Have you ever surprised yourself in the kitchen? Have you ever chopped, roasted, sauteed and then plated a dish - thinking you knew how it was going to taste - only to be completely bowled over by that first fork-full when it passed your lips? I had that happen last week.

I don't just rehearse meals for Christmas, I practice them for New Year's too. Especially this year. I found out recently that Jedd's brother and sister-in-law are coming that weekend. It's pretty exciting because they live 13 hours away and we've only celebrated the new year together a couple of times. So, obviously I want to make something that's pretty festive. So, my thought process went something like this:

“What's really festive? Festive... festive... Festivous? No, that's the opposite of festive. Festive... festive... oh! Truman Capote's Black and White Ball. That's super festive. And he used to serve chicken hash for his guests at midnight. Midnight is officially New Years Day. Cool. Chicken hash it is.”

When we received purple potatoes in our CSA share I was thrilled. But, I'm always over the moon when I see purple potatoes. In the rainbow of colors that come in our basket, these bright little tubers always feel like a big present.

We also received kale and I thought it might be a fun to make “healthy” scalloped potatoes with the purple potatoes and greens. Because, as everyone knows, if you throw something with Vitamin C in a dish leaden with milk, cheese and flour it automatically becomes good for you.

I love crispy hash browns. Not “home fries” that are (usually) greasy and never completely cooked, but golden hash browns.

About 12 years ago, Jedd and I went to visit our friend, Steve, in Arizona and then we drove to California. As we drove away from Tempe across the desert toward Laguna Beach, we stopped for breakfast at a diner.

The diner was a little out of the norm. First of all, they had a huge sign that said “No guns allowed.” The second thing was that they had 25 kinds of hash browns on the menu. It was like I had died - without being shot by a patron - and gone to “Chili covered hash browns with deep fried jalapenos” heaven.

Frying isn't always fun, even though it creates delicious food. However, the other night I was craving homemade potato chips, but I didn't want to deal with hot oil.

Or having to wipe down everything in the kitchen that would be covered in oil splatter.

So, I decided to make them in the oven. And I upped the yum factor by coating them with coarse pepper.

I had tried baking chips a few years ago, but with less than desirable results. Half of the chips were soggy, half of them were burnt. And I knew that it was because I just couldn't get the chips sliced to a uniform thickness. But I have a kitchen gadget that I didn't have before – a Mandoline.

I love it so much that it makes me channel Hugo, the “Looney Tunes” Abominable Snowman: “Just what I always wanted. My own little mandoline. I will name him George, and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him...”

This recipe makes some great chips, but just make sure that you have a “George” or a food processor. Hand slicing isn't the way to go here.