Idaho Home Fry Potato Salad with Poblano Mayonnaise

Potato salad is a welcome guest at pretty much every party, and for sure it plays well at tailgating parties along with all the typical grilled foods. Keep it chilled in your cooler until serving, then just bust out the bowl and serve - no muss, no fuss.

But of course, you don't want to make the same old potato salad that everyone's mom and grandmother has hauled to every picnic and potluck since the dawn of time. This one includes zucchini for a little extra crunch and a fire-roasted poblano pepper for a mild heat.

The last twist is that the potatoes are cooked twice - first boiled and then lightly pan-fried to add a rich, savory, roasted flavor to the potato salad.

Idaho® Home Fry Potato Salad with Poblano Mayonnaise

For the potato salad:
2 pounds Idaho® potatoes (smaller ones; not bakers), boiled in their skins until done, then cooled
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 scallions
2 celery stalks
1 small zucchini
6 eggs, hard boiled and peeled
1/4 cup parsley
For the poblano mayonnaise:
1 poblano* pepper, roasted, peeled, and cored
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup Greek yogurt, sour cream, or a mix
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

The potatoes can be cooked a day ahead and refrigerated, if it's more convenient. They slice best when they're fully chilled, but it's fine if they're still a little warm after cooking.

Peel the potatoes, then slice into 1/4 inch rounds.

Heat the olive oil in a large pan and brown the potato slices on both sides. You can cook in batches, if necessary, or just add all the slices to the pan and flip occasionally. If you need a more oil to get the potatoes browned, add it as needed. If a few potatoes don't brown during the flipping, it's not a big deal.

While the potatoes are cooking, you can make the mayonnaise. Add the poblano pepper, mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, lemon juice, and salt to a blender or food processor and blend until it's as smooth as you can get it.

Meanwhile, slice the scallions into thin rings and add to a large bowl. Slice the celery stalks lengthwise, then slice thinly and add them to the bowl. Slice the zucchini into thin rounds and add them to the bowl. Chop the parsley and add it to the bowl - save some for garnish, if you like. Peel and chop the eggs roughly and add them to the bowl.

Add about half of the mayonnaise to the vegetables in the bowl and stir. When the potatoes are done, add them to the the bowl, add the remaining mayonnaise, and stir gently, trying not to break up the potatoes.

Refrigerate the potato salad until chilled. Garish with the reserved parsley before serving, if desired.

*Poblano peppers aren't super-spicy, so this isn't going to set your hair on fire - it just adds a mild hint of heat.

This post was sponsored by Idaho® Potatoes.

Spicy Lemony Sauteed Rainbow Kale

It's Healthy Vision Month, and you know what's good for your eyes? Greens.

Yep. those leafy, dark green vegetables, like kale, spinach, chard, and more. They're good for you in general, and they're good for your vision, too.

To celebrate the month, my friends at Virtual Potluck teamed up with Cut 'n Clean Greens, who sent us a large amount of greens to work with, including kale, chard, turnip greens, mustard greens, beet greens ... lots and lots of greens.

I chose to work with the rainbow kale for this recipe. I thought it was really pretty.

I've got another really interesting recipe in process, but it needs a few more weeks to finish doing ... what it's doing. If it all works out, there will be another kale recipe for you later this month. Because I know you love kale.

Spicy Lemony Sauteed Kale

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced or passed through a crusher.
1 pound Cut 'n Clean Rainbow Kale
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper (or to taste)
1/2 cup water (or as needed)

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the garlic and cook on low until it becomes fragrant - you don't want it to brown.

Add the kale. (The Cut 'n Clean Rainbow Kale is ... well, cut and clean, so it's the right size and ready to cook)

Stir and turn it as you add it until it starts to wilt down. Add the lemon juice, pepper flakes, salt, black pepper, and water. Give it another stir to combine.

Cover the pan and bring to a simmer. Cook until it's done to your liking - figure about 20 minutes, but taste as you go, to get the texture you prefer. As you taste, add more salt, pepper, or lemon, if you like.

Serve hot.

More about Healthy Vision Month

Healthy Vision Month is a project of the National Eye Institute (NEI) which is part of The National Institutes of Health (NIH).

