After getting our batch of banana berry fruit leather in the oven, Gracen and I decided to give round two a go, this time with a different combination of ingredients…

We had a couple of bruised pears that I really wanted to use, and while digging in the fridge for an apple, Grae suggested carrots too (sure, why not?)  We added the other half of our lemon to the mix and called it good.

This batch took a wee bit more prep than the last one.  Grae peeled carrots {ever so cautiously}…

While I prepped the apples and pears (I peeled the apple, but not the pears).

When everything was ready to go, my little sous chef added the produce to a big pot…

And attempted to squeeze the juice from the lemon.  (Her exact words just before this shot was taken were, “Com’on, lemon… Why you not working??”)

Then she poured in some water (quite a bit more than with our first batch because carrots don’t produce their own juice while stewing).

Then we popped our pot on the oven, put a lid on it, and let everything simmer for about half an hour on medium heat.

It looked absolutely horrible when it was done cooking (like some kind of veggie stew gone terribly wrong), but smelled delicious.

During the stewing process, my little girl helper was replaced by this equally cute kitty helper.  Luckily, she likes to help just as much and saw to it that our mixture was pureed perfectly.

Then we poured it out onto a parchment-lined sheet.

This time we were a little more careful to make sure the mixture was an even thickness all over the base of the pan. Then it was into the oven on the lowest temperature.

After eight hours, we had a lovely sheet of fruit leather.

Once again using kitchen scissors, I cut the sheet into strips…

And rolled it up using strips of parchment paper and baker’s twine.