Homemade tortilla chips

I love shopping at Costco but it's easy to buy way more than you need. So when life hands you tortillas, make tortilla chips!

I got the idea from my friend Nichole, who suggests a dusting of ground cumin. But you can be all kinds of creative with this. For the basic chip you just need a bunch of tortillas, some oil and salt.

Turn your oven to 350 and cut your tortillas in wedges. It looks here like I'm using mini-tortillas, doesn't it? I inherited that 12-inch chef's knife from my mom. It's just right for a very few tasks. Home defense might be one of them.
Cover a cookie sheet or two (thanks, Nick!) with foil, then spray or brush oil on both sides of the wedges. I did one batch with the sesame-garlic oil spritzer, but the sprayer was wonky. Nothing like a fine mist of oil on everything to make kitchen cleanup fun.

The OXO pastry brush works great (thanks, Christine!). I used grapeseed oil. You can use vegetable, canola or olive oil, too.
I put finely ground sea salt on all the chips. My awesome in-laws brought the salt back from France. It's gray fleur de sel from Guérande (thanks to David Lebovitz for the suggestion). If you're looking for French culinary souvenirs, this is one that lasts a long time and is a lot easier to carry than copper cookware. The salt grinder is from Ikea.

I put cumin on some of the chips, powdered garlic on others and tried an herb mix from Penzey's called Mural of Flavor. I liked that the best.
I baked the chips for about 10 minutes, flipping them halfway through. I'm not sure the flipping was necessary, but it felt right. I cooled them on a wire rack.

I found that it's better to err on the side of underdone; aim for a very light gold color. If you wait until the chips are brown, they will taste burnt.
These are sturdy, substantial chips that will stand up to the chunkiest guacamole or thickest hummus you can dip them in, and they're quite tasty on their own, too. Thanks, Nichole!