On 18 Sep 2003 15:33:29 -0700, (john) wrote:

Hi,I just bought a food dehydrator (excalibur)and have used it twice
for beef jerky which i was very happy with the outcome.The problem is
my wife thinks it is just another gadget for the kitchen.I have 2
children 4 and 7 yrs old ,is there anything good that i can use it for
that they may like i tried dried apples and pinapple but they never
even touched it.

Bananas come to mind. Mushrooms are fun and handy to have in pieces or
powder. If you're at all into making pasta, lots of things (tomatoes,
basil, pepper, whatever) can be dried, pulverized and added to the
dough. Look at all the stuff that's sold in 'dehydrated' form -- veg
mix for soups, stews, and dips. I gasped at the price of dried
cherries 'til I discovered the price of *fresh* cherries, but if
they're available in your area, the dried are awfully nice to have
around for both raisin applications and snacks.

I grew up with "you can't say you don't like it when you haven't even
tried it." Since some people are making big bucks with snack mixes of
dried fruit, you may just tease your kids that they have such
unsophisticated tastes.