Sun-Dried Tomatoes

For those of you lucky enough to have gardens dripping with tomatoes, you might want to try making your own sun-dried tomatoes and saving a bunch of money. I really had never considered making these myself until I saw that Martha was making her own and I happened to have a basket full of tomatoes in my kitchen. So I read a bunch of stuff online and woke up early this morning to make a batch. This is quite easy to do, even though I overcooked a few of them (they'll make good croutons for a salad).

Grab a bunch of tomatoes, any variety will work, although Roma's are preferred.
Choose if you want skins or no skins on your tomatoes. If you want no skins, bring a large pot of water to a boil, drop the tomatoes into the water to 'cook' for about 45 seconds. Remove from pot and immediately submerge in a big bowl of ice water. Pull the tomatoes out of the cold water, make a slice near the stem and the skin should squeeze/pull right off.If you want the skins (or after you've removed the skins) just cut in half, scoop out seeds and any bruised spots, then place flat on a dehydrator tray or cooling rack. I lined a baking sheet with foil and put the cooling rack on top for easy clean up. At this point you could dry them, but many sites recommend seasoning with salt (I went with finely ground sea salt) and/or basil (I just used dried). Preheat oven to 150 (or lowest temp). I used the convection setting on my oven and the lowest it went is 165. Dry the tomatoes for until they are soft, like raisins, not wet or sticky. Remove from try and allow to cool for about 30 minutes. Store in freezer bags removing all air.
Some of my tomatoes were a bit on the small side and dried in about 3 hours, the medium-sized ones took 4 hours, but I think the big ones would take closer to 6-7 hours or more if you leave the skins on to lose all the moisture.