During Healthy Vision Month, the National Eye Institute encourages Americans to make their eye health a priority and suggests these steps to maintain eye health:

• Get a dilated eye exam.
• Live a healthy lifestyle, including eating healthy foods, maintaining a healthy weight, managing chronic conditions, and not smoking.
• Know your family history.
• Use protective eye wear.
• Wear sunglasses.

Celebrate Healthy Vision Month by making an appointment with your eye doctor, and don’t forget to spread the word to your family, friends, and colleagues.

Thanks to Cut 'n Clean Greens for sponsoring this post. Check out all the goodies they sent!

Their greens are gluten-free, non-GMO, and they don’t use preservatives on any of their products, they’re not electronically radiated, and all of the packaging is BPA-free and 100 percent recyclable. The bags are made of special, breathable material designed to allow gases to escape. Since all produce emits gas, letting the gas out of the bags keeps greens fresh longer. There is nothing added to the greens before bagging -- just washed, sliced greens and that's all.

If you ever find yourself with an excess of greens like these, you can freeze the unopened bags of Cut ‘N Clean Greens by putting them straight into the freezer, bag and all. If frozen, you’ll want to use them in smoothies, soups, casseroles or cooked recipes; they won’t be crisp when they thaw so they won’t be as appropriate for salads, for example.

Cut ‘N Clean Greens (a division of San Miguel Produce) is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The Cut 'n Clean greens are a line of nutrient-dense specialty greens, both conventional and organic and they were the first washed, chopped, ready-to-use bagged greens on the market, starting in 1995.

The Cut 'n Clean greens are grown on a family farm in Oxnard, Calif. and at a partner farm in Georgia (Herndon Country Farms). San Miguel Produce also grows greens year round in Ventura County, Calif. 

Go visit Cut 'n Clean online and check out their recipes. They're also on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can follow them on Pinterest and don't forget to check out this pinterest board for more recipes.

The National Eye Institute is on Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Healthy Vision Month posts will be on social media during the month of May using the hashtags #healthyeyes and #HVM2015. This post was sponsored by Cut 'n Clean Greens.

MORE Great Recipes!

Check out the other bloggers who are posting great greens recipes! Diabetic Foodie has a preview of the event to whet your appetite! And here's the whole crew (besides me, because you're here already) who will have recipes this week:

• Foodhunter's Guide
• Diabetic Foodie
• Miss in the Kitchen
• Thyme in Our Kitchen

Make a Head Bread: Santa's Coming to Town

I'm still laughing at the typo that called my book Make a Head Bread instead of Make Ahead Bread. In that case, I would have been baking breads shaped like famous people or animal heads, I guess.

So in honor of that silly typo, I decided to make a Santa-head bread, just for the fun of it.

I saw something similar on Pinterest, but used one of my basic bread recipes and used my own methods for making his face, hat, and beard. To get some color variation, I egg-washed some of the dough and sprinkled rice flour on other parts.

I kind of like the way it turned out.

But I digress!

I like playing Santa, so I joined up with the past and present members of Virtual Potluck to do a giveaway featuring my book as well as fantastic prizes from a whole lot of generous sponsors.

I chose to do this first big giveaway with Virtual Potluck because they're some of the first bloggers I got to know well. We "met" while doing a book launch event for Emeril, and we decided to hang around together and do some group posts on our own.

Over time, some of our members branched out to other ventures, and some temporarily stepped back from blogging. They left Virtual Potluck, but every one of them said "yes" when I asked them to help promote my book. I was touched by their response.


You'll find all of the Virtual Potluck posts here:

Theresa from Foodhunters Guide to Cuisine

Rachel from Rachel Cooks

Marnely from Cooking with Books
Shelby from Diabetic Foodie

Heather from Farmgirl Gourmet
Milisa from Miss in the Kitchen
Vanessa from Groovy Foody
Matt from Thyme in Our Kitchen

Tara from Foodie

Susan from 30a Eats

Donna (that's me) from Cookistry
Jay from Bite and Booze

Make sure you check out their blogs! I love them!

Where to buy Make Ahead Bread

My book, Make Ahead Bread, is available for sale on Amazon. If you'd like an autographed copy, you can order one from Barbed Wire Books. The price from Barbed wire is similar to what Amazon charges (they change the price often, as you know) but you'll save money on mailing a book to me to sign, and me shipping it back to you.

