Cooking Day: Pickled Eggs, Grandma's Green Beans, and How to Dehydrate Carrots

Yesterday, we went to Bend.  While Cary was in a meeting, I went to Costco, and then to Cash and Carry.  Cash and Carry has a new location at 3rd and Onley (right where McMahon's Furniture used to be, if you are familiar with Bend).  Cash and Carry is where the people who have restaurants shop.  It is way cool, in a warehouse sort of way.  The quantities are large and the prices are cheap.  A huge bag of rice cost only $17.00, for example.

I bought 5 dozen eggs for less than $5.00.  This morning, I hardboiled up three dozen, and decided to give pickling a shot.  This is very easy, and I'm pretty sure that they will turn out.  The jar with the red has beets and beet juice in it, along with the eggs.  The other one has dill pickle juice with a splash of jalapeno juice thrown in for good measure.  After three days, the juices will be soaked into the eggs and ready to eat.  These will last in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I decided that since I was in the cooking mood, I'd go ahead and make my version of my Grandma J.'s green beans with ham and cook it in the crock pot.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Here is how I make them:

• 5 cans of green beans, drained
• 1 cup of chopped onions of your choice
• 1 1/2 cup of cubed ham 
• 1 cube of butter
• 2 cans of beef broth 

Stir, and cook for hours. The longer it cooks, the better it will taste.  If your ham was precooked, this will be ready to eat as soon as it is hot and the onions are soft, if you are in a hurry.

While at Cash and Cary, I scored this huge 25 lb. bag of carrots for around $9.00:

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I decided that I would dehydrate as many as I could.  That actually took half the bag, and I am happy with that, for now.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

See the blue strainer?  It will hold about 12 carrots.  12 carrots fills two of the white dehydrator trays.  So, I was able to use up 60 carrots, which I now know weighs around 12 1/2 lbs.  Am I good at story problems, or what?  That is about the only math that I can figure out. 

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I sliced the carrots on an angle, and tossed them into the blue strainer.  Then I rinsed them.  I didn't bother peeling them.  My only peeler is old and rusty.  I figured that since the the carrots were going to be dehydrated, why bother.  Plus, if they are like potatoes, their skins hold lots of vitamins.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I heated up the water that was left over from the eggs.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I steamed the carrots for around 5 minutes.  Because the cookbook told me too.  Then, I dished them back into the blue strainer.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

From the blue strainer, they went into the trays.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I stacked up the trays, put the top on and plugged in the food dehydrator.  I will unplug it tonight when I go to bed, and plug it back in the morning.  Throughout the day, I'll re-stack the trays, so that the ones at the bottom will get more hot air on them.  The dryer those carrots are, the longer they will last.  I just dehydrated two bags of onions the other day, and that took two whole days.  Those are now stored in Ziplock Freezer Bags and are inside my McCoy canisters.  

So, that is what I did today.  The house smells so good, and I feel good that I have made a small dent toward storing some food.  I have to decide what to do with the rest of the carrots.  I am thinking of canning them, because that looks super easy.  My Facebook friends have suggested carrot soup, carrot cake and navy bean soup with ham and carrots.  It all sounds yummy to me!


What do you guys think that I should make?

UPDATE ~  This is how much those 60 carrots shrunk down to:

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

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