Kale--too much of a good thing.

You can't buy it by the leaf or by the ounce. You've got to take a big bunch and either throw it away or wrack your brain to find a recipe to use it in. Look up "kale" in the index of older cookbooks and you won't find much; it's a veggie on an upward, farm-to-table trend. I'm not saying it's not pretty.

I'm just saying, it's a tricky ingredient. I put it in a white bean and mini ravioli soup last night and it flopped all over the spoon, spattering vegetable broth everywhere. I hate when that happens. Tonight's saute with mushrooms, a shallot, leek, and dried cranberries was much more flavorful and easier to eat, though it doesn't look like much wilted. "Wilted" is not a good food word.

What was I thinking?

It was love at first sight when I read the recipe for "Chili Mac" in the sample pages of the next edition of the Taste of Home Simple & Delicious Cookbook. Actually, my thought was, "Oh, Chuck will love this!" Any hungry guy would. Elbow macaroni, canned chili, ground beef, cheddar cheese... the only work besides twisting the can opener this required was chopping a green pepper and an onion. I'm embarrassed to say I made it, but then again, there are days when the sun never breaks through the clouds, kicked-up slush gets into your boots, and there's nothing to do buy pig out on junk food. Actually, this wouldn't make a bad stuffed pepper or baked-potato topping: up the vegetable quotient and the guilt may diminish.