Picnic at Bryant Park

Beautiful crisp fall days where the sun and temperature simultaneously warm and cool you are hard to come by. To make the most of it I met my hubby at Bryant park for a picnic. I brought homemade crisps/chips (he's British and I'm Canadian so my double naming acts as a sort of conflict resolution), roasted chicken sandwiches, some yummy Sanpell, a pickle for me and two lindt chocolates!

It was lovely. I find it's hard to slow your pace in this big bustling city where everyones footsteps are fueled by an alarming sense of urgency. The energy at times overwhelms me so retreats like this are more than necessary! Needless to say,  it was nice to sit in a park with homemade goodies as I watched the hustling world go by- completely withdrawn.

Homemade Chips Ingredients:
2 sweet potoatoes
2 red beets
(you can use carrots, potatoes, turnips etc)
1.5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves smashed garlic
a handful of thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Preheat oven to 400. Use a mandellin to cut the potatoes 1/4 inch thick. Mix the veggies in olive oil, salt and pepper. Do them separately if using beets as they bleed). Top with garlic and thyme. Bake for 10 minutes, turn over and bake at least another 10 or 15minutes or until they start to brown on the edges. The beets are a bit deceptive as they don't brown, when they do it means they're burnt. The beets have no visual indicators of being done. The best way to test it is to remove one chip and leave in room temperature for 3 minutes. If it stiffens and gets crisp they're ready!