On Saturday, I attempted to make
cheese. I won't even get into how that went ...
I decided to use some of the fresh
basil I was growing outside -- but I wanted to
dry it first. (You don't have to use nearly as much
dried basil as
fresh, because fresh looses much of its flavor into the
cutting board.)
I had been using
Miracle-Gro, so I wanted to wash the leaves very well. After doing so, they turned into little smooshed-up
blobs of dark green. I painstakingly unfolded each
blob and flattened it on a
paper towel. After trying to press the water out of them, I realized that I would need something more
powerful. I added another layer of paper towel, and used
masking tape to secure all four edges to the side of my
bed. I then took my
fan and placed it about 6 inches away and set it on "
high".
After about an
hour of fanning the basil, I checked it, and it was still quite
damp. It was getting late, and I had to think fast. What had more
power ...?
The blow-drier!
I then moved my paper towels and tape to the
floor, grabbed my
blow-drier and got to work. It takes a damn long time to blow-dry basil. After almost 30 minutes of looking
ridiculous (stopping every few minutes to make sure the drier would not
melt) the basil was at an
acceptable level of dryness.
Believe me -- running over to the
store and buying a bottle of dried basil is far more
time efficient than blow-drying it.