~A spinach harvest and a recipe~

In my garden last week, I noticed that my neglected spinach was starting to bolt.  I’m trying to use all of my garden and not waste one drop so I pulled all of the spinach in an effort to preserve it.

 The spinach is bolting!

I thought about how to preserve it and realized that I usually buy spinach in frozen form.  So I set off to freeze it.

I cut the spinach from the stems and coarsely chopped it. 

 As I meticulously washed the spinach (no creepy crawlies for me, please) I sorted the leaves and put into the compost bowl leaves that looked less than stellar.

I allowed the leaves to dry a while on a towel and then put them into my lovely salad spinner.  :)  You might notice that my salad spinner is not very high tech but it does the job. 

 (If you don’t have a nifty salad spinner, a plastic bag will do the trick.  I place a clean kitchen towel into the bottom of the bag, load it with my lettuce/spinach, and spin away!  An old clean cloth diaper works even better because it absorbs so well.  I have some cloth diapers that I bought just for the kitchen because they make wonderful work towels.)

 After the leaves were thoroughly dry, I placed them into freezer bags in small quantities and squeezed out the excess air before sealing.  My main purpose for this spinach will be to add to dishes like my eggs in the morning so I just froze them in small amounts.

A few days later, I decided to make a frittata using spinach so I pulled two bags out of the freezer and emptied the contents into a colander.  After running cold water over the leaves and squeezing out the excess water, it was just like I had opened a box of frozen spinach from the grocery store.

The frittata, by the way, was delicious!

~Spinach and Potato Frittata~

• 2 TBSP of olive oil
• 2 medium potatoes or 4 small red potatoes, sliced
• 1 cup of torn spinach (fresh or frozen will do)
• small amount of onion
• salt, pepper, cajun seasoning (can omit cajun seasoning)
• a few dashes of hot sauce~optional
• 6 eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• cheese ~ I used shredded cheddar and provolone slices

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat.  Season sliced potatoes with salt, pepper, and cajun seasonings. Place potatoes in skillet, cover and cook for about 5 minutes.  Flip potatoes over and cook for about another 5 minutes until tender but firm.  Mix in spinach and onion.  Continue cooking for 1 to 2 minutes.

In a medium bowl, beat together eggs and milk (and a few dashes of hot sauce, if you’d like).  Pour into the skillet over the vegetables.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Reduce heat to low and cook 5 to 7 minutes, or until eggs are firm.