For the giveaway, I'd like to thank our sponsors who generously offered some fantastic prizes:

• Taunton Press, the publisher of my book, is supplying a total of 12 copies of Make Ahead Bread, one to each winner.
• Magimix is giving one winner a Magimix 3200XL 12-Cup Food Processor in Brushed Chrome. (I wrote about it here.)
• WÜSTHOF is giving one winner a CLASSIC 9-inch Double Serrated Bread Knife 
• SilverStone is giving one winner a 5-piece set of bakeware (11x17 cookie pan, 10x15 cookie pan, 9x13 covered baking pan, 9x5 loaf pan and 9-inch cake pan) in the winner's choice of red or blue.
• King Arthur Flour is giving one winner a rye bread baking kit.
• Duralex is giving one winner a 9-piece set of mixing bowls.
• Harold Import Company is giving three winners a made-in-the-USA hardwood baker’s rolling pin (It's the baker's pin, with no handles.)
• Microplane is giving each of the 12 winners an Elite Zester, Cube Grater, and Spiral Cutter.
• GIR is giving each of the 12 winners a silicone scraper.
• King Arthur Flour is giving each of the 12 winners a coupon for a bag of flour of your choice (good at your local supermarket) and a plastic bench scraper.
• Walker's Shortbread is supplying cookies to three winners.

There will be a total of 12 winners, with three bigger prizes and nine more really great prizes. And yes, all winners get a copy of my book. You'll find even more details about the prizes here.

In addition to supplying items for the giveaway, a special thanks to Taunton Press, Silverstone, Microplane and WÜSTHOF for supplying products for all the bloggers to work with.

GIVEAWAY IS OVER

Do you want to know more about the sponsors? You can find them on their websites and social media, here:

Taunton on Twitter and Facebook.
Magimix on Twitter and Facebook.
WÜSTHOF on Twitter and Facebook.
SilverStone would like you to follow Pots and Pans on Twitter and Facebook.
Duralex on Twitter and Facebook.
GIR on Twitter and Facebook.
Harold Import Company on Twitter and Facebook.
Microplane on Twitter and Facebook.
King Arthur Flour on Twitter and Facebook.
Walker's Shortbread on Facebook.

This event is sponsored by multiple companies, all listed above. I want to sincerely thank them for their amazing generosity.

Cheese Ball Bread with Virtual Potluck

You want this bread.

I'm so excited that my friends from Virtual Potluck agreed to help promote my book. And that so many generous sponsors offered up such terrific prizes.

While the bloggers were busy working on recipes from the book, I went into the kitchen and whipped up a new recipe just for this promotion. This is made in the Make-Ahead style, with all the work done the day before, and the bread baked later.

I waffled on what to name this, since it's made sort of like a monkey bread or a pull-apart loaf, but I intended it to be a sliced bread. The balls of dough are coated with cheese before they're placed in the pan, so each slice has random ribbons of cheese running through them.

So, they're balls ... coated with cheese. Not like balls of cheese.

The cheese will show up better if you use a yellow cheese, but use whatever you like. Or grate up all those leftover nubs of cheese you have on hand. Add more or less, to taste. The only thing I'd suggest is that you try not to get too much cheese on the bottom of the pan, since it tends to brown the most there, and could verge on burning. If a little bit falls to the bottom, it's not a big deal, but you don't want to coat the bottom of the pan with cheese.

Cheese Ball Bread

The bread is looking moody here. Can you see the lines of white cheese? 

1 1/4 cups water
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (Red Star yeast is preferred, otherwise let it proof for a few minutes before mixing)
2 tablespoons sugar
3 cups (13 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1/4 cup instant mashed potato flakes
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup grated cheese (or more, as desired)

Combine all ingredients (except the cheese) in the bowl of your stand mixer (or mix in a bowl, then knead by hand) and knead until it's smooth and elastic.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside until the dough has doubled in size, about an hour. This is the important rise. If it rises faster, then continue sooner. If it needs more time, then let it wait longer.

When the dough has doubled, flour your work surface and turn out the dough. Flatten it gently. We're not kneading, and there's not need to pull out a rolling pin. Just use your hands to flatten the dough for easier cutting.

Need to grate cheese? 12 winners are getting this Microplane cube grater. I reviewed it here. 

If you're using a hard cheese, you could also use the zester, also from Microplane, that all 12 winners will receive.

Have a 9x5 bread pan standing by, sprayed with baking spray for foolproof bread removal.

