Crazy prep time

T had previously convinced me to take the entire week to spend up north before the Alzheimer's walk. Now, because of the funeral, Monkey and I were going to skip our week of "vacation" and wait for T so we would only have one vehicle up there.

My father-in-law had a follow-up appointment here in Bangor yesterday from his surgery a few weeks ago (a month ago? has it already been that long?). He spent the night rather than make the round trip in one day.

T asked him to spend an extra night (tonight) so Monkey and I can hitch a ride north with him tomorrow. This way, I get to put in a full day in the office today, spend the entire week in Fort Kent and we can all drive down together on Sunday (T will meet us up there on Friday). YAY!

In preparation for my vacation, I've been attempting to get everything done at the house. Nothing burns me more than coming home from vacation to a house that looks like a tornado just came through. My house looks like it did when I finished spring cleaning right now (wait - did I finish spring cleaning? Who knows... ha ha). And it feels SO good. I've threatened T with bodily harm if it doesn't look this good when we come back on Sunday. I'm sure many other wives out there would agree - husband's aren't always the greatest about the home environment when they are "bach'ing" it for the week (he likes to think he's a bachelor again when he's alone - hence "bach'ing").

Yesterday was one of the longest days I've had in a really really long time. Monkey woke up at 4 AM. She was only awake for a few minutes, but it was long enough that I couldn't fall back to sleep. At 5, I gave in and got up to pay bills. Monkey and I also had errands to run (like making sure T has food so he doesn't starve without us).

I also have also prepared my final batch of tomato sauce for the season yesterday. It's been a long time coming and it was such an absolutely wonderful feeling when I was putting the finished sauce into containers for freezing. T will be using some in a veggie lasagna for dinner tonight. I impressed his dad with my cooking last night (Chicken Marsala - yummy) so T's going to work his magic tonight (See? He's really not as helpless as I might make it seem).

I also spent some time yesterday on a new dehydrator experiment. I've been experimenting with is quite a bit this year, first with the banana chips, then with cherry tomatoes. Now I've made apple chips. It was so super easy. I just cored them, sliced them, tossed them in the dehydrator and let them go for about 12 hours. We tried them out and liked them so much that I immediately started another round to run overnight. I packed them this morning with the intentions of doing another batch overnight tonight.

My bagel and coffee are gone, so I must now be headed to work for the day. I doubt my day today will be nearly as productive as yesterday.

The verdict is in.

After 13 hours in the dehydrator, the banana chips are done. Monkey has already taste tested and they pass with flying colors. ;-)

T & I both find that you can taste the lemon juice, but it isn't an unpleasant flavor addition. The juice actually made a thin crispy crust on the outside (the banana itself isn't crispy, but I sliced them so thin that you don't notice).

Speaking of slicing - the mandolin was useless. They were a little too ripe so they just kept mushing up while I attempted to run them through. I put it aside after 1 banana and sliced the rest with a knife.

I may attempt apples today. If not, I'm going to do them this weekend, for sure. I can't get away from making tomato sauce today, though.

We also tried a new wine last night. I'm not much of a wine drinker (give me a cold beer any day!) but I have to admit I really enjoyed this one. It was a Gewurztraminer. At $10 a bottle, it is also affordable. See more about this wine at WannaBeWino.com.

And with that, I must be off. My teething child wanted to snuggle most of yesterday so I didn't get all of my housework done, as I had been planning. Who was I to say no to snuggles? At least she seems back to herself today.

The Banana Experiment

Well, I've done it.

While T was entertaining Monkey by sharing his breakfast, I quickly peeled and sliced my bunch of bananas.

I did a little reading up thanks to Google last night. My findings were that in order to get crispy banana chips, I would need to fry the slices in coconut oil (which is what you're getting when you buy them in the grocery store). Doesn't that defeat the purpose of eating banana chips? That's not exactly healthy.

I also found that in order to keep the color, I would need to soak my slices in an acid (I used lemon juice because we have 2 huge bottles of it in the house). This is supposed to do nothing to the flavor.

After soaking for a couple of minutes, it was time to load my dehydrator. I'm very glad I didn't decide to attempt apple chips at the same time as my dehydrator is full with just my small bunch of bananas!

We'll be checking on our bananas periodically today, but they'll need to go for 12-16 hours, according to what I read last night.

As my house is now filled with the smell of warm bananas (smells like banana bread - yummy), Monkey and I are setting about the task of cleaning house. All of our food preservation projects have pushed house work aside on the list of things to do... and it shows. The bathroom needs cleaning, the carpets need vacuuming, the laundry needs doing (and it's a perfect day for hanging it out!) and the floors need washing.

So, with that, we're off to get things clean. Starting with the currently poopy fanny I can smell standing in front of me.