Dehydrating, a kitchen tip, and a little more...

The dehydrated is running most days and/or nights! 

This last weekend I did onions - yes one could tell from the odor! But using frozen onions purchased at the grocery was MUCH better than slicing my own. Thanks Marlene for the tip. 

When they were done, I did hash brown potatoes. I also did frozen green beans and frozen peas. That was so simple - just open the bags and pour onto a dehydrator tray. No blanching or anything.

All of these Mason Jars have dehydrated food! In the front, the smaller jars are two deep.

At the beginning of the week I tried frozen cauliflower. It worked fine but I did have to cut some of the florets to be smaller. 

I did another package of hash brown potatoes I'm trying to clear out my freezer. 

Then I tried grapes - these were blanched on the stem and then picked off and dried. They took over 24 hours and are fantastic! They are like a raisin but 100 times better! 

I have lots of zucchini in my freezer so I decided to try that. I thawed the sliced zucchini just enough to separate the pieces and I've already tried some of the dehydrated pieces in a Slow Cooker recipe. I'll be drying lots more soon! The shredded zucchini took longer to dry and looks fine. I need to reconstitute some and see how it works in baked goods. I'm sure it will be fine in soups and stews.

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This morning I boiled some chicken breasts with a few veggies so I'd have chicken broth. Then I needed to shred the chicken - do you know the fast way to shred it? I just read on the Internet and we all know whatever you read on the computer is right that you can use your KitchenAid mixer. I decided to try it. So I threw 6 cooked half breasts in the mixer bowl, put on the paddle, put on the guard to stop anything from flying out and making a mess, and turned it on. In about 1 minute, it was shredded! Wow!  Then I made chicken soup in no time flat - broth, shredded chicken, some dehydrated veggies, some spices, and a few noodles - voila!

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Today the house is QUIET. No workmen - the hardwood floors are done! The carpet guys come next week. I've been doing lots of fun things - taxes, laundry,... 

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This afternoon, our oldest granddaughter who lives in North Carolina was in a big Spelling Bee with the winner going to Washington, DC. Grace won her school's contest which meant beating the other classroom winners including her brother. She did great in the first round 9 of the 32 went down in the first round. We just found out that Grace went down in the 2nd round. I'm not sure how it works, but there is spelling and vocabulary. She is definitely a winner in our book! We are very proud of her!

FMQ Challenge 2015 - February

I'm not getting much time for quilting these days since our house is all torn up and we are getting new floors. It won't be much longer though or so I keep telling myself! By the end of February, the workmen will be long gone and we should be moved back.

I did get my pillow made for the FMQ Challenge though. I grabbed a few scraps and put this together. 

Leah Day was our expert for February. I was excited because I learned so much following her Free Motion Quilting Project in 2012. 

We had 3 options for quilting the pillow. 

1. Double Stippling which I learned in 2012 
2. Use a design(s) from Leah's Dancing Butterfly Quilt Along 
3. Use a design(s) from Leah's Craftsy class, Free-Motion Quilting A Sampler.

I chose option 3 and decided to use a variety of designs. First I did some Pebbling in the two outside solid strips. I really enjoyed quilting this design.

I thought the Wandering Clover was cute and pretty easy. I used this design on the two inside pieced strips.

Paisley is my favorite - I restrained myself and only used it in the middle solid strip.

I went outside my comfort zone and did Spiral Chain on both outside pieced strips. It was easier than it was the last time I tried it but I still need lots more practice!

The back of the pillow is a simple overlap with both pieces quilted in Wandering Clover.

This was a fun project and I did push myself to learn some new designs while I also enjoyed quilting an old standby.

The 2015 Free Motion Quilting Challenge is being hosted by Darlene at QuiltShopGal. You may want to hop over and check out some great pillows.

Updates: flooring and dehydrating

Flooring update:

We've had lots of piles of wood this week...

and finally the first piece of hardwood was in place.

And then more...

The dining room is now done and there are piles of wood in it. Next week, the living room will be done.

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Dehydrator update Sorry no photos:

This week, I've dehydrated mushrooms, celery, onions and apple slices, apple chips, orange slices, and pineapple. I also made fruit leather with good success and dried pasta with great success!

