Today is my mother-in-law’s birthday! After the birth of my son, her first grandchild, she now happily goes by Tilly. She didn’t want a traditional southern name for grandma and after a lot of contemplation she created this term for herself. After seeing Saving Mr. Banks (no, I don’t know what the movie had to do with it, I never saw it) she investigated her favorite family names to look for their origins, combined a couple, and created Tilly.

As you’ve probably gathered, my mother-in-law and I get along very well. I appreciate how lucky I am to have a mother-in-law who loves and trusts me enough to have given her diamond to Stuart to propose to me. (I still don’t know how she did it!) Three years ago she bought me my first sewing machine and taught me how to quilt. This new hobby provides a great way to bond with Tilly; it allows us time together to be creative, to have both serious and fun conversations, and to go fabric shopping!

Wedding photography by Cher Hanna

During her last visit she requested bagel chips to be put on my grocery list. And then added the caveat “if they have them.” I thought, why wouldn’t they? Apparently, they don’t. They sell countless versions of pita chips and pretzel chips, but no bagel chips. If I knew how easy it were to make my own I would have done so for her, but it didn’t cross my mind until after she left. So, I diverted from my original Tilly’s birthday post idea (a chocolate skillet cake) to share this recipe instead. I will definitely be playing around with flavors in the future!

Sea Salt and Olive Oil Bagel Chips

Ingredients:

• 1 plain bagel
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• sea salt

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cut bagel into chips. Do this by splitting bagel in half and quartering. Halve the quarters from the bottom piece into thin chips and third the quarters from the top piece.
3. Place bagel chips on a baking sheet and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt.
4. Bake for 12 minutes. Allow to cool before storing.

*This recipe is adapted from Lori at http://whoneedsacape.com/2013/08/homemade-bagel-chips/*