Pretty pan, right? We're giving away a whole set in the winner's choice of red or blue!

Use a sharp knife, like this one that I received from WÜSTHOF ...

... Or pizza cutter, like this one I received from Microplane, to slice the bread into at least 24 pieces. More is better. They don't need to be even - random is just fine.

Place your grated cheese in a shallow bowl, or if you prefer, sprinkle it on your work surface. Dip the bread lumps (you could make actual round balls, but it's not necessary) into the cheese so that it sticks to one surface, and start placing the dough into the bread pan, cheese side up.

Alternatively, you could just put a layer of dough balls into the pan and sprinkle the cheese on top. Whichever you prefer. Continue placing cheese-coated dough lumps into the pan - or sprinkle cheese on top as you add uncoated dough. The distribution of the cheese doesn't need to be perfectly even. This is all about the randomness, so if you have some spots with extra cheese, that's perfectly fine. Unleash your inner child, and be messy.

Attempt to place the dough into the pan in a loaf-shaped formation, but again it doesn't need to be perfect. It's going to be lumpy.

The finished bread is lumpy, but in an interesting way!

Sprinkle any extra cheese on top of the loaf, then cover it with plastic wrap (or you can put the whole pan in a large plastic bag) and let it rest in the refrigerator. It will rise overnight. Magically. See, you don't have to wait around for a second rise. Just let it take a chill-nap, and it will be ready for baking when you want it.

When you're ready to bake - at least 8 hours later is good, 24 hours later is great, and you're probably safe up to 48 hours later - heat the oven to 350 degrees (let it have about 30 minutes to warm up) and take the pan out of the refrigerator.

When the oven is heated, remove the plastic from the pan and place the pan in the oven. Bake until the top is nicely browned and the loaf is fully cooked. You can use a thermometer to check internal temperature (195-200 degrees), or thump the loaf, or use whatever method you're comfortable with. It should take about 50 minutes.

Remove the loaf from the oven and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing.

See that knife? We're giving one away!

Want more breads like this? My book, Make Ahead Bread, is available for sale on Amazon. If you'd like an autographed copy, you can order one from Barbed Wire Books.

Thanks to the great bloggers who are helping me send my book into the world in a big way. You'll find more bread recipes here:

Theresa from Foodhunters Guide to Cuisine

Rachel from Rachel Cooks

Marnely from Cooking with Books
Jay from Bite and Booze
Shelby from Diabetic Foodie

Heather from Farmgirl Gourmet
Milisa from Miss in the Kitchen
Vanessa from Groovy Foody
Matt from Thyme in Our Kitchen

Tara from Foodie

Susan from 30a Eats
You are here now on Cookistry
AND! One more recipe from my book HERE, straight from the pages of my book!

For the giveaway, we'd like to thank our sponsors who generously offered some fantastic prizes:

• Taunton Press, the publisher of my book, is supplying a total of 12 copies of Make Ahead Bread, one to each winner.
• Magimix is giving one winner a Magimix 3200XL 12-Cup Food Processor in Brushed Chrome. I have this same model, and it's a BEAST. And the brushed chrome is really pretty. I reviewed it here. The winner is going to be very very happy!
• WÜSTHOF is giving one winner a CLASSIC 9-inch Double Serrated Bread Knife. I absolutely LOVE this knife. It really makes a difference, particularly when slicing challenging breads.
• SilverStone is giving one winner a 5-piece set of bakeware (11x17 cookie pan, 10x15 cookie pan, 9x13 covered baking pan, 9x5 loaf pan and 9-inch cake pan) in the winner's choice of red or blue. I received two of these pans to work with, and I love them! And the colors are so pretty!
• King Arthur Flour is giving one winner a rye bread baking kit. I'm a big fan of King Arthur Flour, and I love their rye flours. And you get a pan!
• Duralex is giving one winner a 9-piece set of mixing bowls. I don't have these bowls in particular, but I have other Duralex products that I love. This is a really nice set of nesting bowls, and since they're clear glass, you can see how your rising bread is doing without having to peek in from above.
• Harold Import Company is giving three winners a made-in-the-USA hardwood baker’s rolling pin (It's the baker's pin, with no handles.) I adore this pin, and I'll probably buy it for myself soon - it's so perfect for baking, and it's made in the USA, which is always a plus.
• Microplane is giving each of the 12 winners an Elite Zester, Cube Grater, and Spiral Cutter. These are totally fun products, and I really love the new design of the zester.
• GIR is giving each of the 12 winners a silicone scraper. I got a chance to test this before they were released to the public, and it's a really nice scraper with a lot of curves, contours, and edges for scraping bowls of just about any shape.
• King Arthur Flour is giving each of the 12 winners a coupon for a bag of flour of your choice (good at your local supermarket) and a plastic bench scraper. If you're going to bake bread, you're going to need flour. And you need a bench scraper, too. I've accumulated a few of them, and they're handy to have on hand.
• Walker's Shortbread is supplying cookies to three winners. Because you need something to munch on. Besides, cookie crumbs can be used for baking. Use them with cinnamon and sugar inside your swirl loaf to add texture and make the cinnamon layer more substantial.

