Dehydrating Frozen hashbrowns / Potatoes

Here is a super easy way to dehydrate potatoes and hash browns especially if you are strapped for time or don't have a  inexpensive source of fresh potatoes.

Use frozen hash browns   

Country style for shredded potatoes  

 

And Southern style for cubed potatoes.

 

As I said very easy

Just pour the potatoes onto your dehydrator racks.  If you have large holes in your racks you will need to use your fruit rollup sheets. Or make your own sheets to use like I do for small vegetables and fruits.  I get large sheets of screen at the hardware store for not very much, they sell it by the foot so it is easy to get just what you need. Then I cut it to fit my trays.

 

 

 

Dehydrate at 125 for about 12 hours or how ever long your dryer takes. I store in gallon size ziplock bags and in quart jars. When I put in jars I go ahead and dry pack them.

You can use the shredded for hash browns just rehydrate and fry up.

The cubed you an use in soups and stews.

Orange, Pineapple, Mango Jam aka Sunshine in a jar.

I seriously love this stuff, it is one of the jams that I could just eat out of the jar, and may have on occasion haha.

I got several oranges in my bountiful baskets and decided to make up some of this and some Orange chili jam ( I will post that recipe in a couple days).
Start with about 4 pounds of oranges, cut the ends and then half then quarter slice out the pit and seeds then cut the quarter in half then slice into 3 pieces,

Put in pan  add 4 cups water 1 can crushed pineapple ( 1 jar if you have your own canned) 1 can of mangos or about 3 fresh chopped mangos.

cook for about for about 1 hour .

 Add 6 cups of water and 9 cups sugar

Cook down for about another hour then use a hand blender and puree.

 Add 2 packs of sure jell bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add to sterilized pint jars, water bath for 10 minutes.

 

 

Orange, Pineapple, Mango Jam 

 

 4 Pounds Oranges

1 Can crushed pinapple

1 can chopped mangos or 3 fresh chopped

4 cups water

9 cups sugar

6 cups water

2 packs Sure Jell

 

Cut the ends, then half, then quarter, slice out the pit and seeds of oranges then cut the quarters in half and slice into 3 pieces,

 

Put oranges in pan add 4 cups water,crushed pineapple, and mangos. Cook down for about an hour . Add 9 cups water and sugar cook down for about another hour. Then use a hand blender and puree. Add 2 packs of sure jell bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add to sterilized pint jars, water bath for 10 minutes.

 

 

 

Freezing Grated Carrots

 

I was given several pounds of carrots then I got several in my bountiful baskets decided to grate them then freeze them. These are so handy for carrot cake, muffins, meatloaf, or filler in hamburger.

 

 

First I grated all of them.

 

 

Then blanched them in boiling water for about 3 minutes.

Put them into a pan of cold water to stop them cooking, after I get all the carrots in the water I add a couple trays of ice cubes to help it cool off fast.

 

After they are cooled down I put them onto a large towel to help get them dried off.

 

I like to fold the towel over and pat them dry.

 

Then I put them into fold over sandwich bags I did half in one cups and half in two cups.

 

After I fill them I fold them over and try to push out as much air as I can. Then I put several into gallon sized freezer bags ( forgot to get a pic of that). One cup in bags and two cups into other bags, be sure to write on the bags how much is in the individual bags. 

 

After the gallon bags are filled I push as much air out of them as I can. Then put into the freezer. When I use them I put them in the microwave for a few seconds to part way thaw then add them to what ever I am going to use them in.

Dehydrating and Dry Packing Marshmallows

Even though I like to make my own marshmallows, I still like to have some dried and fresh on hand. There are so many things you can do with dried marshmallows. Put them in hot cocoa, in cookie dough, on ice cream, pancake batter, brownies, rice crispy treats, popcorn balls, in carmel corn, oatmeal, frozen yogurt, cereal, or just eat by themselves or what ever else you can think of. 

This really is super easy. Get your marshmallows plain and flavored.

Spread out on your trays and dehydrate at 125 for 6 to 12 hour depending on how many you are dehydrating.  

As you can see they don't change much they stay the same size just get very hard and crunchy.

When done I just dry pack  them into jars. I also pack some fresh marshmallows to have on hand for roasting.

For the fresh ones I add a little powder sugar to keep them from sticking. 

 

Put in jars and use the jar lid attachments. I found mine at Cabelas, if you don't have them, they have regular and wide mouth.  

If you use you use your food saver be very careful not to expand the marshmallows to much. If they do it will be a sticky mess.

 

 

The one on the right expanded to much the other two are right, as you can see they look like normal marshmallows and the one on the right kind of looks like a blob.

 

I like to use this handy little gadget, If you have the attachments for the jars you can use this on them. It is a little easier to control how much air you pull out so you don't expand the marshmallows to much.  

