Homemade Lemon Zest - a nice $$ saver!

I made some strawberry lemonade concentrate the other day (3 quarts!), and was left with quite a pile of lemon rinds after they were juiced.  I didn't want to throw them away, but after using some to clean the garbage disposal, wasn't sure what else I could do with them.  Then I remembered, lemon zest!

I cut, using a paring knife, the zest (the lemon part only, not the thick white membranee) off of each lemon rind.  I lined my dehydrator trays with parchment paper (and one with the fruit roll tray that came with it) and spread the zest evenly across the trays.  I set it to 130 degrees, per my dehydrator instructions for fruit and let it dry over night.  The next morning I had nicely dried lemon zest.

I used a coffee grinder to grind them all up.  I would suggest you use a new one, or one that is only used for spices and not coffee, or you risk having coffee flavored lemon zest.  I ground mine up rather finely with the coffee grinder.  There were a few larger chunks that didn't grind down, but I wasn't too worried about them because the zest is most often sprinkled over salmon in our house. 

In the end, I ended up with a half pint jar of lemon zest!  The last time I bought lemon zest at the store, it was about $7 for a small bottle.  I ended up with half a pint jar out of something I was going to put in the trash!

"BOILED" EGGS IN THE OVEN
So sorry I haven't posted in ages!  I've been a busy little beaver, though, and have a few things to share.  First up isn't canning, but it's my new favorite thing!  "Boiled" eggs in the oven!  They taste amazing and are easier to peel!

I like to put mine in a muffin pan so that they don't roll around.  Just stick one egg in each muffing hole and place in your oven, pre heated to 325 degrees.  Bake 25-35 minutes.  I have found that 27 minutes is the magic number with my oven.  I let them cool on the counter, and then put them in a bowl in the fridge.

DEHYDRATING CELERY

Another little thing I have accomplished recently is drying my own celery.  Now I know you're asking me what in the world one does with dried celery, well, I'll tell you!  You use it like normal celery.  I am the worst about remembering to buy celery or using it before it goes bad, and I love the stuff!  So over the years I have always kept dried celery in my spice cupboard.  I ran out last weekend and went to buy more at the store.  I was SHOCKED to see that it is priced at nearly $16 per OUNCE!  I bought a large bunch of celery for $1.99 and headed home to my dehydrator.  I cut only the bottom 1-2" of the bunch, and washed everything (leaves, center, stalks etc.).  Then I ran it through my food processor to chop it up.  I lined my dehydrator trays with parchment paper, or if you have fruit roll trays, you can use those instead.  Something to keep the small pieces of celery from falling through the spaces in the trays.  I spread the celery evening across the trays and let 'er rip!

I dried my celery at 130 degrees, because that's what my dehydrator said to use for vegetables.  I have a Nesco American Harvester dehydrator.  I rotated the trays every few hours, and overall, it took about 7 hours for all trays to dry completely.  When finished, I ended up with a pint size jar full of dried celery.  It cost me a total of $1.99 to  make this much celery!  Much cheaper than buying it and there are no chemicals added. 

CANNED RHUBARB

It is quickly becoming spring time here in Alaska, and that can mean only one thing:  It's time to clean out the freezer to make room for this year's bounty!  We've been having hodge podge dinners (tacos with pot stickers, for example!) to get rid of the odds and ends, but there is really no good way to "use up" rhubarb.  I found I had about two dozen bags in my freezer from various years and I needed to clean them out, but I couldn't bring myself to throw them away, so I decided to give canning them a go.  I have always been curious about canning rhubarb.  Mostly I worried that it might turn it to mush, but then I realized, most recipes it's used in, the rhubarb gets cooked through and turns mushy anyway!

I freeze my rhubarb chopped (usually with the food processor) and frozen in four cup increments in Ziploc bags.  I do four cup increments because most of my rhubarb recipes call for four cups, so it makes life easy.  For this little experiment, I pulled seven, four cup bags out of the freezer and dumped them (minus the Ziplocs, of course) into a large pot and turned the heat on.  I covered them and the rhubarb simmer until it was defrosted throughout and boiling. 

I ladled the rhubarb (and liquid that it created) into sterilized pint jars.  Since I only water bath canned these, it's imperative that your jars and flats be sterilized.  I wiped the rims clean, added flats and rings (only finger tight) and stacked them in my water bath canner.  I lucked out and ended up with 7 pint jars, which means I averaged about 4 cups of rhubarb per pint jar - perfect for recipes!  Process in hot water bath for 15 minutes.