I remember being young, how influenced I was by me surroundings. The world was a big place and I was mesmerized by what was in it. As I stretch me mind and leave the comforts of me Lancaster Bed and Breakfast, I recall living in Reisterstown MD; I was only five at the time. I remember this commercial of people using soap and it made them float. That is what I got out of it being only five years old, I think what they were trying to say is that it brings you to new levels or heights, ones not achievable without this soap. To this day, I still think about how influenced I was.
There were others that as a child, brought me to this place where everything was possible. One of them was eating spinach. As I watched Popeye and all the antics that went on in that cartoon, I recall the times when Olive Oyl was caught in some type of trouble and needed the help of Popeye. She would call him and he would have a can of spinach (pulled sometimes out of mid air) in his hands. It never failed. Well of course as gullible as I was when I was a child, I thought that if you opened a can of spinach, you would be super strong. And although I do believe that spinach does have powerful benefits, I don't believe it will produce biceps that will impress my grandma and strength that will leave any bodybuilder envious... anymore!
So today, after eating spinach for about twenty years, I question why me biceps are not the size of baby melons. I eat it in soup, pasta, pizza, clazones... in omelets and so on. Yet I don't have those "guns" as my daughter li
kes to call them.Lesson learned: your imagination leaves you as you get older. As much as I wanted to believe that soap carried special levitational qualities and spinach would instantly scare off any would be thug, I have grown to realize that those funked out 70's commercials were pretty darn good at making me believe.
Well, one thing I gathered out of it all is how to use spinach in so many different ways. I make me own spinach bread each Friday night to go along with the pizza. I can't get enough of it, and secretly I tell me-self that after eating me spinach, I might just be a bit stronger.
Enjoy and remember what Popeye said all the time... "I yam what I yam!" I will just keep eating the spinach; maybe in a few more years it will all pay off.
Spinach Bread
Your favorite recipe for bread dough,
Spinach Filling
*Two bags of frozen spinach or three bags of fresh ( washed and stemmed and drained)
*1 pound of loose sausage meat- Turkey or chicken is fine.
*2 cloves of fresh garlic
*1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
*salt and pepper
*Olive oil
*1 can of black olives
Saute sausage in pan with a drop of oil in bottom of pan, crumble and brown just till cooked. Add garlic and brown. Then add drained spinach and olives to the pan and cook out all the moisture. Season with salt and pepper and then remove from the heat. Add about two tablespoons of Olive oil and the Parmesan cheese. Let cool. Roll out bread dough and drop cooled spinach filling onto dough, roll and pinch closed. Bake in oven at `375 till golden brown and brush with olive oil when it comes out of the oven. Enjoy!
