Get Closer to Your Food with Viva Towels GIVEAWAY

12:44 AM Posted by Erin

I'm all about easy cooking and even easier clean up so it's no wonder we go through a lot of paper towels. The only brand we use is Viva Towels as they're unmatched by any other brand we've tried. Why do we like them so much you ask? Well, they're more cloth-like, softer, more durable, and extremely convenient for everything from counter scrubbing, to hand and face washing. We were thrilled to find out that Viva Towels has teamed up with Sunny Anderson, Food Network's host of Cooking for Real for the new Get Closer to Your Food promotion.

Christmas is right around the corner and Viva Towels' Fork Free Foods: Recipes and Cooking website is loaded with terrific preparation and presentation ideas provided by Sunny. Her fork-free meals look easy, delicious and fun. I plan on trying a few of her appetizer recipes myself during our upcoming holiday gathering and of course we'll use our Viva Towels for the clean up.

Try Sunny's Pommes Frites (French Fries) with Fresh Mayonnaise Recipe: (Yum!)

Ingredients:
For the Potatoes:

4 large Russet potatoes, about 2 pounds, peeled

Peanut oil, for frying

Salt

For the Mayonnaise (about 3/4 cup):

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup corn oil

Special equipment: electric deep fryer or large heavy pot with deep-fry thermometer

Directions

Potato Preparation: Fill a large heavy pot with enough oil to reach halfway up the pot being mindful not to overfill the pot. You don't want oil to overflow from the pot when you're cooking the fries. Attach the thermometer to the side of the pan. Heat oil over medium heat until it reaches 325 degrees F.

Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with water. Square off the potatoes and cut them into sticks about 1/4-inch thick and the length of the potato. Place sticks in the water. Drain potatoes and dry well with VIVA® towels. This will prevent splattering of hot oil.

Working in batches, add a handful of potatoes to the preheated oil. Fry for 5 to 6 minutes giving the potatoes a chance to cook on the inside without developing much color on the outside. Remove to a VIVA® towel lined plate. Bring the oil back up to 325 degrees F before adding the next batch. Repeat until all batches are complete.

Let fries cool completely. Meanwhile, bring oil up to 375 degrees F. Add potatoes to oil again in batches until nicely golden, about 1 minute. Remove to a VIVA® towel lined plate and salt immediately while they're piping hot.

Mayonnaise Preparation: In a medium clean bowl, whisk together the egg yolk, mustard, lemon juice, vinegar and salt and pepper.

Slowly whisk in the oil, a little at a time at first until the mixture begins to emulsify then whisk in the rest of the oil in a steady, but slow stream. Taste and adjust acidity with more lemon juice or vinegar, if needed and season with more salt and pepper if needed. Refrigerate for up to a day.

Presentation Tip:

To serve the fries Belgian-style, twist a decorative VIVA® towel inside a small vessel to form a cone shape. Crumble up a VIVA® Choose-A-Size towel and place inside the bottom of the cone to absorb any excess oil. Fill with French fries.

Recipe courtesy of Food Network’s Sunny Anderson for VIVA® Towels.

Visit the Food Network's site to get even more ideas on fork-free meals and how you can get closer to your food and learn even more tips from party planning to decorating and design on the community site Viva Diva Cafe.

Want It? Win It!

Viva Towels is very generously giving one lucky winner a year's supply (12 rolls) of their awesome cloth-like towels.

The Details: One lucky winner will receive a years supply of Viva Towels (12 rolls). The Rules: Visit Fork-Free Meals or Viva Diva Cafe and tell me which recipe you'd love to try most.

Try, Try again... Second Chances:
**Follow my blog and leave a separate comment letting me know.
** Follow This Mom Can Shop and Viva Towels on Twitter and tweet RT @thismomcanshop @vivatowels I just entered to win a year's supply of Viva Paper Towels and you can too! http://tinyurl.com/yexwcgn .You may tweet once a day for additional entries.
**Blog about this contest linking back to this contest and leave a separate comment.
**Add my button to your sidebar and let me know for one extra entry.

The Nitty Gritty:
*Winners are chosen randomly, if you want all your chances counted, make sure you leave individual comments, not all of them in one!
*winner has 48 hours to contact me or another name will be chosen.
*contest ends December 21st, 9 pm EST. Winner will be posted within 48 hours.
*open to US residents only.
*rules for each entry must be followed to be valid.

Disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by Viva Towels, I did not receive compensation for this post.