Carols, Chips, and Chanting!

Like the alliteration?  So do I.

I was rather productive today!  Unfortunately not in the realm of academics, but that's what Sundays are for!!

Earlier this afternoon, my acapella group sang Christmas carols in the Pittsburgh Strip at the Pittsburgh Public Market.  I caught an early bus, and since it was such a nice day (50 degrees and sunny!), I got off about a mile early and walked to the market.  The Strip is such a happening place on weekends, full of people and shops (and wonderful smells!) so I highly enjoyed that little walk.  Finally we all met up, warmed up, and sang our little set list to the market.  People loved it!

Afterwards, I walked around the market.  It's quite small, nothing like the Central Market at home, but there were lots of little vendors selling handmade jewelry, treats, produce, and other fun things.  I sampled some maple bacon coffee, and it was surprisingly good!  Mostly maple flavored with a hint of smokiness.  A bunch of us hovered around a vendor selling different types of jams, so I sampled some, and they were delicious!  Especially the ones made with wine and beer :)  I walked around and enjoyed the colors, "appreciated" (as Dr. Schumann would say) the tempting baked goods, and went on my way home.

Once home, I had a couple hours to kill before my next engagement, so I decided to try out a recipe I had been wanting to do for a while - baked potato chips!  I had a regular potato and a sweet potato, so I tried out both.  I don't normally eat potato chips, but these were so good that I don't think I'll ever eat commercially produced chips again!

Let's all just appreciate the thinness of these slices, shall we? :)

What you need:
Potatoes
Water
Olive Oil
Good knife skills or a mandoline
Optional: Salt/Pepper/whatever you want to season them with

Preheat oven to 400F.  Slice the potatoes to desired thickness.  The thinner you cut them, the crispier they get.  I don't own a mandoline, so I just tried cutting them the thinnest I could possibly manage, which ended up being about 1/8 inch.  If you're using regular potatoes, soak them in water for about 10 minutes to release some of the starch.  Sweet potatoes don't have to be soaked.  Put all the slices in a bowl, then drizzle with olive oil and use your hands to make sure each slice has some oil on it.  No need for a lot of oil! I probably used about 1/2 tbsp over 2 potatoes, just enough to make sure each slice had seen some oil.

Lay them out on a foil-lined baking sheet in a single layer, and sprinkle with whatever spices you want.  I used a bit of salt and freshly ground pepper.  Stick them in the oven and set a timer for 12-15 minutes, depending on the size of your slices.  The smaller and thinner pieces will obviously cook faster, so you don't want those burning while the bigger ones are still cooking.  Take the tray out and remove the chips that are done, then let the larger/thicker pieces cook for another 5-8 minutes.  My large pieces took about 20 minutes total, but yours may vary.  Remove them from the baking sheet, let cool, and enjoy! (Or you can enjoy them hot, they're really good that way too!)

I'll be taking the chips to school tomorrow so some of my friends (*cough*guineapigs*cough*) can taste them and see if they're still tasty a day later.  We'll be practicing doing physical exams on each other since we have to do our first full exam on a standardized patient this week.  At the very least, the chips will let us hear bowel sounds!  (Sorry, that might have been too much info for the general public...)

Today is December 1, and that means it's World AIDS Day, a day to bring awareness to HIV and AIDS.  (Pittsburgh)Red, the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, Pitt's graduate school association, and many more organizations came together tonight for a rally and march down Forbes Ave.  There was a rally at Carnegie Mellon with several speakers, including Pittsburgh's mayor, then everyone marched down Forbes Ave with candles to Pitt's campus, where there was free food, free HIV testing, and a bunch of organizations (PittMed LGBTPAM, Planned Parenthood, Rainbow Alliance, ONE, etc) tabling with information.  I had volunteered to help out on Pitt's side with food, so I was unable to take part in the march, but it was amazing seeing the 100+ participants walking down Forbes.  The music and food brought in a lot of people that were just passing by, so I thought it was really successful!