By request: Fruit "Salsa" and Cinnamon Sugar Chips

So about a year ago I found this recipe on foodgawker (which is awesome by the way) and decided to make it for my friends. Unfortunately due to the ratio at RPI my friends are mostly impatient males who eat things before they're done to the point where they went through about 80% of the chips before the salsa was done and then didn't have anything to eat the salsa with and then complained a lot. Oh and they kept burning their hands because the concept of "just out of the oven = hot" is too difficult for their engineer brains. Drunk people are annoying sometimes.

Moral of the story: Make the salsa in advance.

Rainbow Fruit Salsa:

• Red: I used strawberries. Pomegranate seeds would probably be awesome too. Other red things: raspberries, watermelon, blood orange
• Orange: I used mango. Other orange things: peaches, nectarines, oranges/tangerines/clementines, cantelope (which is for losers)
• Yellow: I don't remember for sure but I think I used pineapple. May have cheated and used apples which are really more white than yellow. I think there are some weird citrus fruits that are yellow too, but I don't know.
• Green: I used kiwis. That's really the only good option. Starfruit and honeydew are also green, but not nearly as awesome as kiwis.
• Blue: Blueberries are blue. I don't remember if I used them or not.
• Purple: Blackberries are pretty close, if nothing else they get purple juice on everything when they inevitably get mushed. Also blackberries are fantastic.
• Sweetener: Honey, white sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar. They all have ups and downs. I went for a combination of honey and white sugar that let you taste a hint of honey without it being too in-your-face.
• Other stuff: I added coconut to it and I DEFINITELY recommend you do the same. Other stuff that could be cool: chopped walnuts, bits of candied ginger, a very small amount of mint.
• Spices: I don't think it really needs spices, but you can add some cinnamon to go with the chips if you want.

Directions:

1. Chopping: Chop everything into little tiny bits.
2. Mixing: Mix all the durable ingredients (not berries).
3. Stick it in the fridge: Then go make the chips. Come back when the first batch of chips is about to come out of the oven.
4. The chips are coming out of the oven!: Ok, now you mix those fragile berries into the salsa and put it out on the table (yep, before the chips).
5. Salsa Complete.

Chips Ingredients:

• Flour Tortillas
• Melted Butter
• Cinnamon Sugar (make this by combining cinnamon and sugar. 3/4 c sugar + 4 Tbsp cinnamon is what I got from a Google search, but I always just eyeball it)

Directions:

1. Oven: Preheat to 350 F.
2. Cutting: Cut tortillas into 6ish chip-like pieces. (wedges are great)
3. Topping: Put the tortillas in a single layer on some cookie sheets with a little space between them. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. You only need enough butter so the sugar will stick, but you can get pretty liberal with the sugaring before anyone complains.
4. Baking: Bake 10-12 minutes or until crispy. The edges will kind of turn up a bit and they may or may not puff a little if they have air bubbles.
5. Serve: So to be honest, these are extra-great when they're still warm. If you put a cookie sheet of them in front of college kids, it won't even last two minutes. Ideally you get them to put the salsa on the chips, but that's kind of a lost cause on some people (sigh)

I unfortunately don't have any pictures of last time I made this, but if I make it again or someone else decides to make it, they may be added retroactively :)

Original recipes:

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/04/sweet-fruit-salsa-with-cinnamon-chips/

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/04/baked-cinnamon-chips/

Potato and Beet Gratin

So I wanted to make beets for Easter, but I also wanted to make asparagus. And potatoes. So I combined the potatoes and beets based off of recipes I've made in the past and here's what I came up with:

• Beets (I used 4 smallish ones because that's what the grocery store had)
• Potatoes (I used an equal amount to the beets)
• Gruyere (or something similar)
• Cheddar (optional)
• Parmesean (optional)
• Cream
• Thyme
• Nutmeg
• Olive oil

1. Slicing: Slice the beets and potatoes very thinly. I used the slicer on my (super awesome) food processor so the slices ended up being about 1/4" thick.
2. Oven: Preheat it to 375 F.
3. Shredding: Shred the cheese(s). My shredder was broken so I ended up using a vegetable peeler (y-type) to "peel" the cheese. It worked pretty awesomely on the gruyere, but the cheddar was too mushy so I had to resort back to the broken grater.
4. Layer: Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of a casserole/baking dish (anything ceramic or glass is fine). Place a layer of beets and potatoes in the bottom. Then a layer of cheese. Sprinkle in some thyme (fresh if you have it). Then a layer of beets and potatoes. Then a layer of cheese. More thyme. Repeat until you're out of stuff or out of room. Cover the top in an extra-cheesy layer. Dump some cream on it. I used about 3/4 c (guessing) for a 9x9ish dish that was half full. Then sprinkle with ground nutmeg.
5. Bake: Cover in aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove aluminum foil and bake another 15-30 minutes. It should be bubbly and delicious smelling and the beets and potatoes should be tender.

I may or may not add pictures here at a later date.