Kale To The Chef!

There's an old Greek guy who wanders the halls here at my (now bankrupt) place of business. No one really knows what it is he does or why exactly he's here, but the guy owns a wholesale produce market on the South Side.

One day last week, he caught wind of a conversation a co-worker and I were having about vegetables. He looked us square in the eye and said "Kale. Best vegetable there is. I bring you kale next week."

Sure enough, Tuesday morning there was a massive bag of kale in our office. It looked like Carrot Top's head in a bag if it were dyed green. The co-worker was skeptical. I looked at the kale, looked at the headline of the Financial Times talking about being bankrupt and realized I better start taking handouts.

So me and my 7 pounds of kale went home. The Better Half was livid that the fridge now looked like the outfield walls at Wrigley Field, but I was determined to try the stuff out. I had no idea what to do with it, so Google made like Joe Crede and came through in the clutch.

Behold, Emeril Lagasse's recipe for kale and chorizo soup.

Pretty easy to make, and it's fun to make scatological jokes with the chorizo while chopping it up. Don't slice the kale with a knife, just peel the leaves off the stalks.

Served with an excellent St Francis viognier and a whole bunch of French bread, it was perfect cold weather food.