There are more details (and larger photos!) of the giveaway items here.

An Extra Thanks to Our Sponsors
In addition to supplying items for the giveaway, a special thanks to Taunton Press, SilverStone, Microplane and WÜSTHOF for supplying products for all the bloggers to work with.

Each blogger was given a choice of one of several knives to use (because we wanted to make sure they got one they didn't already have) including the totally awesome bread knife that we're giving away.

Besides a choice of knives, each blogger received a SilverStone loaf pan and covered 9x13 baking pan, as as well as an Elite grater, cube grater, and pizza cutter from Microplane. Each blogger also received a copy of my book, Make Ahead Bread.

Yup, when you come to my party, you go home with party favors!

Do you want to know more about the sponsors? You can find them on their websites and social media, here:

Taunton on Twitter and Facebook.
Magimix on Twitter and Facebook.
WÜSTHOF on Twitter and Facebook.
SilverStone would like you to follow Pots and Pans on Twitter and Facebook.
Duralex on Twitter and Facebook.
GIR on Twitter and Facebook.
Harold Import Company on Twitter and Facebook.
Microplane on Twitter and Facebook.
King Arthur Flour on Twitter and Facebook.
Walker's Shortbread on Facebook.

This event is sponsored by multiple companies, all listed above. I want to sincerely thank them for their amazing generosity.

Note: It might take a while for the Rafflecopter to load, so give it a chance! It's worth it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Crisp Biscuits from #LodgeCastIronNation

I love biscuits. They're so fast to make, and if you're in a mood, you can add things to them. Like herbs or cheese or spices.

So when I received a biscuit pan from Lodge along with the new cookbook, Lodge Cast Iron Nation, I knew that I wanted to make biscuits.

So I opened the cookbook and Crisp Biscuits was the very first recipe. It was like fate.

I figured I could stop right there.

The recipe calls for baking the biscuits in a 14-inch round baking pan, so if you don't have a biscuit pan like the one I used, it's perfectly fine to use something else.

Usually I bake biscuits on a cookie sheet, so I was really interesting to see how these would turn out.

I really liked the results, and I'm probably going to use this pan for biscuits again and again. The wells are just the right size for 3-inch biscuits - or smaller. It should be interesting baking little cakes in this pan, or yeasted rolls.

Meanwhile, these are the biscuits. I usually make mine a little thicker, but that's a personal preference. Also, the recipe says this makes 6 biscuits, but I only managed to get 5. If you need more biscuits, cut them a little smaller, or make a double batch and you can roll them thicker.

This is the pan I received. Isn't it neat? It's also described as a mini cake pan.
I'll bet I'll find plenty of other uses for it too.

And this is the book:

And that's not ALL. There's a giveaway for you - a cookbook and a Lodge 12-inch cast iron skillet. Because everyone needs a cast iron skillet. (Note: giveaway is over.)

This post is part of a promotion with Virtual Potluck, a really fun blog group I belong to. For my participation, I received a cookbook and the biscuit pan. AND Lodge is also supplying a cookbook and a skillet as a giveaway item for each participating blogger.

The giveaway info is at the end of this post.

Crisp Biscuits
Adapted from Lodge Cast Iron Nation

1 cup (4 1/2 ounces) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup vegetable shortening (I used the butter-flavored version)
1/3 cup buttermilk

Heat the oven to 400 degrees and brush or wipe 6 wells of a Lodge biscuit pan with vegetable oil.

