meaty.

Slab set 2 of 2

My mouth is watering for a bacon sandwich now.  But there are steps, and waiting, lots of waiting before that happens.

I grabbed my bacon cure (from the Pork Heaven near Mom's place) out of the pantry.

Bacon Cure

Trimmed the skin off the pork belly (see what to do with this little treasure (click here for chicharrones)

Trimming the skin off the pork belly

Massaged in the cure, anywhere and everywhere, wrapped in plastic bags and stuffed the meat into the refrigerator.

Cold curing

Now we wait for 5 days.  Tick... tick... tick... tick... tic

Y'all come back, now, ya hear?

This is My Lucky Day

Luck #1.

Mr. B works with me.  Mr. B is very talented, is not credited enough for his skills.  On top of that, he's one heck of a nice guy.  I adore Mr. B.  He should be my son.

Mr. B had a bag of lemons on his desk, at least that was the info from his office partner in Mr. B's absence.  I picked up and smelled those bright yellow orbs.  Then he walks in.  I was caught sniffing the goods.  He explained they came from his tree at home, then graciously offered the bag of, the bag of LIMES.  Yellow limes?  These must be ripe.

Luck #2

Sam's Club is not my favorite place to shop.  To be honest, outside of fabric shops or old-time hardware stores, I don't like to shop.  OK, maybe the trip to the farmers' market.  But since I HAD to be here, I wandered over to the cheese chest.  Preparing to be disappointed again, my eyes carefully scanned the dairy assortment.  And then, I heard the angels, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh...".  There was my cheese, MY cheese.  It was back.  Containing a happy dance, I picked up a block and hurried it to check out.  No waiting, no pausing for  any other item.  This was my sole purchase, my soul purchase.  I hugged the cheese all the way home.

Back at the hacienda, I carefully hid the block of gold in the refrigerator, away from Magic Man's hands that sleight.  He will not make my cheese disappear, I will.

Look at all the lovely colors of heat in this cheese, the swirl of jack and cheddar.  It is time for a midnight snack.

'Night y'all.