Busy September So Far!

Labor Day is a wash out this year. But we are still enjoying the day even though it is raining off and on. Right now Honey and B are in the living room - B on the Ipad, Honey on the floor sleeping. I'm at the breakfast area table on the computer.

I've talked about canning, but I've also been dehydrating! I used to dehydrate back in the 80s when I also was canning. However, the dehydrator I had was rather basic - on or off with no ability to adjust temperature. So this time around I decided to get one that did have temperature adjustment and I've been experimenting. Saturday I decided to dry some of the herbs I'm growing in pots out on the deck. I did 3 racks of basil leaves, one of oregano stems and one of marjoram stems. The fact that it was rather humid probably extended the time. I kept the temperature low - 95 - as per instructions in one of my books. I started at 2 and at 7 the stuff was kinda dry but not brittle. Turned the temperature up to 105 and at 8 turned the thing off. Sunday I started it again with another temperature boost and finally the marjoram and oregano were dry. The basil took a bit longer. Below are some pictures:

This is the marjoram at the start. There is a liner on the tray since once dried it will be rather small!

And here it is done and you can see the plastic liner was really needed. I use an empty coffee filter for lots of things and here it was just the thing to drop the leaves in as I striped them off the stem. I was then able to use it like a funnel to pour into a small jar.

Didn't get a lot...but there is more in the pots and this was an experiment!

Yesterday I served skirt steak for dinner. I never had that before and found a recipe in one of my 2 Weber grilling cook books I had gotten at BJ's a while back. The recipe suggested serving it with grilled red potatoes which sounded good but I had potato salad in the refrig so we went with that. The cooking time was fast! And it cooked using direct high heat. I first made a rub consisting of kosher salt, ground cumin, granulated garlic and black pepper. This was spread on the steaks and then they sat out a bit to come to room temperature. Heated the grill and in a flash...about 6 minutes... they were done! The steak was good but next time I would reduce the salt in the rub. Very tasty and I served it with the potato salad and a tomato and onion salad with Italian dressing. Picture of the steak before cooking follows....



And finally, an update on Honey! She has been going for short rides with B in the VW and just loving it! She loved riding in the SUV but she bounced all over the place and got very hyper. So, we are hoping that a little ride every day or so will get her used to riding and less hyper. Truth be told, I think they both really enjoy their little outing even though B insists that he is the one who will drive! The picture below is of their return from the little drive yesterday. As you can see, Honey makes a great navigator!