Kitchen Window Hydroponics

The celery after 4 days.

The scallions after 4 days.

Remember setting a stalk of celery in a glass with some water and a little food coloring and watching the daily progress of the color rising up the stalk?  How about putting the very top of a carrot in a little pan (usually from a frozen pot pie!) of shallow water and growing feathery carrot tops?  Or growing the seeds from lemons, oranges, and grapefruit in little paper cups of dirt?  Or suspending an avocado seed in a glass of water and seeing it sprout?  Those were some of the fun things Mom used to allow us to do in "her" kitchen!

Well, while I was waiting for the weather to dry out and warm up so I could dig up the garden and start planting my little seeds, I indulged in what I like to call "kitchen window hydroponics."

I've seen some pictures people have posted online of celery and scallions (green onions) growing on their kitchen counters and I decided to give it a try.  I had celery and scallions, so when I cut up the celery (I'd made Buffalo wings and needed celery and bleu cheese dressing, natch!), I saved the bottom, stuck in some toothpicks, and suspended it in some water in a tiny bowl.  When I needed some scallions for a recipe, I cut off all the green and some of the white, left them bundled in their rubber band, and put them in a coffee cup with a little water.  I change the container and water at least every other day to keep things from getting slimy and gross.

The celery, 3 days later!

The scallions, 3 days later!

It's amazing how quickly growth starts.  I mean, I could see things starting the very next day!  It's kind of exciting, watching these vegetables regenerate.  When the scallions get a few inches taller, I'll cut them off again and use those new tops.  I'm reserving plans for the celery, but it actually has stalks already.  We'll see how big it gets and what I'll be able to use it for.  FUN!!!

Toys in the Kitchen - Part 2

This time, when I say "toys," I mean, literally, TOYS.

When you were a kid, did you ever have one of those little toy potholder looms?  You know, with the stretchy loops.  I remember getting one for Christmas.  The so-called "potholders" made on the seven-inch looms always ended up so small, nobody could ever seriously consider using them as potholders.

I was rooting through one of the kitchen drawers and came across two of the finished products from one of those looms.  I couldn't tell you whether they were made by The Boy or The Girl, but there they were!  They've obviously been in there a long time because the younger of the two is "pushing thirty," poor thing.

What I was searching for in that drawer was a coaster.  I spied these ancient, diminutive potholders, and I had a revelation - they are the perfect size for coasters!

One of my "new" coasters.

So now these poor, neglected objects have a useful purpose!

And I want to run out and buy myself a potholder loom and make some more coasters.  I'm such a child.

Have you ever discovered a use for something that originally seemed doomed to forever languish in the junk drawer like my "potholders?"

Toys in the Kitchen

Here's the unit itself.

Yes, I've been playing in the kitchen yet again!

A couple of years ago, I bought a cheapo dehydrator.  It's from a reputable company, Nesco/American Harvest, but it is the lowest priced one they made at the time (around $25.00).  I never got around to trying it out until a few weeks ago.  I'd never used a dehydrator before, so I wasn't sure what to expect.   Some friends from my Boy Scout days dehydrate their own backpacking food, and I was intrigued.

Well, I screwed up my courage, brought it into the kitchen and studied the instructions.  I figured I'd start with something easy and straightforward - apples!  Simple enough.  I cored and peeled the apples (Galas are my all-around favorite), sliced them with my mandolin into a bowl of lemon juice and water, arranged them on the racks, and plugged the dehydrator in.  It took a good twelve hours.

The end product.

I was going for a crispy apple-chip-type thing - SUCCESS!   The problem is, I like them so much, they're almost gone!  I'll just have to make some more, I guess - darn!  Ha!

Now that Christmas is almost here, I'm in a cookie-baking mood.  So out came the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and oatmeal.  But instead of the typical oatmeal raisin cookies, I want to make oatmeal "craisin" cookies.  I was about to put Craisins(TM) on the grocery list when it occurred to me that there was a boatload of cranberries left from Thanksgiving, just languishing in their bag in the fridge.  Hmmmmm...  The dehydrator manual does indeed have instructions for drying cranberries - YAY! 

The pretreatment for cranberries is to dip them in boiling water until their skins split.  Well, that sounds pretty easy.   I was in for a surprise, though.  I got the water boiling and dumped in the first bunch of sorted cranberries. 

Here they are - homemade "craisins!"

Well!

In about thirty seconds, it sounded like I was fixing popcorn!  When a cranberry's skin splits, it happens suddenly, and with a loud POP.  The first couple made me jump!  HA!  After the popping slowed down (just like with popcorn!), I poured everything into a colander to drain and started another pan of water.  I spread the berries on the dehydrator racks.  This was messier than the apples because when the berries split, they spilled their guts a little ("All right, youse guys, talk!").  I filled all the racks and plugged in The Machine.  They took longer than the apples, but they look pretty official to me.  Next - cookies!