Tonight I made vegetable beef soup with some shredded beef from my freezer, a can of diced tomatoes, and all kinds of dehydrated veggies - onions, garlic, celery, carrots, green beans, mushrooms. I just through it all together and let the veggies rehydrate as the soup cooked. It was so fast to put together - very nice and very good! However I did forget the noodles!

New dehydrator and floors

Yesterday was exciting - my new dehydrator arrived AND the fellows arrived to begin work on our floors at the same time! We are redoing all floors on the first level of our home.

I did lots of research on a new dehydrator and ended up with the one that Marlene at StitchinByTheLake recommended. You can see it here. Because of the work going on in the house, it ended up on the dining room table.

As soon as I was able to be in my kitchen last night, I washed all of the trays and liners. Then I fixed some banana chips and some pineapple slices and put them in the dehydrator. 

It was a long day waiting to try something! I spent much of the day reading my dehydrating books, The Dehydrator Cookbook by Gangloff and Preserve it Naturally by Excalibur.

This morning we had dried fruit. We also had a tray with 'crazy fruit' - pineapple pieces and banana pieces dried/fused together. (Sorry no photo.) It is really good! 

In the meantime... the fellows worked on the kitchen floor all day yesterday and again today. It was a late start yesterday due to weather but a lot of prep work was done. The old vinyl tile (the white with blue is going away. The new tile (earth tones) is replacing it - actually going down over it.

Today they put down the floor and grouted the tiles. Tomorrow they will replace the trim work and begin on the dining room and living room. Carpet will be replaced with hardwood floors in those rooms.

Hopefully these guys will be done by the weekend but maybe not until late Saturday. Then we can put back some furniture and begin moving other furniture because the family room, hallway, and bedroom carpet will arrive in a couple of weeks. 

At least I'll be able to use my dehydrator as I wait for the next installment ...

A couple of finishes

Another baby girl quilt finished. 

This one is about 44" X 50". I didn't have quite enough fabric for the binding so I used pieces of the colors in the quilt at even intervals - I like it! 

I used Dream Poly batting and Minkee backing. I really don't like free motion quilting on Minkee so I used my walking foot and did a wavy stitch across the quilt. A little love is free motioned on the front - you might be able to see it on the back here.

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I also finished my fingerless gloves. I used SilverSpun and will love wearing them - they feel good!

It's a selfie of my hand!

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In other news, I plan to order the new dehydrator  tonight. I'll be doing a little rehydrating for dinner - if it works - and I think it will - all systems are go! The research is almost done and I know what I want. 

Let the fun begin! 

Making progress on 1, 2, 3, 4 baby quilts!

ONE

This morning began with one baby quilt done.

The back is Minkee and the color is a little off. It looks really bad in this photo.

The quilting is all straight stitching except for a little love. I do not like to free motion quilt on Minkee.

TWO

I am hand stitching the binding on the second baby quilt. This is the same color Minkee as in above photo.

THREE

I am almost done quilting the third quilt!

Update: I did finish quilting Number 3 by lunchtime and I used my new ruler, The Perfect Adjustable Square, to square it up. Nice!

FOUR
The fourth quilt is pieced and on the design wall. This is a backup but I think number 3 will be fine. I originally thought it was going to be too big. So number 4 will probably stay like this for the time being.

 It's a good winter day for quilting and I'm loving it!

FMQ Challenge 2015 - January

The 2015 Free Motion Quilting Challenge is being hosted by Darlene at QuiltShopGal. I participated in the 2012 Challenge but then life sort of got in the way. I am excited to be doing this again! 

We are making pillows this year. For January, we have three choices of free motion quilting designs. Of course we could do all three. I chose to do the feathered heart. I don't have a lot of Valentine decor so I chose to do a red pillow. I couched white cording around the heart after I finished the quilting.

I haven't done a lot of free motion stitching lately and I NEED practice so I used red thread - I didn't want to show off my stitching too much!  

After drawing a heart, I drew a bunch of question marks to use as a stem for my feathers. I practiced on my sketch pad a few times; then I did my stitching. 

This is the first time I have actually done a feathered anything. With inspiration and the tutorial from LuAnn Kessi, it turned out pretty good. I love learning new things!