GETTING SPINACHED

When a bright, French
 five-year-old was the first to finish his coloring assignment in my English class, he chirped, "I've finished!"  


I gave him a bon point which in turn incited the other children to tweet, too.  Except "I've finished!" morphed into "I'm spinached."  It was trop mignon, or in familiar French,  trognon.


"I'm spinached." Br'er Rabbit dining at Catherine de Médicis' table couldn't have said it better. 


The sixteenth-century Florentine queen of France and wife of Henri II loved spinach so much that she insisted it be served at every meal. . . hence the French denomination "Florentine" for dishes made with spinach.





Something to write home about...


A big player in the frozen vegetable market in France has come up with a new way to freeze spinach so that the leaves are "preserved."


They're layered one upon another in neat stacks before quick-freezing. I was skeptical that this innovative, tender-loving care would really make a difference in taste, color and presentation of frozen spinach, but it does. 


The individual portions are heated on each side for a minute and a half in a lightly oiled skillet to render especially pretty and savory whole spinach leaves. Amazing. Practical.


©2010 P.B.Lecron