12 Homemade Baked Potato Chips

Stepping out of my car the overgrown grass softly brushed my ankles as I made my way toward the wooden farm stand.  As my eyes searched the wide open fields dotted with brightly colored fruit I stopped to look over the light-brown turned earth of the potato field.  The teenager waiting at the stand handed me a paper bag without looking up from his cell phone, and I made my way through the muddy rows.  At the start of the row, potatoes poked up through the earth, already dug up for small hands to find and easy picking.  I kept going.

The untouched dirt called me, what would it feel like to dig up a potato myself?  I saw the bright green tractor stopped midfield and a kind man waved to me, I returned his gesture as he made his way across the field toward me carrying a shovel.  As he explained how to properly dig up potatoes, I looked down at my flip flops next to his weathered work boots, feeling slightly self-conscious.  But when I pushed my weight down on to the shovel and bent it back, hearing the soft sigh of the earth shifting under my weight and bringing the potatoes up to the top, I felt something shift deep within me.  I picked up each potato, examining each piece of treasure before putting it into my brown bag.  I dug a few more times before the rain began to fall.  I stood in the field letting the rain fall over me, breathing in the rich smell, and I smiled.


Homemade Baked Potato Chips

5 Red or New Potatoes, sliced thin
Cooking spray
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Garlic Powder

1.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

2.  Using a mandolin, slice the potatoes thin but not paper thin, you want them to have a little bit of thickness to them.

3.  Grease a baking pan with cooking spray and lay the potatoes out in one even layer.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until browned but not burned.  Remove the potatoes from the pan and set on a paper towel lined plate.  The chips will finish crisping as they sit.

4.  Mix together the salt, pepper and garlic.  Sprinkle over the cooked chips.  Enjoy!




*Two weeks ago I was turned down from a Master's in Creative Writing program, I cried....for a while.  Writing is what I love, so I hope you don't mind if I use this as my outlet for now along with my recipes.  I want to say a huge thank you to Ellen B Cookery for her wonderful comment, she had no idea it was just what I needed to hear, when I needed to hear it.*