Homemade Fruit Roll Ups

Okay, so it wasn't exactly fruit roll ups, but it is VERY similar to those expensive organic fruit leather strips. All my kids, as they have gotten older, have started to hate raisins, as a matter of fact, they aren't very fond of much dried fruit. They all love grape flavor, so I thought I'd be inventive with some cheap raisins. It is really hard to find fruits and vegetables they can eat backpacking, so I'm going to experiment some this week and see what I can come up with.

Okay, here is what you do:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

2. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil; coat foil with non-stick cooking spray.

3. Combine dried fruit with water in a heavy saucepan and simmer for 30 minutes or until soft.

4. Drain liquid and pour fruit into a blender. Puree until smoothish.

5. Pour fruit onto foil and spread evenly, making sure there are no holes.

6. Place sheet into oven for 25 minutes. Without opening oven, turn heat off and leave oven door shut for 8 hours. Mine didn't seem to be getting done, maybe I was just impatient, so I turned it back on low every now and then to heat the oven back up.

7. Remove baking sheet from oven and gently peel fruit from foil. Set on waxed paper, right-side down, and press down.

Everyone liked them, even picky Daniel. Although he said they tasted a little too "raisiny."

Who knew bubble were more fun in the rain? The kids stood at the edge of the carport and blew bubbles into the rain. They clumped big piles of bubbles together in the rain puddles and big bubble blobs made old boring bubble stuff exciting. Good ol' rainy day fun. Mom, on the other hand was inside scrubbing muddy paw prints out of the carpet. Once again the dog opening the door by herself is a cute trick, but man, I hate it.