Crispy Baked Carrot Chips (Sweet or Spicy!)

Are they not beautiful? The little slices are Pumpkin Pie Spice flavored, and the long strips are Spicy Cayenne Pepper chips. The original recipe for the sweet little slices calls for ground cinnamon, but because 'tis is the season to eat pumpkin everything I figured I'd go with half cinnamon and half pumpkin pie spice. My spicy chips aren't too spicy because I am a heat wimp. I baked them in two batches, first the spicy strips and then the sweet slices, because I knew each batch would require my full attention or my oven was going to burn them. Know thy oven - wise words.

While my chips were baking I watched them like a hawk, and I took out a few of the chips that were browning faster than others so they all got a chance to cook evenly. Some of my strips didn't crisp up much, but the ones that did were perfect! They are not hard and crunchy like a thick carrot chip that spent hours in a dehydrator, but they are delicately crispy so that you can grab them by the handful and stuff them in your mouth like a savage. At least that's what I did. My oven baked the slices more evenly than the strips (all the slices were crispy) so I will probably stick to slices from now on, at least until we can buy a more reliable oven. Thanks for sharing the recipe, Gina!

Today's cute-creature photo features a little flock of Red-Winged Blackbirds that found a delicious feast in our backyard. This picture was taken last winter. We haven't had any blizzards this year... yet!