Jennie Foote, and old friend, gave me this recipe. That is, she and I became friends when we were wee lasses; she is not 84 years old. I believe it is an Anna Karmel recipe. She has baby cookbooks out there ... I think I have one. As you can tell from the bowl, it is another attempt to sneak vegetables into my son's stomach. Not so clandestine when the sauce is a glaring green. I have made sauces like this before: green something, plus cheese and garlic. Put it over pasta and voila! Sam likes them, so good to go. I thought this one would be a nice addition to the repertoire because it uses frozen spinach - a boon because I don't have to get that darn salad spinner out. That thing is impossible to clean! The lid takes three days to dry out. Why would you make a lid that water and detritus can get into, but your sponge can't; as in, you can't take it apart to clean it. It's like my refrigerator.
The sauce goes something like this: saute frozen spinach - which I did (half a bag) with a shallot and a garlic clove; grate gruyere over and stir around until it melts. I probably put about 1/3 cup in. Put all into a food processor, add some milk so you can blend it, done. I added 1/4 cup of ricotta because I had it on hand and wanted to use it. I thought it was a wonderful sauce and the pasta was nice with the chicken, too.
Unfortunately, Sam preferred to eat it like this. Note the complete lack of sauce. Yes, Mommy, I'll take an order of that balanced dinner you worked on. Please subtract the balance. Thanks. I don't know about the rest of you, but when a meal doesn't work out, for whatever reason, I often shed tears over it and rail against the gods. This time, I was so hungry that I settled for eating the rejected meal. The key to meal time sanity is to be hungry when you serve your child! You don't want it? Fine. Mommy will eat it. Here are your Cheerios. I froze the rest of the sauce hoping that one day I can put it on pasta for a changed Sam or perhaps another, more grateful, future child.
Again, your post is like group therapy for me and my uneaten balanced meals. Thanks for sharing, you are not alone.
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