Very quiet up here at the Courtois Group Home at Houghton Lake. When I took my walk this afternoon, whatever weather my iPhone hooks up to said it was 18 degrees at Houghton Lake. I think it’s a good 10 degrees colder here on the point. My legs were pretty cold at the end of my walk. A snowmobile went by on the lake a while ago but I’m not sure I saw any vee-hick-ular traffic on the road at all. Maybe one car. Two rabbits and several deer lingered on one empty lot and we all stood stock still for a few minutes to watch each other, until the crunching of my feet on the icy road spooked them. A couple of old geezers were out enjoying the silence and, yes, I flirted back. I love to make small talk with cheerful old geezers. Women my age are supposed to be invisible but somehow I’m not. At least not to the old geezers. Like Grandroobly used to be.

We were iffy about coming up here this weekend. It’s really close to xmas and I feel like I have a million things to do. What else is new, roight? But my classes are finished. Well, almost. My last Illustrator class is Monday but there’s nothing due and the teacher says it’s just a fun class. Her classes are always fun but I’ll be there anyway! But there’s *snow* up here. There’s enough snow to cross-country ski! Last year, we didn’t get to ski until the end of January! And the UU is coming up here too. Another person! The GG and I won’t strangle each other!

The text message came from California. It asked for the recipe for pita chips. I emailed it. But here it is, for posterity. It isn’t actually so much a recipe as a plan. All you need is pita bread, olive oil (spray), and salt. And maybe a couple other things on the side. You’ll see, if you read. Be creative:

1. Split the pita bread in half and cut it into triangles or whatever. Not all pita bread is equal. Some of it splits apart better than others. Be patient and if the first brand you try doesn’t split easily, try another kind. When you find one that generally works well, stick with it. BTW: kitchen shears work well for cutting up pita bread.
2. Brush your pita triangles with olive oil. A pastry brush works well here. Oh, or spray olive oil!! How could I forget?
3. Bake them on a cookie sheet. In my oven at The Landfill, I bake them at 350 for approximately 10 minutes. This can be a trick. These are thin little pieces of bread and they can cook quickly all-of-a-sudden and I have been known to burn them. Heck, I’ve been known to sit there playing with my computer totally ignoring the oven timer buzzer. Don’t do what I do. Figger out your own oven and be attentive!
4. Line a bowl or whatever with paper towel(s) (two layers works well) and put the baked pita chips on the paper towels.
5. Salt them lightly (if you want) while they are still warm. You could also sprinkle a little pepper or garlic powder on them or… I dunno. This is where you can experiment and be creative.
6. Serve with hummus and/or baba ganouj. Other dips/spreads work too. If you don’t have a favorite recipe that you can make with your eyes shut while listening to a Sousa march on NPR, just buy this stuff! Actually, the feta spread from Best Choice (the wonderful deli/market in the picture — at Houghton Lake!) would be really good with pita chips!

Have fun and don’t obsess about the perfect pita chip! 🙂

Oh, now Kathy and Doug are on their way up too! Fun!

Have a great weekend!
Kayak Ski Woman!

This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.