MAKING YOUR OWN HOT PEPPER POWDER

My sister bought me a dehydrator for my birthday and I finally got to put it to use. 

I dried cherries, grapes (made the best homemade raisins), peaches and tomatoes.  They were are wonderful.

I had been canning a lot of stuff and just used the left overs.  I don't want any more wasted fruits or veggies!  From now on, when they start to go bad or I have some left over that I know I won't use, they will be getting dried so I can use them later.

I had several jalapeno peppers and a few Serrano peppers that I dried out.

They dry pretty fast.  It was about 4 hours at 135 degrees to dry them. 

I love how they looked when they were dry.  Yes, I kept the seeds and membranes on.  I wanted them to have the extra heat.

I wasn't really sure what I was going to make with them but figured I would toss some in soups or stews.

Then I decided I would grind them up to make some powder.  I purchased a small coffee grinder that was also good for spices.  It worked perfectly.

I now have some wonderful pepper powder that I can add to any recipe.  I was also told it's great to sprinkle on popcorn to add a little kick to it. 

I know I'll use it mostly for when I make jams.  I did make some blackberry/jalapeno jam already and I had to cut up the fresh jalapenos for that.  This will be much nicer.

How about you?  Do you dehydrate food?  It's great to do if you are trying to stock pile food for an emergency or if you want to take it backpacking/camping.  You just add hot water to bring the food back to life.  Or you can toss the dried veggies into soup and it will plump back up while it cooks.

It's another new and fun hobby I have to add to my canning, bread making (oh adding a bit of this pepper powder to bread dough would be great) and prepping.