Do you remember having spinach on your elementary school cafeteria lunch plate? Well, this ain't some kin'da school lunch spinach!
I was one of the more exceptional students in elementary school back in the 1950s at Clinton, Blvd. Elementary School on Flag Chapel Road in Jackson. At some point (maybe 1959) they renamed it Mary Ida Raines Elementary School, after someone I had never met, or cared anything about. I never met the original named patron of education either, but as far as I was concerned, Mrs. Blvd was probably a fine lady and more than worthy of having our school named after her when the county opened my elementary school in 1955.
Clinton Blvd. was a great school back then in all except one respect. Every time they cut the grass, they collected the lawnmower clippings and boiled them up the next day. Then they served the results to us with a slice of ugly green boiled egg centered on top of the gross looking green pile. They told us it was spinach and said we should eat it. It was so bad it made the words "Horse Doofers" sound like sweet nothings whispered into your best girl's ear.
At times I had teachers (I'm talking about you, Mrs. E*%&A!) who made up some kind of rule that we had to eat at least one bite of everything they put on our plate. This came after giving us a stern lecture about children who would love to be able to eat spinach every day for lunch. We would have paid to ship our lunch leftovers to them if we had known their address. Most of us became experts at rearranging our pile of boiled grass clippings and then sneaking one forkful into the spout of our empty milk carton when Old Elephant Ears was looking the other way.
We had a kid in the third grade who always ate his lunchroom spinach. I felt sorry for him, because we had no female classmates who would ever love a school lunch spinach eater. We did have a beautiful girl named Rita that I think I may have loved, but she fell in love with my good friend, Randy, who was also a spinach hater. Sadly, lovely Rita moved somewhere far away the summer between third and fourth grade, leaving two heartbroken guys behind in West Jackson. (sigh).
In 1957, I attended a birthday party for my next-door neighbor, Gary. For the party, his mother arranged for eight of us to sit in the peanut gallery of WLBT Channel 12's Skipper Dick Show. (Dick Miller) The Skipper was a nice guy who wore a shirt and tie when he did the 5:00 news and a sailor's uniform when he did the Skipper Dick Show every afternoon at 3:30. The day we attended, Skipper Dick gave each of us a short bottle of Coca Cola, a Hostess Cupcake Snowball (Pink for the girls and White for the boys) and a sample sized pack of fizzies fruit drink tablets. I'm talking about Alka-Seltzer strength fizzing as they dissolved in your glass of ice water to make a wonderful fruit flavored beverage "Your kids will love!"
If you never dropped a fizzy tablet into a short bottle of carbonated coke, while seated in a peanut gallery full of 4–6-year-old kids live-on-camera at Channel 12, you have no idea of what true TV excitement really is. Let me assure everyone that no children died, none were injured, and no charges were filed. However, our pal Jeff, who became an instant kid hero in our group, never received another birthday party invitation after that afternoon.
Anyhow, Skipper Dick MC'ed and showed Popeye Cartoons during his 30 minute show each day.
If you remember, Popeye was a big fan of Miss Olive Oyl, and Spinach.
He was also the sworn enemy of a big hairy sailor, named Bluto, who also had the hots for Miss Olive. Bluto usually had Popeye where he wanted him (hammered into the ground with his fist) until Popeye managed to eat some spinach and quickly proceeded to tear Bluto up. Then the wiry little sailor would toot his pipe as he sang, "I'm strong to the fin-itch, 'cause I eats me Spinach. I'm Popeye the Saaaaaaaailor Man (toot toot)."
I liked the Skipper Dick show and the Popeye cartoons when I was a kid, but I was never a fan of spinach, until I learned how to properly cook the stuff. Now I understand how good it can be (toot, toot).
The proper name for my dish is Spinach Madeline and here is how I make it
Spinach Madeline
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 (12 - 16 ounce)
package fresh spinach - baby spinach is best.
1 Tablespoon AP Flour - not shown in the photo
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter - not shown in the photo
1/4
cup finely chopped yellow onion - not shown in the photo
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard - not shown in the photo
1 dash cayenne pepper - not shown in the photo
1 dash
ground nutmeg - not shown in the photo
1 teaspoon Lawry's Garlic Salt - not shown in the photo
1 cup, heavy cream
2 ounces cream cheese
4
ounces Swiss cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Directions:
If you want your spinach chopped, now is the time to roughly chop it. I use baby spinach and cook mine whole.
In a nonstick skillet, add onion to 2 Tablespoons of unsalted butter and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onion is tender.
Add spinach and continue cooking until the spinach is wilted and the liquid has cooked away.
Add AP flour and seasonings to the pan, stir in and cook for two minutes to cook the flour.
Whisk in heavy cream and bring mixture
to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add Swiss, Parmesan, and
cream cheese, ground mustard, cayenne, nutmeg, and garlic salt. Cook,
with occasional stirring until thickened.
Cook at medium low heat until a nice thick sauce forms. Serve hot. If you don't measure and just add, it will look a little different every time you make it. Still tastes great though.
- Add lightly roasted chopped pecan pieces to the spinach before serving.
God Bless You.
10 comments:
I don’t remember being served spinach in our school cafeteria but growing up in the rural south, I ate more than my share of turnip greens, collards, and sometimes poke salad. I do like creamed spinach and your recipe sounds really good. Loved the article.
As a purist I must note the correct spelling of her name was "Olive Oyl".
Or is senility setting in? ;-)
Loved the story - sounds very similar to my experiences in that same era but about 1000 miles north of here. Kid behavior is pretty universal.
I got grass clipping in school too... Thanks for the recipe! I only have my grandmother's Spinach Madeline which is baked... kind of like a soufflé. It's a family favorite, but your's looks delicious and, even better, quick and easy! Will give it a go! Appreciate your posts!
I've been waiting on this recipe! Thanks! It looks very comparable to my all time favorite creamed spinach at the Beechwood in Vicksburg.
A family favorite, except we use pepper jack cheese.
11:35 am - My apologies. The correction was noted and has been made. My inability to type is why I lost my job transcribing the Magna Carta.
Creamed spinach is one of my favorite steakhouse dishes. When I try to make it at home, it's always good but too runny. I'm going to try this recipe with all the cheese. Sounds yummy.
In Baton Rouge they used to take leaves from the lugustrum shrubbery planted around the cafeteria walls and use them to season the vegetables. We all knew this.
Love spinach! Will try this one. And ZeroBear, hahahahahaha Magna Carta hahahahaha
You slay me. My husband and I grew up in different parts of Mississippi, both loved all cafeteria offerings of the 1950’s except that one. I remember my mother buying a can of spinach for my little brother. He was a big Popeye fan. That’s when I found out where the cafeteria got theirs. Slimy mess.
Love the kind you make. Also like it sautéed in a little bacon fat with onions.
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