Two Kinds of Chips with Caramelized Onion Dip

One day when Joe asked where the bag of potato chips had gone, I sheepishly said I had finished it.  Neither of us felt like going out in the rain for a replacement bag.  But I had a potato, oil, and salt, so why not make some?  It was the easiest thing and I didn't even use a recipe.  A single spud makes dozens of chips, which he devoured in one sitting.

This time I mixed it up a little, with the addition of sweet potato chips and a caramelized onion dip.  Sometimes Joe will mix a packet of powdered onion soup mix into some sour cream to make a dip.  Now I don't mind jarred dip, but I can't stand that soup mix with the dehydrated onion bits.  So I made my own caramelized onion dip, and it was way better.  The sweet potato chips are made the same way, and add a slightly sweet flavor to the mix.

Use a mandoline to create thin, uniform slices of potato.  It's hard to get them thin enough or uniform with just a knife.  You can even leave the skins on the potatoes.  Just slice, soak, dry, and fry -- that's it!

Some of the sour cream in the dip can probably be replaced with plain yogurt -- if you try that, let me know how it turns out.  Also, I know there are recipes out there for baked chips, but in my experience they haven't turned out very good.  They stuck to the pan, didn't brown evenly, and only some come out crispy.  Frying does a more even job; just make it an occasional treat.

Forgive me, but I had to:

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Gollum: What's taters, precious? What's taters, eh? 

Sam: *Po-tay-toes!* Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew... Lovely big golden chips with a nice piece of fried fish. 
[Gollum makes a noise of disgust while sticking his tongue out]
Sam: Even you couldn't say no to that.
Gollum: Oh yes we could. Spoilin' nice fish. Give it to us raw and w-r-r-riggling; you keep nasty chips.
Sam: You're hopeless.

Sweet Potato Biscuits with Cinnamon Honey Butter

Photo updated November 2012

This post is really late -- I meant to have it up before Thanksgiving!  But then I went to New York and taught Mom how to make the Sweet Potato Biscuits in a recipe swap, and she taught me to make Chinese Shrimp-Stuffed Eggplant.  And right after that was the baby shower for my sis.  Then Thanksgiving happened, and I cooked for two days.  So I'm finally taking a breather to tell you about what are now my most favorite biscuits I've ever made.  And don't skimp on that Cinnamon Honey Butter!  It didn't sound like my thing, but it's dangerously good.  They made another appearance on Thanksgiving morning, and again at the dinner table.

But before that I was exhausted with making these shower lollipops and pink velvet cupcakes.  From top left: The cupcakes are easy enough, if *ahem* your sister would only stock her kitchen with a mixer, whisk, or dry measuring cups; my twin sis with another prego friend; everyone loved the "Bun in the Oven" candles, which came in a box that looked like a stove/oven and smelled good enough to eat; and making these chocolate and pink white chocolate lollipops were easy enough, except making dozens will keep you up til 3 a.m., as we discovered.

Back to the biscuits.  I was getting obsessive about finding the right recipe.  I didn't want a fussy recipe that called for yeast and required waiting for rises.  Drop biscuits would give me misshapen lumps.  I wanted biscuits -- really tall, crisp on the outside, and soft on the inside.  I was drawn to this recipe because the sweet potatoes are flecked throughout the dough, rather than being one dark shade of orangey-brown.  And they smell really darn good.

I didn't have any self-rising flour, so I used a substitution (see the recipe), and it worked perfectly.  The dough will be sticky and have the texture of cottage cheese, but don't overwork it.

I did have reservations about using melted butter when you always hear that the secret to flaky biscuits is cold ingredients.  So I made the recipe as directed, but stashed the cut-out biscuits in the freezer for 20 minutes before baking, for some insurance.  They came out nice and tall.  No flat hockey pucks here.