My Mobile Home Gourmet Blog
Wednesday 2024.10.9
Dehydrator Fun
In some of my videos, you might remember seeing a sign on my refrigerator — EAT FREEZER FOOD. I shop at Costco and I often buy large bags of frozen foods, such as mixed vegetables. Recently I bought a bag of frozen chicken wings and the bag was huge. Similarly, a six pound bag of 140 meatballs is large. It's easy to fill my freezer.
I've been watching YouTube videos about dehydrating. I learned a good first project for beginners like me is frozen mixed vegetables. They're already blanched. One only needs to spread them on dehydrator trays and dehydrate them at 125°F for 10 to 12 hours. Then they can be stored in jars. Dehydrated, they take up a lot less space. I set aside one shelf in my shed to store dry foods.
Some people vacuum seal their jars before storing them. I found a jar vacuum sealer on Vine; so, I ordered it. It arrived on Sunday.
I also made a quick trip to Target to buy a dozen Ball mason jars. (I looked on Vine, but no luck this time.) I do have one of those FoodSaver vacuum sealers with plenty of bags, but the bags are not reusable. I can use the jars many time. And because I am jarring dry food, not wet, I can reuse the lids as well.
And for added protection for my dehydratred vegetables, I ordered some silica gel desiccant packets to place in the jars.
On Monday evening I put about 7½ pounds (1½ bags) of frozen mixed vegetables on my dehydrator racks and started the process. The following day I transferred the dried vegetables to two mason canning jars. I added a silica gel desiccant packet to each jar and I used the electric jar vacuum sealer to finish the jars. It took three cycles with the sealer to complete the task, but it worked well.
I videoed the process. You can view the video by clicking on the graphic below, or CLICK HERE.
Some people on YouTube said to leave the jars on the kitchen counter for a few days to watch for any moisture on the inside of the glass. If none appears, the jars can go into storage. Mine will go out in the shed. I'll rehydrate the vegetables in soup this winter.
An Experiment
Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I make a few batches of Chicken Stock each fall for winter soups. I freeze it in one-cup containers, then pop out the frozen stock and store them, eight cups at a time, in one-gallon ziplock bags. Obviously, they take up room in my freezer.
I saw a YouTube video in which the cook made "boats" with pieces of parchment paper. He called them boats. They were flat like a cookie sheet with sides. The idea was to pour stock, one cup per tray, in each boat and then dehydrate it down to a dry powder.
One precaution was to carefully handle the trays. If they are tipped or bumped, stock can slosh over the sides onto the counter or floor, making a mess.
Now here's my idea. Freeze the stock as usual. Then place the frozen stock in the boats and arrange in the dehydrator. The ice should melt and the stock should dehydrate, without any worries of spilling stock onto the floor.
I haven't tried this yet, but I still have two cups of stock in my freezer. That should be enough for an experiment.
Sunday 2024.10.6
I Love Oil
I'm a sucker for a good oil lamp. I have a few. One is an antique, two are small cheap things I got from Vine, another is one I've had since my college days. I don't use them often, but they're handy when the power goes out. Sometimes it's a storm or a fire up in the mountains; sometimes it's simply and unexpected outage.
I have battery-powered lanterns too, but they don't have the same warm pleasant glow of an oil lamp. They're also not dimmable. On my oil lamps I can turn the wick up or down as needed to get the amount of light I want.
On Thursday there was yet another oil lamp on Vine. I couldn't resist ordering it.
How About More OCD?
I don't suffer form obsessive-compulsive disorder, but there are times when I do things that might suggest OCD.
Here's the thing: I've mentioned having a few LEGO-like kits that have a Christmas theme — The Griswold house and Cousin Eddie's RV from the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and the Parker house from the movie A Christmas Story.
I thought it might be fun to build them in December while watching some of my favorite Christmas movies. I don't want to leave them assembled indefinitely. The plan is to disassemble them in January or February and put them away until the following December.
This week I found something I've wanted. On Vine there were packages of ziplock poly bags, six inches wide and 18 inches long. The plan is to put the kit pieces in poly bags, but in an order that would be easy for reassembly when I'm ready for the kit again. For example, all the pieces for the first few steps in one bag rather than having to search for pieces in multiple bags.
The bags are too long; however, I have an impulse heat sealer. I can shorten the bags as needed. And the zipper top makes the bags reusable.
I decided the Eagle-5 RV from the movie Spaceballs would make a good first project to test my idea. It was already built and needed to be disassembled. The process went well. All the pieces are now nicely sorted and in the original box with the instruction book. I'm not sure when I'll build it again. It seems like a good project for when the weather is stormy outside.
I didn't number the bags; instead, I labeled them according to the steps in the booklet. Is it OCD or do I simply enjoy being organized? I'll go with the latter.
UGH!
Not everything on Amazon Vine is worth having. This past week I ordered a package of "printer paper." The description on Amazon said it was 22 LB. The label on the package of paper says 24 LB. I put the paper in my laser printer and tried to print a document. The paper jammed. The jam was so bad, I had to disassemble part of my printer to remove the paper. It took about an hour.
I have a small digital scale that measures weight in tenths of a gram. A sheet of 22 LB paper weighed 5.1g. A sheet of this new paper weighed 4.7g. This is awful paper and the product description is deceptive. I left a negative review, 1 out of 5 stars, on Amazon.
Finally, Food
I'm already starting to think winter foods. I bought six pounds of beef at Costco yesterday. I used half to make a pot of Real Texas Chili yesterday. I put seven servings in the freezer. This week I'll make another batch. One thing I really like about making chili is using my Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker. It's a beauty of stainless steel.
Wednesday 2024.10.2
The Debate
I watched the Vice Presidential Debate yesterday evening. I thought both candidates performed equally well. The difference was that one lied a lot and the other didn't. The decision as to which candidate won the debate, that depends on whether or not you believe the lies.
One thing that irked me a little was the GOP's insistence in blaming Harris for the immigrant problem and inflation in this country. For the past four years she was the vice president, not the president. They were not her policies; they were Biden's. However, of course, Biden is not running for re-election (much to the chagrin of the Republicans). Harris is running. So, the other side can't smear him; they therefore smear her.
Politics is dirty business and I almost wish the election was over — except, I don't look forward to seeing all the challenges and claims it was stolen. I still hope Harris will win, and I'll vote for her. It's not that I think she would be an excellent president; I think Trump is a danger to our democracy.
A Very Useful Knife
This week I saw how useful that Chinese cleaver I ordered from Vine could be. I wanted to grill a couple of chicken thighs, but they were thick. I used the broad side of the cleaver to flatten the thighs. They cooked more quickly and evenly on the grill.
Technically, it's not really a cleaver. It's a Chinese kitchen knife, and they use it for almost everything. I've been using it for almost all my cutting tasks too. It's handy.
Frustration
I can withstand frustration for only so long. I've been trying to build the vintage Model A car kit I received from Vine. The pieces fit together well enough, but not securely enough. Sections repeatedly came loose during the assembly. Finally, I disassembled my progress and started again, using glue.
Some of the LEGO-like Chinese knockoff kits assemble easily. The Eagle 5 RV from the Spaceballs movie was a fun kit to build. No glue was required. I wish the Model A was designed with the same quality.
Finally, a Little Weather
We are currently under a heat advisory for today. Triple-digit temperatures are not expected here, but it could climb up into the 90s. I'm ready. My air conditioners are still connected and there is coffee cooling in the refrigerator for my afternoon glass of iced coffee.
Although the days and nights are cooler, October can still offer some hot days. When I bought my Pedego e-bike (October 23, 2017) the temperature was 103°F.