Earl Cooks Sausage & Potatoes & Beet Greens—OH MY!

The ingredients were fine. Smoked Sausage, Garlic Roasted Mashed Potatoes with Italian Cheeses and Butter mixed in, and Beet Greens. The seasoning was fine-  just black pepper & garlic salt. The "OH MY" is for something I DIDN'T do, or rather didn't do well enough...RINSE THE BEET GREENS. You see, beets grow in dirt. And even though the greens grow above the dirt, they are shipped together and the leaves get just as dirty as the beets. I rinsed mine. In fact I soaked them, but not well enough to get the fine, almost sand-like particles of soil off. Oh, they looked clean and I couldn't see any grit, but it was there in ever so slight amounts. That wasn't a textural component I wanted in my dish!

—I cut the smoked sausage into bite-sized pieces and tossed it into a medium-sized pan (10"), and cooked the sausage long enough to get a nice browning.
—Unbeknownst to me, I then placed the gritty beet greens in with a quarter cup of water and let it cook until soft, but not too soft.
—Finally I added the above it in with the potatoes and cheese and topped it with a dab of butter and added some fresh cracked pepper. Initially, we thought it might be pepper that was providing the grit but we soon realized fresh cracked pepper was not that fine.

In my defense, it tasted fine, and was soft enough that I didn't need to chew it much. Maybe It was like sandblasting the plaque on my teeth🤣.

My apologies to my patient and forgiving wife for not screaming at me and refusing to eat my cooking!