A few weeks ago, I positively longed for fresh greens from a Maine garden. I’d had it with the insipid taste of bagged lettuce shipped from across the country. We belong to a CSA run by our own farmer Kev, and I was counting the days until the first delivery.

When that delivery came—I noted it on this blog—I felt as euphoric as a thirsty desert wanderer stumbling over an oasis with a fresh spring. We received two bags of greens, one of lettuce and one of spinach, and Clif and I happily indulged in big, big salads. How good those greens were, and by the end of the first week, we had pretty much finished all that Farmer Kev had brought.

But then the greens just kept coming, and rather than two bags, there were three or four. We ate more salads, some of which have morphed into wraps, and we hosted a salad supper with our friends Judy and Paul. But we still have an abundance of greens in our refrigerator.

What to do? Give some away, perhaps? That is always an option. However, when I was talking with my friend Liz Sienko, she told me about a recipe she had come across for chicken Florentine.  She made some modifications—it called for cream of mushroom soup. Instead, Liz used fresh mushrooms and made a Parmesan, garlic cream sauce. “It was delicious,” she said. And best of all, it uses a lot of spinach. You pretty much cram as much spinach as you can into a large casserole dish. On top of that go raw, sliced mushrooms, cooked chicken, and the garlic cream sauce. Then the whole thing is topped with mozzarella and baked for 20 minutes or so until the casserole is brown and bubbly.

I made Liz’s chicken Florentine a few days ago, making some modifications of my own. (Liz had also used a bit of pesto and some onions, which I omitted from my version.) To say that Clif and I liked this dish is an understatement. This recipe should serve at least 4 people, but by the time we were done with dinner, there was barely enough left for one small serving.

“I think we overdid it with the eating,” I said to Clif.

“Yup,” Clif replied. “But it was pretty darned good.” (Yankee-speak for it doesn’t get much better than this.)

It was pretty darned good, and best of all, I used at least 1/3 of a big bag of spinach.

Here are some pictures of how the casserole was constructed:

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