Cut and Dry

My mom recently surprised me with a food dehydrator. I've been wanting one for ages and have been so excited to get it humming and drying. Hey, we all have our own definition of a good time... this is a regular ol' party for me. 

After years of canning, I was ready for some way of preserving food from the garden that did not involve juggling two kids and a ginormous cauldron of boiling water for days on end. Of course we did do some canning (it wouldn't be summer without jam and pickles!), but I just can't deal with those marathon sauce fests in the same way I did before kids. So I am beside myself to have this option to turn all those extra tomatoes into sundried lovelies with almost no effort. All I had to do was cut, place on the rack, and let the machine whir away. My first batch did take a long time (something like ten hours), but it doesn't draw much electricity and is very low heat, so it wasn't a bother. 

Now that we have some tomatoes under our belt, I am searching for other ideas. I've seen a few recipes for fruit roll ups, heard that sweet potato chips are delicious, and even got an instagram recommendation for marinated tofu (sounds tasty!). If there are any dehydrator buffs out there, I'd love to benefit from your knowledge. 

Oh the possibilities!