Still indoors..........By Rich G. This past Sunday I invaded the kitchen. This was a retaliatory maneuver. My spunky wife is enjoying the fact that she is headed for the MSF beginning rider's course and I can't ride at all until next year. This could not go unchallenged. As a rule the kitchen is her domain and I stay away. However, on rare occasion I will go and put something together that amazes and astounds common mortals. Years back when single I discovered that eating out became expensive and time consuming. So I developed abilities in the kitchen as a matter of survival. As time passed I became better at it, and it wasn't an embarrassment to have others aware of this. Since Pam and I have been married we've accumulated close to thirty cookbooks. It is a great source for scanning first one thing then another in order to get ideas. So last weekend I took over. If Biker Billy can do this, then dadgumit so can I. I invented a spinach lasagna. There were no guidelines or instructions to follow. I winged it. And it turned out brilliant. Since this sort of creation was not in a framework that included pizza or donuts it fell outside the envelope for ten year olds and our son opted out. But if you're not ten, and if you're stuck indoors for the Winter, you could try this in order to occupy your time. If it's snowing out and you can't ride, then you're in the same boat as I am but for different reasons. Have at it. First off organize where you are and where you want to go and when you want to be there in terms of preparation and serving. This isn't something in the thirty minutes or less category. Read through this and get an idea of the time factor and plan accordingly. Also please keep in mind that I live in a rural area. If you have the benefit of product availability that comes with the terrain in a more populated area, make use of it. Fresh quality foodstuffs are always better. While the frying pan is doing its thing set a large kettle of water to boiling. Don't forget to add olive oil and some salt to the water. Once it reaches boiling gently insert about twenty-five lasagna pieces. I wasn't timing it but you want to leave it long enough to achieve what is called al dente, which means you shouldn't cook it to death and end up with mush. After dumping it in a strainer when it was done I then sunk them in cold water. This stops then from cooking further. Now it's time to assemble it all. Since we're worried about the drought and look for excuses not to use water, I bought disposable baking pans so we'd have one less thing to wash when done. I sprayed the pan with stuff to keep things from sticking to it. I lined up the lasagna noodles, the spinach, and four additional items: seasoned bread crumbs, grated Parmesan/Romano cheese, more shredded Mozzarella than I needed, and a cup of olive oil with a brush. Turn the oven on bake, set to 350 degrees. Lay three lasagna pieces in the bottom of the pan, one next to the other. Use the brush to wipe olive oil on them. Then spoon in a layer of the spinach. Add a sprinkling of the grated cheese, and then add liberal amounts of Mozzarella. Eyeball everything and parcel it out so you have enough to use all the lasagna noodles, and just repeat this until everything is used. I ended up with seven layers. On the top layer add generous amounts of Mozzarella, and cover that with the seasoned bread crumbs. Pop that in the oven for thirty minutes. Then it's done. This sort of thing cries out to be complimented by Caesar salad, cold Chianti, and crisp bread. If you are especially energetic you can do all that extra work. Me? I just imagined the rest of it was there.
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Here
I sit, broken hearted, came to ride and only………………………….well,
you get the idea. I'm still in the recovery mode after shoulder surgery.
And looking for things to do. 
Begun
by boiling three packages of frozen chopped spinach. I brought them to
a boil and then turned the heat down and just allowed it to simmer for
a really long time. It was close to an hour I think. That's not an absolute,
but it's what I did. When that was done I pour it into a strainer. Pour
as much salt as you may like on the spinach as it sits in the strainer
and leave it there. Then I went to the next step. Drop an entire stick
of margarine in a frying pan, and douse it with olive oil. A pretty good
sized puddle of oil around the margarine will do. Turn the heat on at
its lowest setting, enough to melt the margarine. Sprinkle sweet basil
and a pinch of oregano on the margarine. Then after peeling, roughly chop
one whole yellow onion, about the size of a regulation baseball. Add that
to the frying pan. Then I smashed about five cloves of garlic into a paste
and added that to the onions. Turn the heat up slightly, enough to observe
a couple of bubbles rising, then turn it down to a simmer. Cover it and
check it every few minutes. What you are looking for is the onions to
turn clear. When that takes place it's ready for the next step. This is
not sauté but some other method. I cannot remember the name for
doing this but I read it once in a James Beard book. Once the onions do
appear clear, add roughly 1/3 to 1/2 cup of flour to the hot margarine/oil.
Using a large spoon press it against the side of the pan in order to end
up with a paste with no lumps in it. Then pour at least a cup of milk
in it. Then add the spinach and mix it around. You will have to add milk
little by little until it looks sorta creamy. Set it on enough heat for
a simmer. Stir every few minutes.