 

 

 

Just put the hand held food saver on the top of the lid attachment then turn on you have to listen to tell when it is enough. It is easy to tell.  

Be sure to store in a cool place.

Can your own Spaghetti Sauce.

 

It always seems like I don't ever have enough tomatoes (no matter how many I plant) in my garden to make everything that I want to make, so a lot of times I will buy the # 10 sized cans of tomato sauce to use. I will recan the tomato sauce in to smaller jars and I will make spaghetti sauce with some of it. it's pretty easy and really good. I use it for spaghetti, pizza, and anywhere a need a red pasta sauce.  

 

 

 

Canned Spaghetti Sauce

 

3 # 10 cans of Tomato sauce

5 Onions chopped, I use a quart of frozen or canned onions.

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 Tbl Worcestershire sauce

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup chopped garlic ( I use the chopped garlic in a jar from the store)

4 Tbl dried oregano

4 Tbl dried basil

3 bay leaves ( be sure to take these out before you can)

1 cup vinegar

2 tsp thyme

2 tsp rosemary

1 tsp celery salt

1/4 cup salt

 

Let simmer several hours. It will reduce down a little. Remove the bay leaves and fill sterilized  quart jars add hot lids and process in a water bath for 40 minutes ( be sure to adjust for altitude)

    



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Start with 3 # 10 cans of tomato sauce. Pour into a large pan.

 

 

 

Add all your spices and let simmer for several hours.

 

 

 

Put in Jars and process. 

 

 

 

 

Freezing Hashbrowns

I like to use frozen hash browns, so when I do all my potatoes I freeze hash brown as well. They are pretty easy to do.

 

Sorry I don't have pictures for all of this. First I boil my potato's with the skins on till they are semi soft/hard immediately put into a pan of cold water let cool. Peel when cooled ( you don't want them to soft or they turn to mush when grating). If they are large like mine were you can cut in half long ways if you are using in a food processer. If grating by hand you don't need to cut in half.

 

 

I like to use the food processor to grate mine. They don't turn out as pretty as if you did them by hand , but seems I am always in a hurry to get them done so I use the food processer. 
 

 

 

 After grated spread a layer on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. I put several layers on a cookie sheet just put two sheets of wax paper in between each layer ( this makes it easier to get off.)put in the freezer for at least 24 hours.












Take out and put in freezer bags then use as you would store bought. 



Dehydrating and Rehydrating Cottage Cheese

I use cottage cheese a lot when cooking in, lasagna, baked spaghetti, raviolis and other things like that. It makes it nice to have some dried cottage cheese on hand for when I don't have fresh.
I try to buy a bunch when it is on sale. I like to make it, but not having my own milk supply it is cheaper to buy it when on sale. 

 

As you can see there is a lot of whey in it. The more whey you can get out the faster it will dehydrate.

 

 

 

I like to use a salad spinner, it gets it out fast.  You don't have to wait for it to drain like you do if you use a strainer or cheese cloth.

Just spin it real good for a few minutes. Till it is good and dry.

 

Spread on your dryer trays.

 

 

 

 

This is the whey I got out of all the cottage cheese. Save this and use in your cooking. I always make pancakes on the day I do cottage cheese, I use the whey in place of the oil and some of the milk. It is real good in biscuits also. If you can't use it right away you can put in the freezer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dry at 120 for about 10 to 12 hours ( this will depend on the size of your dehydrator and how much you have in it.)

It will turn a yellow color when dry ( the sour cream will do the same thing). It will dry down to about half of what it was.

 

To rehydrate. You will need to plan ahead because it does take a while to rehydrate. Start with the amount you want to rehydrate I have one cup here.

 

 

 

 

Put in a bowl and add double the amount of warm water. I have two cups of warm water for the one cup of dried cottage cheese.

 

It looks like a lot of water but it is OK.

 

This is after about 3 hours The curds are still pretty hard but as you can see it is soaking up the water.

 

This is about 7 hours latter looks good, it isn't as soft as fresh but good. I drain off most of the water at this point. You can eat it now.  I just add a little salt to make it taste better, if I am going to just eat it. It will taste a little different then fresh and won't be as soft but still good

 

I go ahead and use a hand blender ( you can put in the blender or food processer) to blend it so it is smoother since I am cooking with it.

 

I have thought about rehydrating it with milk but I don't like milk (don't judge even as a kid I didn't like it lol) so haven't done that . I know I like cottage cheese but not milk I am weird like that . But if you are just going to eat it, the milk might give it a better flavor. If anyone try's it with the milk let me know how it is.  

 

After dry I put in quart jars,, then put in the freezer. It would probably be ok on the shelf in an airtight container. I just like to keep it in the freezer  to make sure it stays ok.