Simple Spice of Life - it's in the rub

Or: how to keep thin making wayyyy-too-much-trouble potato chips

I can feel summer waning here, the warmth I'm capturing is from the patches of sun on the back deck, but the air is astringent and belies the truth. The geese are starting to sound off as they fly by, the monarch butterflies have fluttered into town on their impossible journey to Mexico. It's reminding me that comfort foods are soon to insulate my stomach (and frankly other parts too). So I thought I'd share Steve's spicy rub - how you use it is up to you - set your own limits. And if you follow it up with Steve's chip recipe, you'll discover true slow food that's truly incredible.

Steve's Rub

1 part chili powder
1 part brown sugar
1 part black pepper
2 parts kosher salt
Healthy dose of paprika

Feel free to make up a whole whack of this and keep it in a container in the cupboard.

Way-too-much-trouble, Guilt Diminisher Potato Chips

Preheat oven to 275 degrees fahrenheit. Here's the best part...one good sized potato will make you the equivalent of one bag of potato chips (how bad can that be?). Steve slices a russet potato very thin on a mandolin (you really need a mandolin to do this). He rinses the slices to get as much starch off as he can, dries them with a clean towel and then gives them a thin coat of olive oil.

Out comes the famous (or soon to be) spice rub. He lays the potato slices on a cookie tray, sprinkles just one side and not too heavily with the rub.

Then he pops them in the oven preheated to 275 degrees...any higher than that and they burn too quickly.

After about 10-15 mins he flips them over and over to keep them from burning. As he's flipping, he pulls out the ones that are done. And I eat them - it isn't pretty.

I promise they taste unlike any potato chip you'll ever buy. We promised ourselves (har har) we'll never buy potato chips, so if we only eat Steve's when Steve has an evening free to carefully coax these things through the oven, then we're guilt free as we munch.

By the way, if you play with the proportions, like ease up the salt, this makes an unbelievable rub for chicken (especially beercan chicken) and for pork tenderloin...like I said, the spice of life for the free spirit. Chips a'Joy.