Mom's spinach and knoefla

Another favorite Slovak dish my mother used to make and that was passed down from her mother is creamed spinach served over knoefla. Here is the recipe for creamed spinach:

Ingredients for creamed spinach

1 nine-oz bag of spinach (or 1 pkg frozen)
1 c water
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
2 T flour
2 T butter
1 cup milk

Place spinach and chopped garlic in 2-qt saucepan with water and cook until spinach wilts down and is tender. Drain the spinach and save the spinach water in separate containers and let cool. After the spinach has cooled, put it into a food processor and blend until chopped. Be careful not to over-process to ensure that the spinach does not turn to a liquid (it should be "finely chopped" spinach). I use the Nutribullet and process the spinach with the nut-chopping blade for about 3 seconds. Set aside.

Using the 2-qt saucepan, melt 2 T butter and mix in the 2 T flour to make a rue. Cook and stir this until bubbly. Then slowly add spinach water and milk to the rue, all the while stirring. Be careful not to add the liquids all at once so that the rue does not cool down and become lumpy. When you have added all the milk and water, you should have a smooth cream sauce. To this cream sauce, add the chopped spinach. Heat through and serve over knoefla (recipe below).

Prep time (including knoefla): 1/2 hour; serves 2 nicely with leftovers

This dish is delicious served with breaded pork chops or just hard-boiled eggs cut in half.