Homemade Jerky!

Dang! This stuff is so good. Now, I realize that to those of you who don't like jerky, this plate full of dark, fun to eat, spicy and yummy treasure might not look all that appetizing... But to jerky lovers, (me included), this is Heaven!!! I've had a Ronco Food Dehydrator for years, and now also have the one my father-in-law used, but just haven't done anything with them...

The last several weeks, I've been getting into dehydrating and it is great fun... I've done strawberries and cherries and they are delish!! They are relatively easy to do, somewhat time consuming, but really good.

The cherries took the longest to dry because they're thicker than the sliced foods. They took around 3 days, around the clock... About half way thru the drying time is when I pitted them. The strawberries were quick... about one 24-hour day. However, with both batches of strawberries, 7 full trays, I sliced the tip of my middle finger on my right hand off... OUCH! Just about the time the first one was almost healed, I did the 2nd one even worse. It bled off and on (mostly on!) for 3 days... must have gotten a blood vessel or something... You'd think after the first time I would have learned, but apparently not so!

The jerky was quite easy and what I am most pleased with, especially because of the cost saving and tastiness of it. We hit a sale on London Broil at Bashas in Snowflake last week.... $1.78 a pound. I dehydrated 4 pounds and ended up with about 1 3/4 pounds of jerky. I figure that makes the jerky about 25 cents an ounce. That's incredible if you think about what the stuff in the stores go for!!! AND... a big thing for me is that it has no chemicals... especially MSG, in it. I can eat all I want of this and will get no migraines from it!! Yahoo! It is flavored with garlic powder, onion powder, soy sauce, liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, Monterey Steak Seasoning and cayenne.

YUMMY! YUM! YUM!