"It's working! They're melting!" - Matilde

As a kid, like my own, I enjoyed infomercials. I loved the way they dazzled you and made you continue watching not because there was nothing else on tv but because you wanted to know more. You believed by the end of their 15-30 minutes of paid programming that you could not live a normal American life without their prized product. My favorite was for the Ronco Food Dehydrator. I longed for this magnificent machine that could turn my fresh fruits into candy, my vegetables into edible treats, and my meats into marinated handheld healthy snacks. Finally, after living years without dehydrated foods, it's mine. A beautiful four-tiered (the fifth was missing), fanless, second-hand Ronco that's all mine! A fantastic gift from my in-laws. Fantastic!

This evening Matilde and I prepped six bananas in a water/honey mixture and carefully placed each slice onto our trays. They will spend the next 36 hours shrinking down and drying out into crispy little chips that are perfect for snacking. 

Dreams do come true. 

Surgeon General's Warning

Our home looks like a tropical resort with large plant leaves decorating our walls, but these are not palm fronds they're tobacco leaves! We will hang them to cure in the attic for a year and hopefully be able to smoke 'em up shortly after that! Our kind neighbor, Mr. Matt, volunteered to test-smoke it for us. He said he's been smoke-free for a few months, but home-grown tobacco doesn't count, plus, he owes us a solid. Anyone else who'd like to take up a smoking habit, hit us up in a year. We'd be happy to be your pushers! ;) 

This week in photos

Thank you to those who contacted me about not receiving pictures this week.  I love you too!  My excuse...I am lazy. My phone was full and I needed to upload the photos. The computer was dead, so it needed to be plugged in. I was lazy, and didn't do either until about Saturday night. I've also been really busy. We had a great volleyball tourney on Saturday (2nd place finish, go Dolphins!), taught at church Sunday, Seahawks game Sunday, and youth symphony Sunday (thank you Danielle!).  It's been crazy!  I'm ready for some turkey and a nap! 🍗😴

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well, and enjoy the photos from last week!

Bri'Anna 

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Here are three nice sized salmon from fishing with Steve. We baked one whole fish. I used a brown sugar rub on one half and a jerk rub on the other. The girls passed on the sweet and gobbled down the savory. They also drank about a gallon of milk to offset the spicy flavor too! Hahaha 

The rabbit hides hanging to dry in the shed. I think he set up a gear lamp to speed it up since the stench was awful and would probably attract unwanted critters. 

Here is what was left of the apples. I meant to make apple sauce, but decided on cider instead. This made about 1.5 quarts. No much, but I can't complain about free apples! 

They are back in the house tonight to finish drying (not sure why they are still hanging since I thought they were already dried. I do know Andy stretched them. He 'hulked' a few in half as he stretched them out, and I was asked to mend them back in one piece once they were all done. 

I'm still mourning the loss of my Donna. :( 

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