"Pot Luck"

My grandfather turned the big eight-oh this summer! I'm pretty obsessed with my grandfather, so this event in itself was a pretty big deal to me, but what was even more great was that my grandmother decided to hold a huge party/family gathering in his honor. Second to my grandfather, I'm obsessed with my whole family. I need to see everyone as often as possible, and I experience concerning withdrawals when I leave them for school or vacation.
I consider my family (my mom's side) to consist of about 50 people. I don't have any cousins, but I have plenty of those second, third, twice removed mumbo jumbo and we all interact as though we are directly related. Everyone is either my aunt, uncle, or cousin. I even have a great aunt that I, along with everyone else in the entire family, call "Grandmommy." So yeah, we're tight.
Anyway, this party had me super excited because EVERYONE was coming, and since we all live in different places around the country, it's not very often that we're all together again.
The family had the whole week together, and then the party was on Saturday. My grandmother worked really really hard on everything for this party, and one of her fantastic ideas to lessen her terribly heavy load was to ask each person to bring their favorite salad, dip, or finger food. I WAS PSYCHED. A chance to mess around in the kitchen?!?!?! Yes, please!

Though I definitely had Pinterest recipes on the brain, I was basically making this up as I went along. And I can promise you you can too. You need a flavor theme (sweet, salty, savory...) and something crunchy and crushable (breadcrumbs, corn flakes, potato sticks...). But a lot of people hate that kind of direction, so yayyy I made a non-ambiguous recipe.

RECIPE:

1 strained can of chickpeas

1 thawed bag of frozen, shelled edamame

Mixture of:

     3 T crushed/ground potato sticks

     2 t garlic chips

     2 T powdered Parmesan cheese

     1 t kosher salt

     1 t coarsely ground pepper

     1/2 to 1 1/2 t chili flakes

2 T olive oil

2 t sesame oil

*Prepare the chickpeas and edamame separately.

Preheat your oven to 400. 

Toss chickpeas in half of the olive oil (1 T) and half of the sesame oil (1 t). It doesn't need to be exact. 

Toss the edamame in the rest of the olive oil and sesame oil. 

Spread the edamame and chickpeas on 2 separate cookie sheets large enough to make one layer. 

Sprinkle enough of the dry mixture over the edamame & chickpeas to thinly coat them. Using a spoon, "stir" (really just shift/roll them around so that they pick up the excess dry mixture and their un-sprinkled sides become exposed) the edamame and chickpeas, making sure they remain in one layer (no piles or mounds). Continue to sprinkle and "stir" until they are completely covered (as if they are being battered for a fry). If there is excess, you can save it and sprinkle it on top at the end as a garnish, but don't feel left out if there isn't any. I'm just trying to make the stingy people feel better. 

Place the cookie sheets in the oven. The chickpeas will take between 10 and 15 minutes to get crispy. The edamame will take 30 to 40 minutes. 

When both are crispy, remove and let cool (still on the cookie sheets). 

Combine in a large bowl & mix gently.

This dish can be served hot or cold, and the parmesan can be left out to make this a vegan dish! But don't be a vegan. 

If you're serving it hot, make sure you reheat it in the oven so that it stays crispy (don't serve it right out of the oven the first time, it really does need to cool--it's like chemistry!).

If you're serving it cold, make sure it's seriously room temperature (nootttttt warm) before you chill it in the fridge. 

Yum!

Until your time again finds mine,

Julia