Back to the dehydrator original question - my fav thing to dry is sliced tomatoes. I use them all winter, ground up and with a little water to rehydrate, makes wonderful fresh tasting pasta sauce, pizza sauce, tomato soup, and ketchup by the cup. I also use them as you would "sun-dried" tomatoes. Same thing. Unpeeled little Roma's, Amish Paste, or my fav Principe Borghese heirloom tomatoes have a very rich flavor when dried. They do have to be firm low juice varieties or it takes forever to dehydrate where the sliced paste tomatoes take 8 hours total at 145 at the beginning then down to 135 - 140 for the remaining time. If you do use juicy tomatoes I'd recommend taking out the seeds and letting the juice drip out before putting them in the dehydrator. Another thing I make is vegetable leather. There are many recipes out there. Some I make have all the same ingredients as vegetable soup - add a cup of hot water, stir and stir, and after a while have hot soup. Since I grow organically and don't need all that salt as in commercial soups, I have a good tasting, good for you soup. One very important thing to do with all dehydrated foods is to put them in plastic bags or jars and put them in the freezer for 48 hours. This kills the native bacteria that lives in our air (and any weevils or critter eggs that might be lurking and survived the heating process). Nancy the nancedar

Your question is delving into a subject that is incredibly complicated. Most dog foods at the local grocery store are the equivalent of junk food for your dog. They have fillers in them, especially corn and wheat, that can cause all sorts of problems, both upper and lower GI, and a host of other things. Dogs were just not built to digest most grains well, especially corn. You would do well to Google the subject and educate yourself. Since you will probably get a ton of information about this here, here is my experience. I've had dogs for the past 17 years. Oldest (now in doggie heaven) had a corn allergy. Sores developed that just would not heal. I've now got three large mutts. Two of them have a wheat allergy, one of them took at least 6-7 years to develop, the other less than a year. It caused horrible diarrhea in both. One has had a history of UTI (thank you dog god, she's been fine since September). Dogs with allergies are on IVD venison and potato, the other one is on a high quality food with no fillers. I come in contact with lots of dogs daily. I know what they eat and I also see the probable results of what they eat. There is no question that a better quality food is going to help stave off numerous health problems, and perhaps extend the life of the dog. When my old doggie (Shepard/Lab)went, she was 14. Very old for this size dog, but she had three serious health issues. I attribute lots of positive results to better food, BUT, it ainÂt cheep. SG

I found this one today. OVERNIGHT APPLE BUTTER mixture of apple varieties, rather than just one type, will produce apple butter with rich, complex flavor in this slow cooker recipe. Good choices include Esopus Spitzenburg, Granny Smith, Jonathan, Northern Spy, Rome, Stayman, Winesap, and York. Enjoy the apple butter over toast or English muffins, or serve it with pork chops or chicken. Yield 4 cups (serving size: 1/4 cup) Ingredients 1 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup honey 1/4 cup apple cider 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1/8 teaspoon ground mace 10 medium apples, peeled, cored, and cut into large chunks (about 2 1/2 pounds) Preparation Combine all ingredients in a 5-quart electric slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 10 hours or until apples are very tender. Place a large fine-mesh sieve over a bowl; spoon one-third of apple mixture into sieve. Press mixture through sieve using the back of a spoon or ladle. Discard pulp. Repeat procedure with remaining apple mixture. Return apple mixture to slow cooker. Cook, uncovered, on high 1 1/2 hours or until mixture is thick, stirring occasionally. Spoon into a bowl; cover and chill up to a week. Stovetop variation: Combine all ingredients in a Dutch oven. Cover and cook over medium-low heat 1 hour or until apples are very tender, stirring occasionally. Strain through a sieve as recipe instructs in Step 2. Return mixture to pan. Cook, uncovered, over medium-low heat 15 minutes or until thick, stirring frequently.

Hi - on a Mac here - not sure how Windows does this, but I can control-click (maybe R-click on Windows?)on a page or a printer-friendly page & select 'Print', then select 'save as .PDF', or 'open .PDF in preview' from the print dialog window that opens. That way I can save a recipe w/o having to print it & the .PDF format works everywhere. I can also select & copy/paste in a text app. or simply choose a single page to print out as needed & avoid wasting printer ink. I keep a recipes folder on my desktop, w/ subfolders for different categories like fruits, veggies, meats, cakes, breads, etc. - so easy & quick to simply drag the files to various folders to organise - & use the computer search tool (called spotlight here) to find something rather than having to scroll through forever. Of course I collect vintage cookbooks & have a LOT + old pamphlets, but my main cookbook shelf is small & filled w/ stained old favorites like Joy of Cooking, Beard on Bread, Betty Crocker & a couple of binders overflowing w/ pieces of paper...