Spinach Pie

 I make spinach pie fairly often because it's a vegetable based dish that the carnivores in the family like. It is very easy to make and is basically spinach and cheese between two pie crusts. The recipe for it came from someone that I used to work with and I think that she got the recipe from someone she used to work with. Some of you have been asking for it, so here it goes. First I'll show you the recipe that I use. I copied this down quickly over the phone. Next, I'll show you a pictorial of how to make it, and lastly I'll include a "proper" recipe with comments that will be printer friendly.

My original recipe

Pictorial of the basic steps

Spinach Pie

Ingredients:

--Two 9" pie crusts (store bought or make your own. The store bought ones or ones made with lard or vegetable shortening are usually flakier than the ones made with oil. The store bought ones usually are saltier than the ones I make at home, so if I'm making my own, I add a little salt to the spinach.)

--One bag fresh spinach (6 oz. to 9 oz. bags will work. The bigger the bag, the thicker the pie. I like the bigger bag. I also use either baby or regular spinach.)

--2 Tablespoons olive oil (or oil of your choice)

--1 teaspoon of garlic powder (or two cloves garlic minced or as much or as little as you like to taste)

--1 teaspoon nutmeg (I usually leave this out since I don't like nutmeg)

--Fresh Parmesan cheese, shredded ~ 4 oz. or one cup (I use however much fresh I have. If I don't have enough, I used dried at about half the amount.)

Actions:

--Preheat oven to 375 ° F

--Line 9" pie plate with one pie crust.

--In a large bowl mix spinach, oil, cheese, garlic, and nutmeg.

--Put spinach mixture into pie pan on top of pie crust.

--Top with second pie crust and seal edges.

--Bake for half hour or until the crust is golden brown.

--Let cool 10-15 minutes, then enjoy.

Print this Recipe

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Apr. 20, 2013

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This Week's Food Waste

n o t h i n g

This Week's True Food Confessions

I'm pleased because it was another week of when no one felt like cooking for various reasons, but we ate mostly at home.  Among other things, we had breakfast burritos, mushroom lasagna, hamburger stew (otherwise know as fridge clean out), pizza, tuna mac, and take out from California Tortilla. Ward wants to make Thursday nights Cal-Tort night and maybe we will. (BTW, they have a new teriyaki bowl that is quite good.) We'll see if we can keep this up, but a lot of other things seem more important than cooking these days.

I also managed to try a new recipe this week. I made Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna from Slow Cooker Revolution, by the editors of Cook's Illustrated (America's Test Kitchen). The lasagna was quite good and got a big thumbs up from everyone. I considered it a bit rich, so just a little piece was satisfying for me. The others just thought the richness was one of the things that made it really good.

Because America's Test Kitchen does extensive experimenting with their recipes, the textures of this dish came out well. The recipe had you precook the noodles and use jar Alfredo sauce because they found no-boil noodles came out mushy and home made Alfredo sauce separated while cooking in the slow cooker. 

This recipe was very hearty and tasty, however I won't be making it often because there were a lot of steps to prepare it. When I think of slow cooker cooking, I think of dump it and forget it like I did with the stew this week. I think I need to spend a little more time with this book to see if I can find some simpler recipes that are more my style. (and I just renewed it the library, so I have some time.)

Until next time...

Ponderings of Theodore--the Early Years

In honor of National Poetry Month this month, I am posting a poem then and again. Today's poem is one Theo wrote in elementary school about our cat, Lucy.

Lucy came to us as a kitten with her brother, Lucky. They were fairly typical kittens that liked to jump, pounce, and leap at anything that moved. However, Lucy had an her own special extra talent-chewing. She chewed paper and she chewed metal grates. She chewed strings. Actually, she cut strings. One bite and they were in two pieces. It was like she had a pair of scissors in her mouth. And shoe strings were her favorite. Many times we would start to lace up our shoes and realize that one or both of our strings were in two pieces. Eventually, we learned to hide our shoes because Lucy didn't grow out of this chewing/cutting phase for a while. Here's Theodore's comment about this situation.

It wasn't long after this that Lucy developed her scissor skills.

Strings

Lucy ate my shoe strings.

Now my shoes I can't string.

Because there's too little string,

To string up my shoe strings.

A Second Look--April 17, 2013

This week's Second Look is the week of the daffodils. Some are fading as others are beginning to bloom. However if I found them all, I have seven different daffodil varieties in bloom right now. A few other things are blooming and a nest has been started in our new nesting box. Soon the grass will need it's first cut. Spring is truly here.

Here's what I found this week during a Second Look.

Life

 
Sometimes life is hard. Bad things happen, and whether they be far away or up close, they are difficult. Yesterday, bombs went off at the Boston Marathon. Two weeks ago my father died. Three weeks ago, a family member was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

But you know what? Life goes on and good things happen too. Yesterday, I was surprised with a card from a friend across the pond. Two weeks ago, we heard the Baltimore Symphony perform Fantasia. Three weeks ago, I had a lovely Easter dinner with family.

Such is life with its ups and downs. Through the ups and downs, I want to live the best I can. To do this, I will ask for strength to climb the mountain when there is one in my path, and I will take time to notice the flowers on that climb. If I can do those two things, I will be happy.