GOT MY DEHYDRATOR YAY!!!!!!!!

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GOT MY DEHYDRATOR YAY!!!!!!!!
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sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42209
Location: North Devon

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 05 1:23 pm Post subject:
I was agreeing that it's infuriating. Richer Sounds managed to deliver a twenty quid vacuum cleaner within about two days. Apple took a grand and a half off us and then buggered about for ages (I think there's a thread in IT charting it's progress.)

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 05 1:27 pm Post subject:

Sorry. Am in a bad mood at the moment (it was intended for a pressie for TD as well

although obviously not a surprise one).

I did read and sympathise with your Apple saga, but I didn't have anything non-violent to contribute.

I wish I could do all my trading with people on here - the two purchases I've made from Downsizer traders have been a pleasure from start to finish (and both of them were aware of problems with delivery so if anything had gone wrong I know they'd have made the effort to fix it)

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28158
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 05 1:32 pm Post subject:
I bet you are hopping mad, not least as it is a damn good product

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 05 2:43 pm Post subject:
Well, I'm never going to find that out now. As they can't be bothered to send it out again in anything other than their normal "service" they've arranged a refund. I don't think I've ever had less pleasure in dealing with a company.

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 05 5:06 pm Post subject:

if i win the lottery i'll buy you a dozen of them bugs

i don't think i'll shop with them again myself either but i'd been looking for a dehydrator in the uk for ages and they are always the £300 kind, this was too good to pass up, crap service and all.

i've had about 2 months of near constant failings and really abrasive 'customer service' from about 5 different companies lately the Inland Revenue being one of them. all of these places admited they were in the wrong but then not only did they do as little to help me as possible but they treated me practically like a criminal for complaining (nicely, at first

) about the various issues... i think if i'd had the same problems with tchibo as you did bugs, it'd have been the straw that broke the camels back... i'd have gone all postal on their ar$es!!!

i can't believe how poor customer service has become just over the last few years... (now i sound like i'm 80 don't i? 'youth these days...')

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28158
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 12:54 pm Post subject:
Well after a long delay I have got back going with the dehydrator and started off some Biltong. I have made its competitor hot smoked jerky before and it will be interesting to compare I have probably way overdone the spicing though

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:20 pm Post subject:

you may well have, remember, everything that goes in the dehydrator becomes more intense in flavour

i found this out the hard way with my soy soaked veg crisps. the soy mixture was fine but i topped them with a mix of dried and ground veg to which i had added some crushed black pepper. if you pour some of this mix on your hand and eat it it's lovely, slighty spicy and sweet. BUT the pepper really intensified in the dryer and they were almost too hot to eat

next time i'll just give them a light sprinkling

my next lot i'm planning on doing is yogurt covered sultanas and yogurt covered peanuts. i'm planning on using a nice fruit yogurt for extra flavour mmmmmmm

i did a banana puree and yogurt leather (passion fruit and peach yogurt) and it was so good we ate the entire sheet (the 3 of us) in on sitting!!! mmmmmmmmmm

i have just been laying a piece of baking paper across the tray and adding the yogurt or puree on that. then i make a few holes in the centre to make sure the air gets through and that's fine. i try not to get the puree too close to the centre to make sure nothing drips and it works well. also, a light spray of fry light or similar helps the leather come off easier when it's dried

tonight i'm going to juice some granny smith apples and use the pulp of the apples mixed with a few tablespoons of lidl's 100% mix exotic fruit juice (apple, orange, passionfruit, mango, peach, nectarin, imbu and something else, tastes like passionfruit) i'll make some leathers from this which will probably be a little piece of heaven

plus, it makes me feel better about using the juicer, we're still gettin the fibre eventually

i've really been enjoying the powdered mixes from various veg. they're great to add to the breadmaker. or to use vs expensive spice mixes for cooking

i also love veg crisps, beetroot and parnsip are my favourites, followed closely by light fried onion dried mmmmmm

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:26 pm Post subject:

i just had an idea, i'll have to give this a go

in the states jelly mix is always a powder (i thought jelly cubes were so strange when i moved to scotland

)

the thought occured to me that i can do a powder mix of any fruit and veg i dry, add to the liquid used in the plain gelatine i buy and perhaps even use some type of juice instead of water to make some healthy and really tasty jelly

apple, beetroot, carrot and kiwi could be really nice. i know it sounds like a weird mixture but i know from experience with both juicing and dehydrating that these flavours blend very well. if i used orange juice for part of the liquid (i could use hot water to disolve the gelatin) then i would have an amazingly healthy jelly with an intense flavour.

it'd take a bit of playing around to get the right amount of powder but i think it would be worth it. i think i'll have a look at tesco's online and find out how many grams of powder are in the sugar free variety since they are powdered... then i can use that as a baseline i suppose and work from there

anyone else up for this challenge?

