When Marci asked me to host a giveaway for a Spiral Slicer from her general store back in December, I quickly agreed – right after asking my girls if they would agree to do the review.
Then they all got very, very busy. Silly me. This happens when your husband works in retail and has a job where children are welcome. I did a review and giveaway myself with the help of a couple of the younger girls, but I still wanted the big ones to try it out once life slowed down a bit.
Life is slower now. I won’t say it’s slow. That just doesn’t happen, but the pace is more relaxed than it has been for the past 3 months, so I fixed the girls with a steely look and told them, “It is time. You must use the Spiral Slicer to make curly fries, and you must take pictures.”
They didn’t even try to escape. They knew it was hopeless. Or maybe they weren’t so bothered by the thought of making curly fries. As my husband would say, “Ya think?!”
Before I knew it, there was a party in my kitchen. Four happy teens were slicing, singing, snapping photos, and wondering how to chip the coconut oil out of the bucket.
The verdict:
Curly fries: failure. Next time, we’ll try a real recipe instead of assuming we know what to do. Cajun seasoning was perfect, but our fries took a long, long time to cook, and came out chewy instead of crisp. Apparently there’s more to curly fry success than just slicing, seasoning and frying your potatoes.
We learned a few things, and I’m sure the next ones will be much better. Even so, these disappeared as fast as they came out of the oil, which wasn’t very fast but still means they weren’t a complete failure.
Spiral Slicer: success! Far easier to use than our beloved apple peeler/corer/slicer. They had a huge pile of spiral-cut potatoes in nothing flat, and no one had to consult a manual or ask Mom how to use it. They also whipped out a nice little pile of paper-thin sliced potatoes to make chips, which turned out delicious.
This little contraption would be great for making veggie soup with a million curly bites of carrots and potatoes. I’ll bet it would make slicing vegetables for stir-fry absolutely painless. It would probably make coleslaw 90% faster. If I had read the manual, I would know for sure and could give you a much longer list. I guess that’s the downside of a zero learning curve: no one looks at the manual.
The Giveaway
Amazing Graze General Store would like to give one Life in a Shoe reader a free Spiral Slicer valued at $35.99!
For your first entry, leave a comment telling what you would make if you had a spiral slicer or any other kitchen item on the Amazing Graze website. You must do this to enter.
For up to 8 additional entries, do any or all of the following:
- Post about this giveaway on your blog, facebook, or twitter. Leave a separate comment here for each place you share.
- Share a link to your favorite product from Amazing Graze General Store on facebook and/or twitter. Again, leave a separate comment for each.
- Subscribe to Life in a Shoe.
- Share your favorite Life in a Shoe post on facebook. Which one is it?
- Give us your best tip for making homemade french fries. We have some ideas, but I want to hear where you think we went wrong.
We’ll take entries for one week then choose a random winner.
I think sweet potato curly fries would have to be my first experiment.
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I’m guessing, based on your pictures, that what you did wrong in frying yours was to overcrowd the pan and not have the fries separate enough. By putting so many in at once, you cooled the oil down too much, so they absorbed a lot while cooking and got greasy rather than crispy. Also with the fries together in clumps, the oil couldn’t circulate around them to cook them evenly, so you would have had to leave them in quite awhile for the ones in the middle of the clumps to cook. The Cajun seasoning sounds awesome though.
That looks great!
I’d probably cut some curly carrots first if I had one. We love carrots in this house. They’d be really pretty on a green salad.
We would have a party in the kitchen with apples and camel. The potato chips sound yummy too.
I would love to use this for carrots! I already shred them for many soups, but this would be MUCH easier I think.
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If I had one of these I would definitely try to make sweet potato curly fries! I need some of those stainless steel jelly roll pans from AmazingGraze http://www.amazinggrazefarm.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_13&products_id=48
to cook them on, too!
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I have made fries in coconut oil, but they never come out as crispy. But mine aren’t coated in a bunch of crazy chemicals like the frezen ones are (or the ones at the clowny arch-ey place). But they come out delicious tossed with sea salt!
I cut them as thin as I can (about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick), and fry in coconut oil (I love vcno, but the rest of my family prefers unflavored expeller pressed coconut oil), cool slightly on paper towels and toss with sea or kosher salt.
Also, I’ve done them in the oven tossed with olive oil, but they aren’t truly fried, but still really yummy! Sliced so thin with this spiral shredder I think they would cook a lot faster and taste wonderful!
