Pita Chips

We did a salad bar night again for supper today. At the store, picking up a few items, I saw a bag of delicious but rather pricey pita chips that would go splendidly with the roasted pine nut hummus I had in my grocery cart. Hmm...next to the pita chips were bags of pita bread for a mere $1.50.  So, I decided to make pita chips at home.

Google churned out a number of options. I looked at the top two, and picked one that had more ratings than the first in the list of choices.

I skipped the chervil (didn't have it) and used garlic powder and salt.  For the first batch I peeled the layers of the pita pockets apart, so they were thinner and crunchier. The second batch I left the layers intact, so they were both crunchy and a bit chewy. Both were tasty.

Pita Chips from www.allrecipes.com

Pita Chips

Rated: Submitted By: Dawn Photo By: hmstarr Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 7 Minutes Ready In: 17 Minutes Servings: 24

"These fresh-from-the-oven triangles--pre-brushed with olive oil and herbs--have a warm and crunchy warm snap that you just can't get from a store bought bag."

INGREDIENTS:

12 pita bread pockets 1/2 cup olive oil 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon garlic salt 1/2 teaspoon dried basil 1 teaspoon dried chervil

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2.	Cut each pita bread into 8 triangles. Place triangles on lined cookie sheet.
3.	In a small bowl, combine the oil, pepper, salt, basil and chervil. Brush each triangle with oil mixture.
4.	Bake in the preheated oven for about 7 minutes, or until lightly browned and crispy. Watch carefully, as they tend to burn easily!

Returning

I've had an interesting summer, most of which was spent at my in-laws' house in Nevada City, which for you Utah-ites is basically the Park City of the Sierras. It was a great summer, but as much of it was spent in someone else's kitchen, I didn't do that much experimenting with food. I did, however, use some classics on the family - the southwest quinoa went off like a rocket (that's not a saying, but I think it could be), and my coconut curry was devoured quickly (though, to be fair, the DeMartini eating habits are pretty piranha-like in general).

I also did a bit of traveling at the end of August/beginning of September: Turkey, Portugal, Croatia, and Italy. Many people find that their travels inspire their cooking - Heidi on 101cookbooks looooooves to talk about Japan, and can't seem to make anything without adding tempeh or soba. Here is how my travels influenced my cooking: if I never see another piece of pizza, I'll still live a contented life. I was on a beggar's budget, not a culinary tour, which in the Adriatic means lots and lots of slices of mediocre pizza. In Turkey, it means kebabs and turkish bagels. In Portugal, pastries. None of it was very inspiring.

I do, however, see the summer influencing my upcoming culinary efforts because of one sumptuous, beautiful, plentiful item: the blackberry. They grow wild all around northern California, and Alan has become borderline obsessive about picking them - it's like an ongoing treasure hunt. He currently has 11 ziplock gallon freezer bags full of them which he is preparing to transport to San Diego in the coming weeks, and I will have to find yummy things to do with them. My grandma told me about jam she buys that is nothing but blackberry and pectin. I love that idea - a lot of fruit jam is mostly sugar, and it seems such a waste to ruin good fruit that way. I am, however, up for any suggestions. Anything you love doing with blackberries, or have wanted to try? The main thing I miss from Europe, not surprisingly, is gelato, so maybe I'll give blackberry gelato a go. Has anyone made their own gelato before?

Salad Bar At Home

 I did a little meal planning this week (it's been a while!) with my sister-in-law who is visiting from Iowa. We have actually already made some of our planned meals! A success, no?  One of the meals was a salad bar at home. I love salad bars, and wanted to try it out. We all loved it. (Our 2.5 y/o was already in bed.  Peter was late getting home from work so we ate late with him).

Our salad bar fixings wouldn't all qualify as natural cooking, but since our blog is inclusive, I won't black out the items which seem less "natural." :)

Romaine

Diced beets (just sliced canned, chopped up)

Canned chickpeas (rinsed)

Boiled eggs

Green olives w/pimentos

Red peppers

Cottage cheese

Dill pickles

Cucumbers

Balsamic vinaigrette

We purchased some of this for the salad bar meal, but some of it was just what we had hanging about the kitchen.  And, we each used our own preferred combo of toppings for our meal.

What would you add to the salad bar? 

Introducing...

....my brother!

A couple weeks ago my wonderful brother Jon visited us in Washington Heights, NYC, from Waterbury, VT. He's "Uncle Guy" to the boys (who adore him), Guy to me and other family members, and Jon Conti to the rest of the world.

One of his many fabulous traits is that he cooks, meal plans, etc, and has great ideas on how to streamline lunch prep, and more. He is also a cyclist, skier, and more, and has fun ideas for packing good food to go.

Since I've only posted on the blog once so far, before I try to arm-wrestle him into posting a ton, I better step up. :)

Happy posting, cooking, and eating to all!