I happened to hear a conversation my daughter was having with one of her friends. The girl who was visiting us said to Maddy, “You guys don’t have any snacks?” They were looking for something to eat in the cabinet. My cabinet is filled with foods to make snacks but nothing prepared. Sure, we sometimes have chips or pretzels but not all of the snack foods most people have in their houses.
This statement made me laugh because I remember when I was about 14 and my friend Jenifer was over to visit. We stood in our huge dry storage area of the converted farmhouse my family lived in.
This was my mother’s domain. For those of you who do not know my mother she is a formidable force of nature. We grew up on a 5 acre subsistence farm. We grew or raised most of what we ate. My mom did most of the work.!
Jenifer was saying, “your family does not have any snacks.”
Our dry storage contained big huge bags of flour, big bags of beans and beautiful canning jars full of produce from our garden. I remember loving to see how the light played off of the different colors in the jars. Red tomatoes, dark green beans, yellow summer squash and purple beets all lined the shelves. There were no Doritos.
When I would go to Jenifer’s house I would feel as if I stepped into the Plaza Hotel. They had individual slices of cheese in plastic, single yogurts and chips and crackers. How very fancy it seemed to me. Don’t get me wrong, Jenifer’s mom fed her great food but it just seemed so fancy to me to have snacks. My family could not afford these things for all 5 of us kids. Sliced deli meat was a luxury that only came once or twice a year. Grapes from the grocery store were descended on like a fallen gazelle by a pack of lions when my mom dared to bring them home from the store.
My need to make snacks from scratch also arises from not wanting to pay the grocery store prices for snacks but also that I want my family to eat well.
Making chips from scratch is a breeze if you have a mandolin. This is the one that I have but there are much cheaper ones that work great as well. French Mandolin. I use my constantly. It makes things much easier. If you hand cut chips or fries it takes too long! At least for me as a chef I cannot stand tasks that are too laborious or slow. I am usually moving in high-speed. I will slice the potatoes and let rest in extra cold water for about an hour.
Then I will place a rack over my sink and let the potatoes drain for an hour or so. I also do this for fries. 
Then you do not need to pat the potatoes down with a bunch of paper towels and all of the water evaporates off.
I pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.
Oil a pan with coconut oil. Do not use too much oil. Coconut oil is great because you do not need to use much. I only oil the bottom of a cookie sheet and do not toss the chips to coat. When they are half way done I just flip the chips to crisp the top when the bottom is crisp.
This will take about 15 minutes. When chips are hot out of the oven add garlic, shredded parmesan and salt or any other creative flavors you can think of but add when hot so it sticks.
Let cool on a rack and enjoy.
Loved the tip about letting them drain – I hate drying them out, never thought I could just let time do this job
Your post reminded me of my short-lived but intense love affair with TV dinners when I first arrived in the US in 1986 for a post doc. In Brazil those things did not exist, and I went nuts buying all sorts of packaged dinners… well, I grew out of that quickly
How funny. When I was in college my room mate Esperanza was from Mexico. Mymom gave me money for food and I would trade with Esperanza because she would go home each weekend and bring back lard filled refried beans, home made tamales, home made corn tortillas, carnitas and all manner of fantastic mexican food. She would give this food to me and go to the store and buy TV dinners and twinkies and I would love eating her food all week. Funny how Sunday nights all my friends would show up at my place with Tequila……
I agree.
What a simple way to make these. They look delicious, but I bet they won’t last long! Makes me want to buy a mandolin…
They go quick. Very quick. You shoud buy a mandolin. I spent a lot of money on mine and use it nearly everyday. If you do not use one much a cheaper one might be a better bet and they have a good one made my OXO for about $30.00
I had never thought to use coconut oil for making chips, but I’m going to try it tonight. Thanks! And I love the story about your childhood on the farm. You are very lucky to have been raised like that. I can relate a little… My parents were hippies and my mom had a large garden and cooked everything from scratch. I remember being so envious of my friends who had junk food and soda in their school lunches, while I had homemade whole wheat bread sandwiches. Now I am very grateful for how my parents raised me, as I’m sure your daughter will be too!
My parents were sorta hippies too! My daughter did tell me the other day that she was grateful for the food I make. It was fabulous to hear her say this.
yum yum yum
That’s it? It almost seems too easy – a definite must try!
You cannot make big batches because they have to not over lap much on the pan and they take more time than deep frying but it is any easy task to do while working on other things in the kitchen.
Beautiful chips. Most recently took a good portion of my index finger with mandolin so use caution.
Love these chips and I love that you’ve used coconut oil. My daughter often stands in front of the pantry and tells me we have no snacks. LOL! Even though the frig is loaded with fruit and veggies and homemade hummus.
Such a fun story! Thank you for sharing! Beautiful looking chips too. Do they taste coconutty?
Not at all. It is amazing how you cannot taste the coconut.
I like that you used coconut oil and sea salt. I never thought to use either. Thanks for the tips.
This was my first time using coconut oil and they were great.