Plum Shriveled Up!

Here's a sampling of our first batch of "sun-dried" tomatoes for the year. We've been enjoying the fresh, ripe cherry and plum tomatoes in salads, soups, pastas, etc., but when they start coming out of our ears, I turn to dehydrating.

I don't know if it's just the variety I planted, or the early lack of rain, or some other microclimate factor, but my Roma tomatoes are quite small this year. But that just makes drying them go all the more quickly. My technique is to slice lengthwise, arrange on a cooling rack, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place in the oven at 200 F. It usually takes at least six hours, but with the small ones, I got it done in just over four.

Another little summer treat is homemade peach milkshakes. I still can't get them to taste quite as good as Chik-fil-a, but I comfort myself that they probably use some less healthy recipe or ingredients!