My New Favorite Color...Green!

If you grew up in the south, you often had "greens" at the table.  Collard greens and turnip greens were most frequent, with kale and "mixed greens" sometimes making an appearance.  Cooking greens was quite a process.  Most of the greens came right out of someone's garden so the first step was to wash them multiple times to remove all of the garden dirt and grit.  While this was going on either salt or corned pork was cooking in a big pot.  The greens cooked for a long time, until they almost turned to mush. Potatoes and cornmeal dumplings were always added to the pot.  Mu mom still cooks collard greens at Christmas with the potatoes and cornmeal dumplings and they are delicious.

I cook greens now at least 2 times during the week, usually it's kale or spinach, but sometimes turnip greens or a mixture of turnip and mustard greens.  I'd like to say I go pick them out of my garden but that would not be true.  I buy them at the grocery store, usually in the handy-dandy bag, already washed, stemmed, and chopped.  Sometimes I buy them loose, and remove stems and chop myself.  Greens are so healthy and kale, now, is getting great press about being the most healthy.

Quick Spinach

Serves 4

1 #  baby spinach

2 Tbs. olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbs. sun-dried tomato, finely chopped

1 Tsp. toasted pine nuts (optional)

1.  Wash and dry spinach

2. Heat olive oil in large skillet

3. Add garlic and sun-dried tomato to skillet and saute for 1 minute

4.  Add spinach and cook until wilted

5. Top with pine nuts and serve immediately

Kale ( or Turnip Greens, Mixed Greens)

1 # greens, washed, stemmed and chopped (large pieces)

2 Tbs. olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1.  Parboil the greens by putting them in a pot of boiling water.  Cooks for just a few minutes, until they have a vibrant green color.  Drain completely.

2. Heat olive oil in large skillet

3. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute

4.   Add greens to skillet and cook, covered for 5 minutes, remove cover and cook for another 2 minutes.