Or another pan, if you don't happen to have the biscuit pan. You could bake these in a cast iron skillet, if you like.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and sugar in a medium bowl.

Add the shortening and cut it in with a pastry blender until it's the texture of coarse cornmeal.

Another view of the pan. In case you want to buy one!

Add the buttermilk all at once and stir until it's moistened. You don't want to mix too much.

Flour your work surface and turn out the dough. Roll or pat it to 1/3- to 1/2-inch thick. I rolled mine to 1/3 inch.

Use a 3-inch pastry cutter to cut as many circles and you can (I cut three), and place them in the pan. Gather the scraps, pat to the same thickness, and cut again. I managed one more biscuit, for a total of four. Gather any remaining scraps and form one more biscuit.

Place the pan in the oven and bake until the tops are lightly browned, 15-20 minutes.

Place the pan on a rack and remove the biscuits as soon as you can do so without burning yourself.

Middle Eastern Lemon Potato Salad from Silk Road Vegetarian #VirtualPotluck

I don't think I've ever met a potato salad I didn't love. I like it hot, like German potato salad ... or cold, like the typical mayonnaise-based salad.

But I don't think I've ever had a potato salad that featured lemon. Oh, maybe a little accent. But not lemon as the featured flavor. So, when I saw a recipe in Silk Road Vegetarian by Dahlia Abraham-Klein, I knew that I had to give it a try.

The recipe isn't very complicated - nothing that would flummox a beginning cook. But because of the unexpected flavor profile, more experienced cooks won't think it's too simple.

The only thing I changed was that I used a sweet yellow onion instead of a red one. It wasn't a planned change - when I started the recipe, I thought I had a red onion on hand. But no, there weren't any. Since I had everything else I needed, I decided to proceed, anyway. The red onion would have added a little extra color, so I'll give that I try next time.

I also cut the recipe in half, because there are only two of us, and it made enough for two meals. (I've got the half-recipe below.) Although this recipe is intended to be served chilled or at room temperature, it was pretty good when it was just mixed and still warm.

Middle Eastern Lemon Potato Salad
Adapted from Silk Road Vegetarian by Dahlia Abraham-Klein

1 1/2 pounds potatoes
1/6 cup (40 ml) lemon juice (8 teaspoons, or 2 tablespoons plus two teaspoons)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup (82 ml) olive oil
1/4 of a red onion, diced

Cook the potatoes (skins on) in salted water until cooked through. Drain. When they're cool enough to hand, peel and cut into large chunks and place in a medium bowl.

While the potatoes are cooking prepare the dressing. Combine the lemon juice, dill, sugar, salt, and black pepper. Whisk the olive oil in slowly>

Drizzle the dressing over the warm potatoes. Add the diced onion. Stir. Let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes, then refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Served chilled or at room temperature.

I received this book from the publisher, Tuttle Books, for the purpose of this post for Virtual Potluck.

You can follow the author on Twitter at @SpicyVegetarian and you can find the publisher on Twitter at @TuttleBooks.

Check out the other posts from the Virtual Potluck team:

Fennel and Orange Salad over at Foodhunter's Guide
Indian Spinach Curry over at Diabetic Foodie

Want to win your very own copy of Silk Road Vegetarian? Get started with the Rafflecopter below, then go visit the other blogs. If you don't see the rafflecopter there right away, give it a few seconds to load. It's worth it!

Giveaway is now over.

Turkey Crepes for World Diabetes Day #WDD

In my house, necessity often the mother of "why did I think THAT was a good idea?" But it always amazes me how often the crazy things I try actually work.

In this case, I wanted to make crepes. I had a lovely crepe pan from Anolon, and I wanted to use it. I had the book Crepes by Martha Holmberg, so I figured I could use one of the recipes for the crepe batter. And then it all went sideways, because I didn't have nearly enough milk. Feh.

But I still wanted to make crepes. Without going to the store. So I started to think about what I could use instead of milk - juice? water?

Aha! Heavy cream! I had that in the refrigerator!

But I knew that would be way too heavy, so I figure that if I mixed the cream with water and didn't use any other butter or fat, I might have something I could work with. So I cobbled together a recipe.

I used the instructions from the book for technique and the basic ratio of liquid to flour, but the rest is my own strange invention. And it worked. Perfectly. I was sooooo happy!