My second grade teacher used to have one of these and everyday for lunch people would bring apples and she would spend the entire lunch period cutting spiral apples…I used to love them so that’s the first thing I would make
I would love to make apple cobbler with this!! mmm my mouth is watering thinking about it!! Thanks!
I would make potato chips with the slicer. But from Amazing Graze I would love a Nutrimill Grain Mill. One day, one day.
I would just eat apples spiral sliced. They’re so good that way. And pies would be so much easier!
I really like the gamma seal lids…they are a life saver!
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Apple Zuchinni pie – with all the slices made so easily and looking uniform my kidsa would not notice which was the veggie part!
I’d use the spiral slicer to make curly fries, and zucchini/squash ribbons to sautee in the summer, and carrots and such for soup…. Entry #1
If you want crisp fries, they have to be spread out, so that the exteriors can get crisp. They were way to jammed in that skillet. Think one layer deep on a cookie sheet in the oven. Though that makes it hard to do a super-large batch. Entry #2
Well, if I had the spiral slicer, I’d try the curly fries at lunch one day, because I know my DH would still like his fries to be traditional.
But, if I could get anything from their store, I’d get a stainless steel cookie sheet or two. I bake cookies every week for my husband to take to work and I know those would work better and be better for us, too.
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I am trying to incorporate more raw foods into my diet, and I have been eyeing one of these! I would use it to make zucchini pasta !
I tweeted: https://twitter.com/#!/christinemary/status/37869650955997184
We have burgers and homemade fries every Saturday night and have for 26 years – it’s tradition. Okay, so we’ve occasionally missed a week, but you get the idea.
I used to fry them in peanut oil, but we’ve made the switch to coconut oil. I still do them the same way, in the Granddaddy fry baby thing – we use two of them for our family of 8.
Anyway, since you asked for the best tip for making homemade fries, I did a search to see if I could learn something new. I found this post (http://tinyurl.com/yl6xbdp) at The Hungry Mouse that tells how to get crispy fries that are soft on the inside. Haven’t tried it, but will this week. Using this method with coconut oil would be a little different in that you’d have to let the coconut oil melt and then put them in before it gets hot.
My personal very best tip for making homemade fries (that I now use each week) is to have two or three girls peel the potatoes while another girl cuts them into fries. That leaves me out of that process entirely! I’m into that working myself out of a job mentality!
I would love to save up for a Champion juicer.
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We make homemade sweet potato fries or white fries almost every day @ lunch. (Salads first, fries second) I cut up sweet potatoes into julienne shapes and melt coconut oil and pour it over them. I also mix in a pinch of sugar and cinnamon, and bake @ 425 for 15 minutes on one side and 15 minutes on the other.
I would make baked apples slices first, then ya gotta have the french fries lol.
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Looks like a fun experiment! If I had one of these slicers I would get to work with some apples…I’m thinking applesauce, apple pie, apple cobbler…yum!
Thanks for the giveaway!
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To make french fries, you have to first wash the starch off the potatoes. Rinsing the starch off helps them crisp up. So cut them, put them in a large bowl of cold water, then drain and rinse them. Then you have to dry them thoroughly. THEN you have to fry them TWICE. It is a huge pain, but it is probably pretty healthy to eat french fries if you force yourself to do all of this every time you eat french fries. I mostly stick to oven fries myself. Or just go out for french fries.
I love her products! I would make sweet potato fries with this! I have an apple peeler but would also use the slicer for slicing potatoes for mashed potatoes.
We have a breakfast potato “recipe” (throw stuff together in a skillet) that we like to use thinly-sliced potatoes for. The slicer would be perfect for that. And cutting carrots for salads, and apples, and . . .
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I would make the soup with curly veggies – It would end up so cute!
I’d make sweet potato curly fries. Pretty sure your fries would have been better if you’d soaked them in ice water for a while, then used hotter oil.
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We love homemade fries! It would be great to experiment with this! Marci has so many neat things at herstore!
Crystal
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Well great. I put my best tip in my first entry. Soak ‘em in ice water for a half hour. Pat dry so the very hot oil doesn’t splatter too much. Fry twice.
I would definately do the Curly Sweet Potato fries!
And, my son would vote for the homemade potato chips I know!
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I would love to try my own hand at curly fries! Hopefully I could figure out how to do that…
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I blogged about it!
http://sharrissnapzshotz.blogspot.com/2011/02/spiral-slicer-giveaway.html
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How fun, I’ve never even seen one of those, but I’m sure my children would love to attempt some curly fries of their own!
