I'm so pumped about one of the most recent additions to our kitchen. We got (finally!) an Excalibur Dehydrator! I've been wanting one of these for years, always sighing over it when I saw a picture of one or people writing recipes that seemed to always include the famous Excalibur.And I can see why it's so famous now. It's really amazing! We use to have a little round one, with the trays with holes in them. The heat was so hot, I was afraid that it was "cooking" rather than "un-cooking". When we made raw pizza rounds, they may have been round, but the hole in the middle was most inconvenient. And I always had to switching around the trays so that the heat was evenly distributed. Often in the night I'd get up to check on my raw creations (setting my alarm) because I had to make sure I didn't over dry things. And to top it all, I had to stop using down to basically nothing, because the electricity bill went up because of it.
Sigh...this one is a dream. Beautiful, huge square trays (9 of them, we got the biggest) that fit scads and scads of things, no hole in the middle. I don't have to switch trays because the heat of it is even distributed. I don't have to babysit the thing, because it has an adjustable timer. And hurrah! The Excalibur is really good on electricity and doesn't cost barely anything to run. I love that thing! But despite my evident love for it, my Mom has been using it more than I have been. Lately, I've been wanting more fresh fruits and foods, or just not heaps of it...going more for the lighter stuff.
Last night she made fruit leather and has been drying apples. We've been doing pears, bananas, and all sorts of lovely fruits in there. I'm looking forward to culturing and making homemade yogurt in there too.
But there's more happy news, at least for me...yesterday I was SO SO SO tickled pink to find out that on Raw Epicurian's Blog I had won a book by Matthew Kenney! I've only won one other contest in my life, so I'm pretty excited. I just love the work that M.K. does, he's inspiring. Ingrid is such a sweetie to do all those contests.
Running is going okay too...I'm such a baby beginner and I feel like I'm gonna kill myself when I run, but afterwards...mwah! It's like a clean energy burning through you. Not like I should deserve that energetic feeling, now...the furthest I've run is 3 K. But I'm celebrating my victories and trying to make it fun. Maybe someday soon I'll be running 10 K...like my amazing older brothers (who are into running).
What's some of the most amazing things you like to make in the Dehydrator? (I want some more lovely ideas)
