Through the porthole - Orange Hibiscus tea

Here is this week's infusion, made using my porthole.

In it is a Orange Hibiscus tea.  I used hibiscus flowers, rose hips, lemongrass, dried oranges, mint, rose petals and three whole stevia leaves.

Its a lovely combination and the whole stevia leaves didn't make it taste really sweet. I actually only put them in as I wanted a large green leaf so looked on my herb patch - and there was my stevia!

The tea is a lovely peachy color - a good blend of the red from the hibiscus and the orange.

I set it on the table yesterday ready for when a class sat to ate their cooking, and they were most intrigued by it and thought how pretty it looked with the sun shining on it.

Any suggestions of what I should try next to infuse in it next week?

I've been tango'd!

Remember the TV advertisements in the UK with the orange man saying "you've been tango'd"?  That's how I've been feeling this week.  You see we leave for England today and I hate to see any of our homegrown fruit go to waste, so I've been busy dehydrating more oranges!

Using a mandoline to slice all the fruit, leaves me smelling strongly of oranges, but also, as they dehydrate, the whole house smells of them! I tried leaving the door closed in the room where the dehydrator was, but when I went in to check on them, it was quite heady and over powering!!!  Made you definitely feel like you had been tango'd!

Even by the time I went to bed, all I could smell was oranges!

But I have to say, I have been loving the orange slices.  I've dipped some of them in sugar free homemade raw chocolate (78%) and they taste just like Terry's chocolate oranges!  And I love that they are crispy.

I will take a few slices back with me to the UK - for my own snacking - and also so others can have a taste.

And just in case you have no idea was being "tango'd" is all about:

 Here is one of the early adverts with the orange man:



And here is a compilation of some modern versions:




Think you may have the idea now?

Dehydrating fruit

So here is the dehydrated fruit I made - what is left of it, and before its all gone!

Don't the oranges look nice and glossy!

And I love the waviness of the apples - like they have been gently pleated as they dried.

What is your favorite dried fruit?  I don't like pears - they turn a little gritty, and last year I did some of our green table grapes that we grew - making yummy sultanas.....Maybe I'll have to do persimmons this year... Now if only you could dry quince without cooking them.....

I wonder what my next dehydrator project will be????  Oh, if only there were more hours in the day. I love having so many ideas in my head!