I FIGHT TO THE FINISH: Some adventures with a large bag of baby spinach.

1. Too tart! First, I made a toasted cheese sandwich. I split a mealhada roll in half crosswise and then lengthwise, filled the halves with sweet onion, spinach, and cranberry goat cheese, wrapped them in aluminum foil and baked at 375 for fifteen minutes.

verdict: not quite. This was way too acidic–I’d hoped that the different sharpnesses would blend, but instead they just clashed. At least one of these elements needed to be gentler. If I had it to do over, I might try caramelizing the onion on the stovetop first; or, obviously, using plain goat cheese rather than cranberry; or using mozzarella with maybe a thin coating of cranberry sauce.

2. Too bland! Another toasted sandwich, this time with onion, lots and lots of spinach, and munster. This was fine, I suppose, but kind of boring. Mushrooms would have helped, I’m thinking especially shiitake; also cayenne; but even so, I think it needed something more, maybe artichoke hearts or something. Or soy sauce?? I don’t know about soy sauce and cheese, though.

3. Juuuuuuust right. The great thing about soup is that you can really throw just about anything together and it’ll be good. I set salted water to boil, sliced the kernels off a corncob into a saute pan with some salted butter (I know you’re supposed to use unsalted for greater control of seasoning–I never do, which is why I rarely mention adding salt to soups and things), chopped a tomato I think, threw in some minced garlic and a lot of dried herbs and spices (in about this order, to the best of my recollection: basil, black pepper, cayenne, rosemary, thyme, sage, cinnamon), added a big shloop of whole milk, and cooked all of that for a bit.

When the water boiled, I added fusilli and cooked halfway, then drained the pasta and put it in the saute pan. I added quite a bit of crab stock and stirred and cooked until the pasta was al dente, then threw the rest of the spinach in and cooked until it wilted. There may also have been cheese? Probably habanero jack cheese, if so.

Anyway, this was totally delicious–sort of like a cross between minestrone and chowder. The crab flavor definitely came through, but it worked with the other ingredients. Mmmmmm, soup.