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When we made our own fries, we soaked them in ice water for 1/2 an hour before making. Then dried them. (we didn’t dry them thoroughly enough though–it really “popped” when we put them in the oil!)
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I would try onions….we love onion rings!
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I would use the spiral slicer to make fun apple curls for lunch!
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Judging from your pictures, it looks like you didn’t use nearly enough oil. I’d use a larger pot so that you could actually deep fry them, and you might want to consider frying them once to cook, then draining and cooling slightly, and frying them a second time for crispness. I shoot for 350 – 360 degree oil for frying.
Hi,
I need to cook almost all of our food from fresh due to my daughter’s food allergies. I would love to have a Spirooli to use in the kitchen to make homemade sweet potato fries, baked potato curls, zuchinni noodles, soups etc. I have been wishing for one of these for a while now!!!
Thanks
Laura
I would try to change the shape and style of my veggies in the hopes that someone other than me will eat them!!
I know my kids would love to try to make curly fries. Even Curly fried apples.
Thanks for the opportunity to win one of these.
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Thanks
You could have drizzled the potatoes with olive oil and baked them in the oven. Or put them under the broiler to crisp them up a bit.
I think my family would insist that I keep trying to figure out Curly Fries until it was a success!
i would use this to make my potatoes for my potato soup.
Mmmmm I can’t think of anything else except curly fries right now!
I would try zucchini on the spiral slicer as I want to use it in place of pasta for my family members that can’t handle flour/grains. My children love curly fries so I would attempt those as well.
I rarely fry any foods but I’m wondering if you should have blotted the curled potatoes with paper towels before putting them in the oil. Maybe they were soggy with potato water. Also, it’s hard to tell from the photos about your pan and how much oil you used but I think a deeper pan with more oil might help as well. From what I’ve read, having the oil hot enough is also a key step in making good fried potatoes.
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I was looking at the rice cookers because we LOVE ours and I always think it is a great wedding gift! I love to make granola oatmeal, and black beans and rice in ours!
But if I won the spiral slicer I would definitely start with making sweet potato curly fries – we are allergic to potatoes in our family, so this would be a great help! Yes, we can eat sweet potatoes and yams but not “regular” potatoes.
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i posted on fb what grain mill i want
We make sweet potato fries.
I just peal them, slice them, toss them in olive oil, and maybe a little italian seasoning.
Put them on a half sheet pan and in a 375 oven until they are done, which depends on how thick you cut them. If you cut them approximately 1cm square you can assume that it will take about 30 – 40 minutes.
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my best tip for fries- use the best idaho potatoes that you can buy!
Every year we get apples from a family we know, this would make a lot a things easier.
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Oh, I have wanted one of these things for so long!
The first thing I would make would be the curly fries.
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Next on my list of things to buy from Marci are some buckets and gamma seal lids.
If we had a spiral slicer it would be a toss up between curly fries, curly onion “straws” and sliced apples. They are all favorites with my bunch!
We have learned that using an electric fryer that gets the oil super hot and not overcrowding the pot is the best way to make French fries. We use the butterball indoor turkey fryer whenever we fry anything. It is a challenge to store it, but we have found it is worth the space it takes up in the closet.
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How about apple pie from apple spirals?
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I’d try slicing up carrots for a pasta replacement, as I’m off grains right now.
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I would like to try spiral cut sweet potatoes oven roasted in some evoo; it is a much healthier option over fried sweet potatoes.
If you must fry your potatoes, soak them in cold water until you see it clouded over with starch, rinse and dry thoroughly. Water on the potatoes will make them not fry up in a crispy manner and they will spatter and cause burns.
Best wishes on your future potato frying ventures but do consider oven roasting them instead. :0)
I’m not very creative I’d just make curly fries.
To make crispy fries you need to soak your cut potatoes in water(with a little salt if you want) until a whole bunch of the starch comes off of them. Then drain, and cook in hot oil in small batches. Don’t overcrowd the pan! Cook until they are cooked through but not browned. Remove from the pan and let them rest on paper towels while you cook a few more batches. Then put them back in the oil and cook until nice and crispy. You can also freeze them after the first cooking. Then just pull out of the freezer and crisp up!
I think my kids would like me to try out the curly fries, though my husband would like an apple pie. I’m guessing I’d have enough helpers to make both easily!
