Avoiding the potato pitfalls....

Lately, I keep buying produce with the intent of cooking, only to get so distracted by children, house work, or Mad Men marathons that the produce goes bad before I get to it. Particularly potatoes. 

Oh, poTAYtoes, poTAHtoes. I love them so. The starchy goodness, the translucent beauty you find only when you slice them so thinly that you fear for the safety of your fingertips at every moment. (Or at least you do if you have small children running around your feet, oblivious to your peril and ignoring your please to remember that Mommy is TRYING to COOK here, people!)

But today we took the first step in our fight against the pitfalls of potatoes. Today, my friends, we made homemade potato chips. And they were Delicious. 

Granted, it sort of abuses the notion that part of the reason I'm beginning this cooking endeavor is to provide my children with an appreciation for HEALTHY food, but it really could be worse. 

See, these potato chips are baked. They're fast. They're easy. And they're YUMMY. Remember the Lays Potato Chip slogan? (You know the one.) It applies here, too. Except I couldn't even stop at one plate. YUM, I say.

In fact, they were consumed so quickly by Things #1 and #2, that I couldn't even get a picture. I tried to pry one from their grubby little hands, but no matter how much I want to share their beauty, dolphins the world around are grateful that I put their shrieks to an end. 

We made potato chips two ways, in the oven and in the microwave. I expected that I would love the ones from the oven, with their crunchy goodness and browned bits, and the kids would love the microwaved ones, as it is their cooking method of choice (remember the diet of corndogs, fishsticks, etc.? It's what they know.) However, I was really surprised that we ALL loved the microwaved potato chips more than the oven-baked ones. They had the same amount of crunch, just the right amount of browning, and they were 5 times FASTER than the ones from the oven. Yum.

We also made these potato chips in three different flavors, just for fun. Standard chips with sea salt, which everyone enjoyed, then a lovely garlic and salt chip for myself, and a BBQ version for my BBQ-obsessed offspring. 

We loved ALL of them. So much so, that Thing #1 has proclaimed she no longer wants "those 'grocery-store' chips, just these. The GOOD ones." in her lunches when school starts. And if that's not the mark of success, I don't know what is.     :o)

Healthy Homemade Potato Chips

Ingredients

1 large potato (peeling is optional - we chose to because my children balk at obviously unprocessed food)

Cooking spray, such as Pam

Salt (sea salt, or regular table salt will do)

1. Lay two layers of paper towels on a microwave safe plate. 

2. Slice your potato into 1/16" slices and lay in one layer on the paper towels. Do NOT overlap your potatoes at all.

3. Lightly spray the layer of potato slices with cooking spray, and sprinkle with salt (or your choice of spices).

4. Flip the potatoes over and repeat the spraying and sprinkling process with wild abandon. 

5. Microwave for 3 minutes. 

6. Remove plate from microwave, flip potato slices over, and microwave for 2-3 minutes (or until potatoes are dry completely). 

7. Let rest for 1 minute, and then consume with joy!

Garlic Chip Seasoning

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt (sea salt, or regular table salt will do)

1/4 tsp black pepper

BBQ Chip Seasoning

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt (sea salt, or regular table salt will do)

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional - we prefer more 'sweet BBQ' than spice, so we left it out)

Combine spices in a bowl before sprinkling on potato slices in step 3 and step 4.

 

Enjoy!

Questions that Keep Me Awake At Night - #1

Does it count as "cooking" if I use a mix?

Does it count as "cooking" if no heat is actually involved?

And the big one... why the heck would people bother making cakes from scratch when store bought semi-prepared boxed cake mix can be sooooo yummy? (She asks, as she licks the only-partly-made cake mix off of a rubber spatula...)

oh good grief.

Apparently, I was feeling rather frazzled about the idea of actually COOKING, and BLOGGING about it.

So much so, that I accidentally named this blog "Addicted to Cookboks". And only noticed after it was fully published. Fan-tastic.

What the hell is a "cookbok"? I hope they're fabulous, whatever they are.

(Maybe it's a new name for cookbooks dedicated to only poultry recipes? Hence the "bok"? *sigh*)

I'm an impetuous idiot. Who really CAN spell. I'll try to do a better job in the future. Promise.

The Public Confessional. AND The Million Cookbook Question: Why Blog?

I've never been good at resolutions. I laugh at people who make "New Year's Resolutions" because really, if you're going to do something, just DO IT (as Nike says). Don't use New Year's as an excuse, don't use waiting until the New Year as a procrastination method, and don't, in the name of all things holy, follow the crowd and make resolutions you have no intention of keeping just because other people do.

That being said, I took a long look around my rather small house (actually, three not-particularly-long looks in the time most people would take only one - my house is *very* small), and realized I had a problem. An addiction, if I'm being honest.

A cookbook addiction.

Don't laugh. It seems minor to people who have faced drugs or alcohol or other serious addictions. But in my teensy tinsy little house, having three bookshelves of cookbooks CAN be a problem.

Particularly, when (and this is MOST difficult for me to admit), I... rarely.... cook.

There. I said it. It's now public information that I am a cookbook-o-holic and Food Network junkie who rarely cooks. What do we do, you might wonder? We eat out. We reheat frozen dinners. My children thrive on dinner-from-a-box. All while we watch Food Network and I browse foodie blogs. 

My husband is not even entirely convinced that I CAN cook. He tends to smirk... and then laugh..... and then roll his eyes when I mention the possibility of cooking. (And that's just when I mention the possibility of ME cooking. On the rare occasion that I suggest that HE cook, he opens the freezer and asks the kids if they'd prefer corn dogs or pizza pockets.)

See? We have a problem.

But what to do, what to do? Clearly SAYING that we're going to start cooking won't help much. If it were just that easy, we'd already be doing it, wouldn't we? I assume so.

Therefore, I'm making a resolution to USE my vast collection of cookbooks as something other than table decorations, supports for wobbly table legs,  and seats for my kids to reach their straight-from-a-box mac n' cheese (it IS "the cheesiest", though!).

And I'm blogging about it because there is the ever-so-slight possibility that someone will notice, and call me on it if I drop the ball. 

I. NEED. PEER PRESSURE, people.  (Only the good kind. So be gentle....)

I like to surprise myself, so I will set a goal of using at least two recipes each week from cookbooks ALREADY in my collection for a whole year. (No buying new ones! Curb the addiction! Just say No!) Then if I do more, YAY me! 

I'll probably give you random tidbits of food-related fun along the way (ya know, from those many foodie blogs I already subscribe to and visit religiously when I'm... not... cooking). And maybe the occasional completely unrelated post. I like to be random like that.

Wish me luck. Bear with me. Be supportive. If my meals turn out horribly, laugh WITH me, not AT me, and then remind me why I'm doing this.

Because really, the reason is far more complicated than I can ever fit into one sentence, I think. Food blogs have been inspiration. Hopefully this one will be motivation. And if, no WHEN I make it through a year, in the long run my family will benefit, my psyche will benefit, the environment will benefit (from my not buying more cookbooks I never use!), and my appetite will... well, I'm not sure if "benefit" is the right word, but it will definitely be more appreciative. :)

So in the words of Julia Child (and many french-speaking people the world around, of course),this time uttered with fingers tightly crossed..... Bon appetit!