Oven dried goodness

I plucked a bunch of the Principe Borghese over the past week, and decided to try drying them. So yesterday, when I had several hours where someone would be in the house at all times, I set the oven to 200 degrees, cut my tomatoes all in half, and set them to shrivelling up. While I was at it, I sliced up a couple of sweet banana peppers that were on the counter and slightly past their prime.

I'm calling the results an unqualified success. The peppers dried to an almost papery consistency, and have turned brown. I tasted one, and immediately wanted to add it to dark chocolate. I'm seriously considering drying the rest of the peppers solely for this reason now.

The tomatoes are tiny, dark, and very tart. I fed one to my husband, who shook his head around and blinked several times after swallowing. I do believe the rest of the grape tomatoes will be reserved for this purpose as well, because I'd really like to have enough for sharing.

I dreamed last night that I showed the garden to my mother, and everything was warped and mutated and ruined. The cucumbers in particular were blackened and diseased on the vine - one of them half some sort of stalk growing out of it. I may be a little preoccupied with the state of the plants.