Wilted Spinach

Wilted spinach can be totally delicious... as long as you don't buy it frozen... and as long as you mix some interesting stuff into it. My current favorite is a combination of dried fruit and nuts. If you want to get real crazy you can toss in some cheese too. Basically, choose something from column A, B and C.

Column A                        Column B                          Column C

Currants                                       Pecans                                            Parmesan

Golden raisins                           Slivered almonds                       Feta

Cranberries                                Walnuts                                          Blue

Dates                                             Pine nuts

Apricots                                       Sunflower seeds

What I like to do is saute a giant wad of spinach in a pan with a liiiiiiiittle bit of olive oil and wilt the shit out of it. Like to 1/5 its original volume. You might like it crunchier, tis your preference.

This...

Turns into this...

I actually would have liked to cook it down even a bit more, it was a little watery for my taste.

Then I make a little hole in the middle and toast the nuts in the pan for a few minutes. You can do this in different pans or do one, remove it and do the other, but my way is the nice and lazy way.

Then toss in the fruit and or cheese, toss it all around, and have yourself a flavorful little side dish!

I went cheeseless because I served it with another cheesy side dish along with my pork chop. Side note, I used this method to cook the chops and GAAADDAYAM they were delicious.

Chuckie's Pasta Salad

My brother makes the best pasta and potato salads.  Seriously, if I go home and he doesn't make at least one of them, I'll probably die.  These salads are so delicious (how delicious are they??) that they make me buy things I never do like bread and butter pickles and mayo.  I think mayo is one of the most over-used condiments ever and I don't like the way it feels on my finger when I'm wiping the last of it off the spoon I just used to make pasta salad.  It's the definition of sqwick.

But back to pasta salad!  I had some leftover pulled pork and needed a side to go with it so I called my brother and wrestled the recipe out of him.  He learned to cook from my dad who never measures anything so I basically scribbled down a list of ingredients and ranges of how much of each to put in.  That's how we do.  The recipe below is for a full pound of rotini but the picture shows but 1/3 of a bag of pasta.

Pasta Salad

Ingredients:
1 lb rotini, cooked according to package instructions
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp mustard
2 tbsp bread and butter pickle juice
1/4 diced bread and butter pickles
1 tsp garlic powder
generous sprinkling of black pepper

While the pasta is cooking, mix the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl.  Drain pasta and give it a quick rinse with cold water.  Pour the drained, cooked pasta into your dressing and stir well.  Chill at least an hour and then devour!