Squeezed Dry

For Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow at my brother-in-law's I am responsible for bringing an appetizer (and my husband and his mother.) I am making your basic chile con queso at DH's request, "for making turkey sandwiches after the Lions' game," but also decided to branch out into the vegetable-like realm, tackling Houston's Spinach and Artichoke Dip.

I severely underestimated the creepiness factor of squeezing chopped spinach dry. First of all, I fear the cheesecloth, which is surprising given my infatuation with all things cheese, including Chuck E. It just seems so medical, like I should be wrapping it around a Civil War infantryman's head wound or "making bandages" with Scarlett, Melanie, and India rather than cooking with it.

Anyway, my next tip for you aspiring spinach squeezers is to let the thawed spinach cool a little from the microwaving before you undertake the squeezing. That's probably obvious to everyone besides me, but I'm not a patient cook. Spinach steam burns are serious.

So with the cooled, cheesecloth-encapsulated mound of spinach in my hands, I was ready to start squeezing. Green juice is yucky, empirically, but even more so since I saw Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless's green blood. Well, that's what comes out of spinach when you squeeze it. Slowly the spinach takes on an unsettling, dough-like feel. Spinach, in any form, should never "thud" when dropped into a bowl.