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28158
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:30 pm Post subject:
Bit advanced for me at this stage.

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 6:12 pm Post subject:

aww well jema, i'd be happy to 'hold your hand' if you decide to brave it

actually, i've got great incentive. we're desperately trying to give up junk food. for the last month it's been banished during the week so only on weekends can we eat it. eventually i want to ban any junk other than what can be purchased within our pocket money allowance

dd gets 50p a week so that is a small amount of junk she can buy

right now we're really broke so dh and i only give ourselves £2.50 each to spend as we please. even when things are better financially i think that i'd prefer to keep ourselves to that limit.

anyway, i digress

we've looked into all sorts of healthy alternatives to junk, thus my enthusiasm for the dehydrator and my juicer.

when i crave savoury stuff i can oddly enough be satisfied 99% of the time by eating a tin of mackeral from lidl

it's just sooooo nice! what's really weird is that i didn't grow up eating much fish at all, maybe 3 or 4 times a YEAR (not that uncommon in US if you don't leave near the sea) but i love it

alternatives for sweets are harder though. i'm thinking of adding some powder to my ice lolly mixes as well. that way i can give these 'sweets' to dd more frequently and she doesn't have to know she's getting loads of good vitamins from the carrot/apple/kiwi etc that's been powdered and mixed into the juice that makes them up! the yogurt and cream based ice lollies work a treat about 75% of the time when i'm craving chocolate

whilst cream isn't the healthiest food in respect to the fat, it satisfies that craving for fatty food in about the healthiest way i can manage and at least it's got calcium, those fatty chips don't do so much for you!

so, if i can do really healthy ice lollies AND really healthy jelly, both which are adored by dd then i think i'll be well on the way to kicking the cravings for nasty chemical laden junk food and be teaching my dd such an excellent lesson

besides, one thing i have really noticed since we've been doing this... that stuff doesn't taste so nice anymore

a few bites of chocolate and i'm good. chips in restaurants

anything that i thought tasted slightly chemical now is so revolting i don't even want to smell it

but a really ripe cherry tomato...now THAT tastes better than most sweets mmmmmmmmmm

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28158
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 05 10:27 pm Post subject:
tried the biltong and too far gone in 1.5 days let alone the 3 day recommendation

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28158
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun May 01, 05 6:03 am Post subject:
I figure 20 hours max in this sort of dehyrdrator.

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Sun May 01, 05 10:49 am Post subject:

i agree that his dehydrator dries faster than anticipated, even by it's own book

my old one took days but it didn't give off much heat or have a fan so i shouldn't be surprised

i tried yogurt covered peanuts and sultanas the other day. they tasted lovely but i didn't coat them heavily enough. i've got fromage fraid (cherry mmmm) covered sultanas in now, heavily coated.

i also have strawberry as well as pineapple yogurt and cherry fromage frais 'drops' in just a dollop here and there to dry. these should be really nice and sweet.

i think i'll do banana puree and ff drops next as well as trying a smidgen of chocolate in the middle of a good dollop of ff (fromage frais seems to taste nicer dry than yogurt so far)

maybe after i've tried a few more items i'll write an article about my findings

Deedee

Joined: 10 Jan 2005
Posts: 250
Location: Surrey

Posted: Tue May 17, 05 8:15 am Post subject:

AW BUGS!!!! I am sooo sorry Tchibo messed you around on your surprise for Treacy

What a shame... I have had great fun tinkering with mine as time permits and reading some of the things Buttery has been up to has inspired me! Not had a lot of time to play (been away to Great Yarmouth with the boys and am now awaiting 3rd skip to finish the garden AT LAST!!!!!!) Plus all the usual chaos this time of year,and appointments galore you get the picture

but will report on any more success I have as the crops become ready

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Tue May 17, 05 10:20 am Post subject:

i recently dried some vine ripened tomatoes i managed to get for only 25p per package. i soaked them in a marinade honey vinagrette, garlic and parsley and then laid them out. i had some kiwis that were going to go off and not so nice for just eating so i marinated those in the same marinade and those were nice too!

i've recently done a yogurt and banana leather and it's just brilliant. i highly recommend pureed bananas as a base for any leather mmmm

i just got some more cheap tomatoes so i'll be doing another batch and i got 3 huge sticks of rhubarb so i'm going to try making some candied rhubarb as well as candied satsuma and lemon peels (got these for a pittance as well)

i may even try candied carrot since i love glazed carrots so much... i'll let you know how it turns out

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