Sun-Dried Tomatoes

I've got a lot of tomatoes on my hands.

Canning salsa sounded fun, so I impulsively purchased this inexpensive Ball home canning kit at Lowe's.  After reading tips at Tipnut.com and having never canned a thing, I opted not to risk botulism.

So I pulled out my dehydrator.  I've been dying to do that, anyway.

After scanning a few recipes, I chose this one from PickYourOwn.org. The easier, the quicker, the better.  They said water baths and scraping out seeds are optional.  If you don't have a dehydrator, this website gives you instructions for making sun-dried tomatoes in the oven or in your car (no kidding).

To be safe, I started with a small batch...

First, I sliced the tomatoes and sprinkled with sea salt and dried basil.

Then, I placed on trays in the dehydrator for 8-10 hours.  About half the tomatoes were done at 8 hours and the rest required closer to 10 hours.

After cooling, I sealed the dehydrated tomatoes in a freezer bag.

Easy!  And the finished product smelled heavenly.

The kids could definitely help with this one.  They happened to be at Grandma and Grandpa's this time, but next time they can slice tomatoes, sprinkle seasonings and arrange on trays.

If anyone uses their car to sun dry tomatoes, please let me know how they turn out!
~ Katrina

P.S.  Today we read The Littles Take a Trip by John Peterson.  It is a chapter book about a tiny family and their big adventures.  We read the whole book today after several shouts of "One more!"  Charming, entertaining, and fun.