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I would try to make onion rings, were I to obtain one of these fun slicers
IDK what went wrong… but I have had chewy fries from oil that was too cold. So I might heat it up more, use fewer portions of potatoes at a time, and try a combo of butter and olive oil. Just some thoughts! Thanks for the opportunity!
I’d make curly fries too! I love them, but my husband doesn’t so it would be a great treat for me
Heather
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Heather
Double frying is the key to success I’ve heard. You fry once at a low temp, cool and then fry again at a bit higher temp to get the crisp outside (the lower temp cooks the inside). Hope you master it and teach us all!
Heather
If I won the spiral slicer, my husband says that I would first make curly fries. (And since I love him so much, he’s probably right!)
But a very close second would be to make stir-fry. Wow! What a cinch instead of cutting all those veggies by hand! And I bet my kids would enjoy them better if they were curly! 
But I am intrigued as I look over the Amazing Graze website… a yogurt/cheese maker and an on-the-stove popcorn popper? Now those would be fun!
I’m gonna have to keep this in my favorites…
I would most definitely make homemade spiral sweet potato fries!
I would make apple chips!
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(oops-that kinda spelling comes out when you care for 15 girls!)
I would make spiral fries like you get at the fair.
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I would probably make french fries and apple slices!
Marsha
I would make french fries!
Hannah
I would do french fries too
It would be fun to do lots of veggies for a salad too.
Hmmm….I know my children would love for me to make french fries.
Tarynkay had it right. ice water soak, pat dry and double fry.
I’m pretty sure my son would ask for spiral apples every day for a snack…
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What would I make with the spiral slicer? Hmmm . . . curly fries, sliced cucumbers, sliced potatoes for frying or for au gratin, sliced veggies for recipes, etc.
Thanks for hosting the giveaway!
Last year I found some wonderful info on making french fries on the Tammy’s Recipes blog. Here’s the link to her entry http://www.tammysrecipes.com/node/3001. Be sure to read the comments, as they contain a wealth of information. We tried the tips that said to soak the sliced potatoes in cold, sugared water, then to drain, coat with oil and bake them. Yummy! They were nicely crisp and absolutely delicious.
We liked them so much we took some potatoes along when we went camping and tried it there. We soaked them in an empty bucket overnight and then cooked them over the campfire. Not quite as successful, but still fun to try.
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This would be great! We are always making homemade french fries and I get so nervous with the kids (ages 11,9,9, and 6) helping cut the potatoes! We would do potatoes and sweet potatoes. We might even try to use it for zucchini fries! yummy!
Correction: Obviously the bucket wasn’t empty when we were soaking the fries
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The spiral slicer from amazinggrazefarm.com looks terrific! I’d like to make curly fries and curly carrots.
P.S. Here’s my tip on making better curly fries with the spiral slicer from amazinggraze.com:
Since the fries are so finely sliced, I think they should be dunked in cold water to remove some of the potato starch. I’d also cut them in smaller lengths and drop them into the hot oil like you do spaghetti. You sort of ease it in, separating the strands. Make sure your oil is very hot and you’re good to go.
If I had a spiral slicer I would have a wonderful whimsical time slicing carrots for my nephew
I would make sweet potatoe fries.
Make dried apples!!!
I would use this to slice zucchini. I make a salad with thin sliced zucchini and asparagus in a lemon vinaigrette and it is such a pain trying to get the slices of zucchini right.
The salad would then be quickly followed by delicious curly sweet potato fries!
Oh boy! I could go crazy with this thing
first apple chips, then potato chips, then carrot ribbons or “zoodles” 
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http://www.amazinggrazefarm.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6_17&products_id=112 the easy sprouter is my favorite
The Nutrimill. I’ve been wanting a good wheat grinder and this one looks tops!
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when making our own oven fries, we’ve found that if you soak your cut taters in water overnight, then pat dry before frying, they get alot crispier. the idea is that it pulls the starches either out, or to the outside (I can’t remember) which somehow helps :-/ it does work
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I would make chips and fries out of sweet potatoes! Yum! My husband and kids love homemade sweet potato fries, but it takes a long time to slice them all by hand. Time I don’t usually have.
I would love to win this! I would very likely use this to make french fries! Yummy!
The way we make french fries is to simply slice potatoes, sprinkle with olive oil & salt, and bake at 350 until done, flipping once. I’m not sure if this would work with sweet potatoes, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t.
Curly coleslaw! And raw veggie “spaghetti”! Vegetables are suddenly looking a lot more exciting!
