Why—and How—to Put Potato Chips in the Oven

We interrupt our regularly scheduled My Broke Kitchen content to bring you the next in our “Meet Our Contributors” series—Food52’s version of show and tell. We’re asking some of the voices behind your favorite columns to share a recipe that represents them (and explain why). 

Today, Catherine talks about her aversion to olives, professes her newfound love for Charleston, South Carolina, and covers potato chips with blue cheese and cream.

Tell us about Blue Cheese Potato Chips—what about it makes it you?
This was the first recipe I invented (I think I was twelve or so) that people actually wanted to eat. Inspired by a dish at Buckhead Diner, you heat up cream, add crumbled blue cheese until it’s mostly dissolved but some chunks remain, then pour the mixture over a baking dish of crunchy potato chips (my go-to brand is Cape Cod, but if you’re really doing it right, you should make your own). Top with black pepper and broil in the oven until the whole thing is bubbly and the cheese is bronzed. Serve right out of the oven with a side of napkins.

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Tell us about your hometown (or the place you live now).
I currently live in Charleston, South Carolina, mecca of all things shrimp and grits, land of overwhelming humidity and Spanish moss, home to some of the kindest and most creative people I’ve ever met. Bill Murray owns a baseball team here and the stadium offers cheap local beer and u-pick herbs to garnish your pizza. There are pop-up dinners hosted by ladies who have dubbed themselves “the bad bitches of Charleston,” yoga in distilleries, and an awesome gardens-in-school program. I’m pretty smitten. Come visit and I’ll take you to drink punch and get late-night french fries.

What is your desert island food (practicalities aside)?
I’m tempted to say macaroni and cheese or a vegetarian burrito with all the fixins, but, in reality, those foods would wear out my palate pretty quickly. So I’d have to go with a really, really good Caesar salad: one with anchovy dressing and Parmesan and garlicky breadcrumbs on crunchy lettuce. Plus, assuming the desert island is hot and has minimal shade, it would keep me hydrated and refreshed.

More: Catherine once taught us to how to make mac and cheese without a recipe. 

What is your fruit or vegetable spirit animal?
I’d like to be something sexy and revered like a perfectly ripe nectarine or a Chioggia beet, but really I’m more of a snap pea: typically sweet, likes the sun, and plays well with potato salad.

What’s one food you pretend to like but secretly hate?
I am very open about my hatred for olives. It’s so sad because on paper, I should like them: Salty, briny, and bright, they’re all of my favorite things. But no matter how many times I force myself to try one, usually at people’s insistence that these olives don’t taste like olives, I can’t mask a cringe. I have hope that some day I shall overcome my aversion and come to like all things tapenade, puttanesca, and Greek salad. Does olive therapy exist yet?

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What’s something that someone wouldn’t know about you from reading your column?
I speak French and can’t do a cartwheel.

Blue Cheese Potato Chips

Serves 4 to 6

1 cup blue cheese, crumbled
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1 bag sturdy potato chips (I like Cape Cod)
Black pepper

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Blue cheese chip photo by Bobbi Lin