Well, sort of. Because, you see, this post is for World Diabetes Day and it's sponsored by Anolon and Microplane. I don't know that much about cooking for diabetics. but Shelby from Diabetic Foodie passed along some tips. My filling follows her rules, with lowfat turkey and vegetables, (although it also has a roux base) ... but those crepes ... well, they've got the heavy cream and the white flour. But on the other hand, they've got white wheat flour which is a whole grain and ther's a lot of eggs, and those are a good protein.

So, I tried. I think overall, this is a decent dish. I used homemade stock with the fat removed, and even though the crepes might have been less than perfect, one crepe with a nice salad isn't too awful, right?

And then I also made a salad. Mmmmmm.... salad.

Wow, I felt like I was trying to get a good grade there. But I don't have a lot of practice cooking for diabetics. It's a bit of a challenge.

Obviously I'm not your go-to source for all things diabetic, but it's not about me, it's about spreading the word. More on that in a bit.

And a GIVEAWAY courtesy of Anolon and Microplane. Isn't that awesome?

But first, the recipe.

Crepes
Makes 16

1 cup water
3/4 cup heavy cream
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup white wheat flour

Blitz the water, cream, eggs, and salt in a blender. You're just looking to mix it up, not make a smoothie. Add the flours (I'm thinking this could have been all white whole wheat, but I didn't want to push my luck on the first try) and blend until there are no bits or lumps of flour. Scrape down the sides of the blender if you need to, and blend again.

Let the mixture sit at least 5 minutes for the flour to hydrate, or up to 30 minutes at room temperature. You can make this well in advance - just refrigerate it. But really, it takes no time at all to blend, so it's not like you need to have a vat of it stored somewhere for emergencies.

Heat a crepe pan on medium heat. You can make crepes in different sort of pan, but let's assume you own a crepe pan, hmmmm? The pan should be warm enough so a bit of butter sizzles but it doesn't immediately brown or burn. Use a teeny bit of butter and wipe it with a paper towel. Olive oil would also work, I guess, but butter is traditional. I used probably a teaspoon of butter for all 16 crepes.

The batter should be the consistency of heavy cream - not as thick as pancake batter. If it's too thick, add water to thin it. After you've sizzled the butter on (or just wipe with an oiled/buttered paper towel, take the pan off the heat and pour the batter - eyeball about a quarter cup - into the center of the pan while you start swirling the pan to coat the whole bottom of the pan. If you have too much batter, pour it out. If you have holes, you can add a bit more batter or just deal with the fact that you've got some lacy edges. No big deal.

Put the pan back on the heat and let the crepe cook until the bottom is nicely browned. At that point, the top view will show you that the edges are looking dry and sort of lifting from the pan. If you shake the pan, the crepe will release and slide around. If it's not releasing, it needs more cooking.

Check for brownness underneath, then flip the crepe over. I found that the most foolproof way was to slide the crepe until it was peeking over the edge of the pan, then I grabbed that edge with my fingertips and flipped the crepe over. Easy peasy. The crepe cooked on the second side for maybe 30 seconds.

The first side had prettier browning and the second side was spotty looking. See, the one on the left is a little spotty. That's what the second side looks like after it's cooked.

Then, as the crepes are cooked, just pile them up on a pan or a wire rack. They can be refrigerated if you're making them in advance, or fill them right away.

Crepes can also be frozen.

Turkey Filling
Makes about a quart

2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups turkey stock
2 cups mixed frozen vegetables
1 small onion, diced
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 cup julienned zucchini
2 cups cooked turkey breast, medium dice
Salt, to taste

Yes, I have left over turkey already. And it's wonderful. The turkey stock I used was from the turkey carcass, but you could certainly use chicken stock and chicken breasts for this recipe.

Normally, I have a lot of vegetables left over from Thanksgiving dinner that I use for soup and other dishes, but I didn't have much on hand, so I used frozen mixed vegetables along with fresh zucchini and onion.

I julienned the zucchini because I was having fun with the Microplane Slicer that I got. I reviewed it here. It's a handy little devil since it slices and it's got a julienne blade. Even better, the blade stores attached to the slicer in a safe place, so you don't have to keep track of it (I'm prone to mis-placing small parts of things) and the hand guard also attaches to the slicer for storage.

I also used the slicer when I made salad - but more on that later.

So, melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the flour and stir it around and let it cook a minute or two. Add the stock, stirring to get rid of any lumps. Bring to a boil and let it cook for a minute. Add the frozen vegetables, onions, and poultry seasoning. This time when it comes back to a boil, reduce it to a simmer and let it cook until the onions and vegetables are cooked to your liking. Add the zucchini and turkey and cook just long enough to warm them.

Taste for seasoning, and add salt, if desired. If your turkey stock was seasoned, you might not need any at all.

To make the crepes:

Put 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the turkey mixture and roll up - you can tuck in the ends like a burrito, or leave them open - whatever you like. I garnished mine with a dollop of Greek yogurt. If you fill with 1/2 cup, you'll have fatter crepes, but you'll only be able to fill 8 of the 16. If you use 1/4 cup of filling, you'll use up all the crepes. It's up to you.

And ... lets talk about pots and pans a second, shall we?

When I was a kid, my mother wasn't really into this whole "presentation" thing. She was more likely to put a cooking pot on the table than she was to put food in a pretty bowl and serve it. That's just how it was. So that's something that I purposely don't do.

But as part of this Virtual Potluck event, I got this sweet Nouvelle Copper Stainless Steel 9.5 inch covered skillet with two side handles. It's pretty. It's really pretty. It's so pretty that I almost don't want to cook in it. Which is also something I don't do. I use my cooking equipment, I don't display it.

But this pot is really pretty. Oooooh shiny.

And I have one that I'm going to GIVE AWAY. Yuppers, I'm gonna give you one. AND something else.

So, let's talk about salad a second, hmmmm...?

So, to make this little meal just a teeny bit healthier, I made a salad. When it comes to salad, I don't eat them because they're good for me or because I feel like I have to. I actually like salad.
Yeah, I'm weird.

So this one is a mix of butter lettuce, topped with sliced cucumbers, zucchini, and red bell pepper, all sliced on the Microplane slicer.

I didn't use a mixed dressing. Instead, I sprinkled the salad with some Greek spice mix, then squeezed on lemon juice, drizzled with a bit of sherry vinegar, then finished with a chive olive oil. It was really good.

OH! And I'm giving away a Microplane slicer, too! Wheeee!

It's like an early Christmas!

More About Diabetes and why we're posting

* November is National Diabetes Month

* Walgreens and the American Diabetes Association have teamed up to do a pin pad donation campaign. From now until Nov. 30, participate at your local Walgreens by donating $1, $2, $5 or $10 when you use a debit or credit card, and help raise critical funds for resources and educational programs in local communities.

* More than 371 million people have diabetes

* Half of people with diabetes don't know they have it

* Half of the people who die from diabetes are under the age of 60

* In 2012, 4.8 million people died from and 471 billion USD was spent on diabetes

* More facts & figures here.

Now, for a GIVEAWAY!!!

I've got one Microplane Slicer and one Anolon Nouvelle Copper Stainless Steel 9.5 inch covered skillet with two side handles to give away to one lucky winner.

To enter - comments must be left here on the blog, on this post.

1. Leave a comment telling me what your favorite leftover Thanksgiving meal is - this is your mandatory entry. For additional entries:
2. Follow Cookistry on Facebook, then leave a comment telling me you've followed.
3. Follow Microplane on Facebook, them leave a comment telling me you've followed.
4. Follow Anolon on Facebook, then leave a comment telling me you've followed.

Contest is open to US residents only, 18 and older. Winners will be chosen randomly and prizes will be shipped directly by the manufacturer to the winner. Contest ends at midnight, mountain time on Friday, November 22. All usual contest rules apply.

Disclaimer: I received products from both Anolon and Microplane for the purpose of this post.

Other members of Virtual potluck also have giveaways. Go visit Shelby at Diabetic Foodie for a  Advanced 3.5 qt Covered Straining Saucepan and a Microplane Slicer; Milisa at Miss in the Kitchen has an Advanced Bronze 5.25 qt Covered Sauteuse and a Microplane slider; Matt at Thyme in Our Kitchen is giving away a Nouvelle Copper Stainless Steel 12 inch skillet and a Microplane slicer; Theresa from Foodhunter's Guide has a Nouvelle Copper Stainless Steel 3 quart covered saute with helper handle and a Microplane slicer; and Susan from 30AEats is giving away an Advanced 5 qt covered saute with helper handle and a Microplane slicer.