dehydration fail

Here is another half-assed experiment that was a huge FAIL!!  I tried to dehydrate pears and I failed on 3 attempts.

Again, this is The Husband's dream.  We bought a dehydrator.  We bought a box of pears.  Adrienne told me what I needed to know and I googled before I tried.

The first night I prepared a batch of pears; I peeled and put them in lemon water (to stop them from browning).  I wanted The Husband with me when we used the dehydrator just in case I screwed it up.  We put them on the trays, turned on the power and.....

NOTHING!!

The dehydrator must have had a faulty circuit board because the digital read out was all flashy.  We tried several different outlets before he gave up and sat on the couch. (I have since mailed back the top and am awaiting a new one.)

Had The Husband not been there as a witness, he would have accused me of effing it up, right??

I couldn't waste all those pears but I so didn't want to be baking at 8:00 at night, but The Girl and I did.

We made pear bread, pear pie and pear sauce.  The Girl thought it was so much fun but I had lost my sense of humor. Luckily I am a pretty good baker so everything came out yummy and we didn't lose any pears that night.

The next day I borrowed Adrienne's dehydrator.  I prepped the pears and plugged it in all by myself.  It worked!!  Hard to believe but it takes 8-10 hours for those suckers to dry!!  I had to set my alarm to check on them but by 2:00 AM I turned it off but they didn't look right.  I think I cut them too thick.

  

They look like steak fries, no?

So I made another batch with the last of the pears. That night, by midnight I just unplugged the damn thing and gave up. They were slimy and maybe they were just over ripe. They looked like slugs.

Sigh. I will try again with apples. Glad the kids like dried fruit and it is something I can eat, with no added sugar. Sigh. This isn't rocket science!!