I have a daughter with cerebral palsy and can see how handy this would be for those folks who need assistance in cutting things. She would probably do curly fries since she loves potatoes so much.
If we were the waiting sort, we would wait for zuchini from our garden and spiral up a bunch. Since we’re not the waiting sort though, we would probably make up a bunch of potatoes and apples.
I would love to make sweet potatoe curly fries with this. I know my kids would have a blast helping make fries.
When making homemade french fries, I salt them with Lowry’s seasoning salt, and then bake them in the oven. This makes a healthier alternative to frying them.
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Those look great! I’d make curly soup, like you suggested!
Oh how I would love to use this on apples, potatoes, carrots and many more.!
This looks fabulous! I’m going to Facebook this now!
This is a great kitchen tool and I would love to make the curly fries– yummy!!
Definitely curly fries.. Do you know how hard it is to find organic potatoes this time of year.. that aren’t sprouting? Yikes! I might have to go with the sprout-inhibited, poisoned conventional stuff for curly fries!
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Hmm. I think for fries the key is plenty of oil — and make sure it’s hot enough before adding your potatoes. Also, I think rinsing and drying the potatoes before adding them to the oil might be handy.. depends on the moisture/starch content maybe?
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And, my best advice for homemade fries: popcorn salt. MMMM!
Also, I drop my cut fries into cold water, to rinse out some of the starch. Then drain well.
I’d like to try making sweet potato fries with this! And I thought of that before reading the comment section.
Amazing Graze has some great kitchen gadgets.
I like the whole spiral veggies in soup! Oh yeah!
Our family has been trying to eat more raw food and I am spending lots of time slicing and dicing veggies and fruits up for salads and this looks like it would really speed up my chopping. We also love dried banana chips. I am wondering if I could make nice even slices of a banana with this.
Soak the potato curls in cold water for a couple of minutes, rinse, then dry on a towel. Make sure all the water is off them before frying or they will splatter. Then put in pan or fryer in small batches so they are not overcrowded.
I always had mushy hash browns until I started doing them this way. Now they are crispy. Yum
I would love to use this to make sweet potato fries, or regular potato curly fries. Just about anything tastes better when it’s curlyl! I love the idea of using it to cut carrots for soup too. I’m really really liking this product!
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Oh, yeah! I would use the spiral slicer for curly apples, in pie (smaller, thinner pieces mean no crunchy apples). And, I LOVE the idea of using them for veggies in soup! YUM!!! I want this one pret-ty bad.
We’d make curly fries! Way cool!
Blogged it. Easy peasy.
http://mohrminnesotan.blogspot.com/2011/02/spiral-slicer-giveaway-bring-on-curly.html
facebooked it. I can’t wait to fry up some taters
Facebooked my favorite link. That child’s apron would be cute on the boys.
My best tip for homemade fries- use a fry daddy. They are very simple to use and easy clean up. Crispy every time!
We enjoy sliced apples for eating, pies, etc. The slicer would be a fun way to do it!
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If I had the spiral slicer, I would make curly fries that my kids love and find away to freeze them for easy lunch fixins’. I looked at frozen french fries at the grocery store just yesterday, and couldn’t make myself spend any money on all that vegetable oil. Yecch.
The drawback to making my own is the cutting of the potatoes. If I win this, problem solved. If I don;t, well, I may just have to buy one.
I would make an apple pie with the ‘too tart’ apples in my fridge.
I love the recipe cards to share recipes with friends!
Is it too late? We are right at a week.
I would certainly make french fries, sweet potato fries and baked apples. We eat baked apples about once a week for breakfast. This would certainly make for more fun at breakfast….WAIT! We don’t need too much fun at breakfast, then we don’t get the day moving forward in a timely manner. Maybe Saturday morning curly apples?
2nd chance?
My dearest husband is actually the one to make fries at our house. I LOVE his fries. He makes them just perfectly. The potatoes should be soaked in water for a bit first. Then allows them to absorb water and not grease and makes for a crisp but not greasy fry. BUT after you drain and rinse them, make sure to bring the potatoes back to room temperature, else the 350 degree heat will reduce too much too quickly and you will get uneven cooking.
Once out of the grease, toss in paper towels and remove the paper towels or they will just soak up the grease they sit in. Salt or season immediately so that the seasoning sticks to the still wet fry.
Make extra for Mother who eats WAY WAY too many fries when Daddy makes them.
:0)