Out With the Old

Happy New Year!!

One of my New Year's resolutions is to get rid of or use up the old items in my home. I don't mean antiques or valuables, which I don't own anyway. I mean those things that were purchased or given to me and never have realized their full potential in the deep recesses of a closet. It could be yarn for a project that I never finished. It could be the items that lurk almost invisible but taking up space on our pantry shelves and especially those things that sank to the bottom of our freezer drawer and need resurrecting.

Yesterday I finally made use of the left over cranberries I froze last Christmas! I finally reached down and retrieved them. I couldn't see them, but I knew they were there! Yes! Beautiful, red, plump, cranberries are among three of the only fruits native to the Americas!

My family likes to eat dehydrated cranberries but hate the sugar that is added to them. So I have decided to make use of the ones we have.

How to Dehydrate Frozen Cranberries:

1. Bring cranberries to room temperature.
2. Pour boiling water over them and let them sit until they pop.
3. You may have to do this twice. (I did because mine weren't fully thawed.
4. Add some type of sweetener if you like. I added only 1/4 cup of sucanat to the water. If you like sweeter cranberries wait until step 6 to add your choice of sweetener.
5. Drain water from the pot.
6. Now add your sweetener if desired.

Those of you who like to pop bubble paper will derive some satisfaction from this next step.

7. Pour cranberries onto a parchment covered baking sheet.
8. With the back of a spoon proceed to pop the cranberries still whole. This is sounds and feels the same as popping bubble paper. The kids will get a kick out of it too but be careful because they can stain.
9. Place the baking sheet in the oven on low if you have an oven that will can be set down to 170 degrees. If not then use a food dehydrator. Other people use the oven set at 200 degrees and then open it periodically to let out the heat. This can be a very slow process - 8 hours or overnight?

Here are mine going into the oven.

I happen to have a dehydrator that I also haven't used in many years hiding deep in the pantry so I brought out the old. After my cranberries sat in the oven for about 3 hours. I transferred them to my dehydrator and left them overnight.

In the morning we had wonderful, sweet/tart cranberries. I would have a picture but my husband put them in the pancakes he was making!

They were so good I plan to stock up on the last cranberry bags on sale for the season and dehydrate them throughout the year.

Happy New Year!