In article , zxcvbob wrote:
Rick & Cyndi wrote:
"john" wrote in message
om...
: 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.
======

Pears, banana slices, strawberries, grapes (they'll be able to
see them turn into raisins!), etc.. Oh, and if you have one of
those solid sheets of plastic for yours - you can make those
fruit leathers (fruit Rollup things).

Cyndi



I think the excalibur is also good for rising yeasted bread dough. And
drying wet sneakers! (not necessarily at the same time)

Bob


Again, if you get the Teflon sheets, you can dry flavored yogurt into
leather. Take plain yogurt and mix jam into it yourself. (The Teflon is
worth it -- I put them under my beef jerky until it dries a bit, then peel
the jerky off and put it on the screen. Saves *hours* of cleanup!)

Mix corn chips with salsa, mound on a tray, and make your own Doritos. The
Excalibur is also good for recrisping stale corn chips, saltines,
pistachios and chow mein noodles.

Dry miscellaneous veggies, turn them to powder in the food processor or
blender, mix them into soup, gravy or spaghetti sauce. Sneak some veggies
into those kidlets -- they'll never notice! I've done this with cabbage,
celery (especially leaves), carrots (although the prep -- cutting into thin
slices -- was a hassle), baked squash, spinach, mustard greens. I may try
leaf lettuce next week. I've got a huge bed still producing various
lettuces, and we can only eat so many big bowls of wilted lettuce before
the freeze. If V8 can include lettuce juice, it may be worth *something* as
a dehydrated powder!


--
Marie Martinek
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. USA
unge