fof: parmesan spinach cakes

FOF = Food on Friday. We'll see how long I can keep this up, given my limited cooking repetoire. Maybe we should start a pool to see how long I'll last!

This week's entry is based upon the largesse of one particular patient of my husband's. Starting in early spring, until about mid-July, bags of spinach start appearing in my husband's office: one for Joan, and one for us. I originally thought that this patient had the world's largest spinach patch, because each bag weighes 3+ pounds, but it turns out that he just likes to pick spinach and he is kind enough to pick for us as well.

I am determined this year to get all this delicious nutrition into my family with minimal groaning, and that has entailed finding some new recipes. My recent find, Parmesan Spinach Cakes from EatingWell magazine, seemed to fit the bill. I used light sour cream instead of ricotta/cottage cheese, but it worked out just fine.

That may look like a lot of spinach but it wasn't

even a third of that ginormous bag.

I would advise anyone using fresh spinach in this recipe to press out as much liquid as possible after chopping the leaves in the food processor. I am going to try cheesecloth next time to wring even more out. Despite my best efforts, even the finished cakes were weeping a bit.

They don't look very appetizing in that shot, my apologies.

These pictures were taken with the old camera.

Terzo was very enthusiatic about helping me, and proved the point that children who help you cook vegetables will eat them as well. He had two cakes with dinner, and then asked for another one as a snack (!!!) when we got home from the middle school band concert later that night. My husband and I thought they were delicious as well, never mind how they look in that picture. They were actually quite cute in real life.

Since then, I have had fresh spinach on my sandwich every day; I used it to beef up the first salad from our garden; we had it chopped on fajitas; I gave some to my father, who used it to make fresh spinach pasta (OK, I cheated a little and gave some away! but it's a lot of spinach) and I used up the last of it tonight in lasagna, blended in with the egg/ricotta mixture.

And look what showed up in the office today! Just in time to start all over again.

Yes, the new camera makes a big, big difference...

even for bags of spinach on an office room floor.