Month: May 2021

Dehydrating nearly gone fruit

On By CarynIn Recipe

Over buying fruit is not usually a problem in my household, as we eat an abundance of apples, oranges, bananas, and berries. But sometimes, for whatever reason, I have fruit uneaten that is approaching inedibility. But I now have a dehydrator. Ah! I cleaned and sliced all the very ripe fruit (mainly bananas and strawberries), and had some room so threw on some oranges and blueberries. I ran the dehyrator at 135 degrees for around 14 hours. The fruit stopped changing appearance, but had a leather-like texture rather than crisp. So I stuck them in the freezer in a bag. Fresh out of the freezer they are crunchy and full of flavor. And they should last in the cold storage for awhile! (Until my family finds them…)

Ripe strawberries and bananas on a dehydrator tray
Strawberries, blueberries, and sliced mandarin oranges ready to be dehydrated

I didn’t slice the blueberries, and they did dry out hardly at all. The mandarin orange was the most surprising; I liked the texture and taste dehydrated!

Hibiscus

On By CarynIn Garden

Something is nibbling in my hibiscus, so I sprinkled it with ground cayenne pepper to see if that deters the activity. I know I said I wanted low maintenance plants, but I’ve always loved the look of hibiscus and really want this one to do well so we can plant more.

Hibiscus sprinkled with ground cayenne

May the 4th be with you

On By CarynIn meme

I made a composite image awhile ago of X-wing Starfighters and the Corona-19 virus. I thought for May the 4th it would be nice to add some text and include it in this blog. Go out there and get ‘em microscopic fleet!!

Composite image of three X-wing Starfighters attacking Corona viruses

The electron microscope image of COVID-19 is from NIAID, and the image of the X-wing fighter is an actual electron microscope image of a 3D printed model by Microlight.

I’m using the Inktober 52 prompts (one prompt per week) to hone my Adobe Fresco skills and posting the sketches on my other blog (www.carynscreations.com/blog) No, I’m not making ink drawings, but the prompts are convenient and keep me motivated creatively.

Marled ripple lace scarf

On By CarynIn Craft

The lace scarf is done! It isn’t very long, but I used up all my fiber, with only a short segment remaining.

I won at yarn roulette, only a few inches of yarn left over

The total weight of the scarf is 103 grams (3.6 oz). I used two colors of pink merino roving, pre-drafted the colors together without blending, spun with a hand carved drop spindle, then made a two-ply yarn. Lace stitch was done with size 8 Prym needles (which may have just changed my feelings about knitting and especially lace knitting). I blocked and dried the scarf.

Finished merino wool lace scarf

Interestingly, the pictures of the scarf are much more striped than it appears in person.

Bad Robot

On By CarynIn Craft
Roomba ate my circular knitting needle

So would this be Roomba shaming? I couldn’t find my circular knitting needle then had the awful realization that if it fell to the floor it was probably wrapped up in robot parts. It was. The needles shattered, at least I couldn’t find evidence of them anywhere, so I assume that they were broken into tiny fragments and hoovered up. The Roomba seems to be fine, but the needle set is beyond redemption. It’s not like the robot deliberately sought out and ate my stuff, but sometimes I wonder.