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Thursday, December 10, 2009

Be Afraid - Very Afraid - Assault of Greens!!

God has a sense of humor - I just know it!! Just last Saturday, I enjoyed a spinach and feta salad when I was out with my friend "Dolphin Goddess". Actually, she picked out the salad. I was going to go for a burger. We decided to split our meals and it was love at first bite!! Oh my goodness! Spinach, Feta, cranberries, pecans and Feta call my name now! It was one of the best salads ever! God being God, decided to really bless me! Guess what came?! Cases of spinach along with cases of snap peas, lettuce, anise/fennel and celery! Here's the story.
















First of all, I apologize for my delinquency of blog reading lately! I've been horrible - terrible!! Every moment of every day seems accounted for!! Soon, very soon, you will be hearing from me :-)
The other day, I received a surprise call about a shipment of greens! Before I knew it, I was hauling cases and crates up my stairway, wondering how on earth I would use it all before it spoiled. That night, I went to bed feeling blessed, yet befuddled! I woke up still at a loss - not wanting to waste anything. My men had already called a meeting in my kitchen strongly encouraging me. "We know you have the urge to hoard this" they said "but you need to sow". Quite possibly this sudden feeling of goodwill had to do with their dislike of spinach - LOL!!
I called my friend, "From MN", who is the most virtuous woman I know. She gave me all kinds of fiendish ideas to torment my family to health. The next thing she said brought peace and inspiration to my soul........ "Environmental Science Day". Its true - there is nothing wrong with taking a day away from school books and teaching children food preservation. It is a needed life skill. You can have the smartest, most learned children and if they are ignorant about life in general, you have failed in an important section of their life. With "From MN"'s advice, I got to work. I can't tell you everybody smiled and got happy about this task. The household, still wary of green, seemed leery, however by the end of the day, I had made a delicious meal my husband was quite pleased with, which contained lots of the dreaded substance...........vegetables!
Here are some diabolical things we did that day (all of which were "From MN"'s ideas)
1. finely chopped and dehydrated fresh Fennel / Anise
2. sorted, cleaned and dehydrated spinach
3. ditto - froze spinach
4. steamed celery (better than flash cooking because more nutrients are retained) - then we ran it through a food processor. Check out my new Goodwill buy! A Cuisinart Food Processor / Blender for $6!! Then we froze the puree in ice trays. Store the cubes in a Ziploc baggies and add to soups - stews - etc.. I am planning to do this later on with spinach as well. Finely milled spinach is not detectable in many foods such as brownies, spaghetti sauce, etc.. Yes women, think diabolical!! Assault your children - full scale attack - with greens!!
By the end of the day, everything seemed less chaotic and more manageable. I felt blessed because I had stored up good things for my family. I also got to share lots with friends, much to the relief and pleasure of my men.
Anybody have any good ideas for cooking with snap peas, fresh anise / fennel, spinach? I'd love to hear more suggestions!!

3 comments:

Heather said...

If you have sugar snap peas, you can just snack on them! My girls love opening the pea pods to get the peas inside. And the pods are edible, too. I think that may be a hard-sell with your kids, though! :)

You can also use sugar snap peas in stir-fry.

paulawannacracker said...

Love your thinking...slipping that milled spinache into spaghetti sauce, etc. In the summer, I drink green smoothies. I blend spinach with a combination of veggies and fruits... spinach, letuce, carrots and mangos are sooo good.

Love your new masthead.

from MN said...

How did the dehydrated spinach turnout? I am sure tempted to grow an extra abundance next year, though we all like it fresh picked and eaten in the garden or in salads. I have never seen spinach "flour" for sale, but I'd sure like some in my pantry! I bet those snow peas would be good blanched, cut up and frozen. They would make a good addition to soups too. Yummy!