Delicious Vitamins: Baked Potato Salad

Potatoes have garnered a somewhat unfortunate nutritional reputation, largely associated with what is done to them - deep frying, smothering with butter and cheese, deep frying and smothering with butter and cheese - rather than with what is in them, which actually isn't too shabby. Potatoes are a good source of potassium, vitamin C, vitamin B6, folic acid, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese - and Niacin.

As niacin (also known as Vitamin B3), is involved in energy production, I likely could have used some extra niacin last night while attempting to write this blog post after work. As my 9 hour work shift had stretched into an 11 hour shift, though, I found myself nodding off embarrassingly early, and typing something slightly less than coherent. Awake and rejuvenated now, though, my niacin molecules are busily at work.

So far, at my new job, I've calmed a patient by describing an IV line as "a little garden hose that brings medicine to the little faucet in your hand," I've discovered that getting to actually pause long enough to eat half of a peanut butter sandwich feels like a luxurious lunch break, and I've gradually learned how to find where the tiniest supplies are kept in the tiniest corners, because when someone is bleeding all over the place you really need to know where the 4x4 gauze is now. (It still astounds me that, if someone were to start bleeding all over the place, they would turn to me to fix them... Quite thrilling and humbling and terrifying all at the same time.)

Niacin, meanwhile, as an essential part of a coenzyme needed for energy producing reactions in the body, has been assiduously metabolizing protein for me so that, if necessary, I could make a mad dash down the hall to grab those gauze pads. Niacin also functions in the synthesis of genetic material, and assists with the normal operations of our central nervous system.

Because the body can convert the amino acid tryptophan into niacin, eating plenty of protein helps prevent niacin deficiency and keeps us from requiring buckets of niacin all the time, but we do still need 14 to 16 milligrams of niacin a day. Niacin isn't a fat soluble vitamin, either, so we can't store it in our bodies for very long.

Severe niacin deficiency is called Pellagra, and causes diarrhea, dermatitis, and progressive mental deterioration. More mild cases of inadequate niacin can still result in loss of appetite, fatigue, heartburn, depression, and irritability, so... We should eat our potatoes! (and our tuna fish, chicken, beef, and turkey, if we choose to do so, and certainly our peanut butter - YUM - and our cantaloupe, and our brown rice...)

Warm Baked Potato Salad with Goat Cheese

7 medium potatoes
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 cup minced parsley
1 tsp tarragon
4 oz goat cheese, crumbled
3/4 cup low fat sour cream
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

~ Bake the potatoes with your preferred method (in the microwave is fastest!)
~ Fold all the other ingredients in with the potatoes.
~ Serve warm or cold...

*On a side note, my schedule next week is a little peripatetic, as I work 12 hour shifts Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, then drive to Maryland on Thursday for my friend Lisa's wedding, then return home to Georgia on the following Sunday, and zoom back to 12 hour days at work on Monday... Consequently, I might not be able to post as regularly as I would like until my schedule returns to normal in around a week and a half... I hope you will forgive me - I will return to regularly scheduled programming as expeditiously as possible! :-) (I'm planning on doing lots of cooking for Zach before I have to be out of town for a few days, so that he'll have plenty of yummy things in the fridge while he's studying for his board exams in my absence, and I know I'll want to do even more cooking for him when I return home, so I'm confident I will have plentiful fun new recipes to share... :-)