As Close to Following a Recipe as I Get

     I catch a lot of slack at my house for my method of making a recipe.  It started pretty much right after I was married.  My husband was used to his mother's way of cooking.  She had classic recipes, things she had made him quite often over the course of his life.  He is a man that likes stability, and being able to count on something staying the same (aka- he does not like change).  His new wife, he quickly realized, is nothing like that.  In fact, I am just the opposite.  I have heard of people who eat the same thing for breakfast every morning.  Every. Morning.  Dude!  How is that possible?

     A recipe to me is a starting point.  It is suggestions by someone who knows what they are doing.  Cooking is an art (unlike baking, which is a science- and when I bake I do follow the recipe).  Everyone's taste buds are different.  For example, I like garlic.  A lot of garlic, actually.  Not everyone does though.

   
     Here is the recipe I started with yesterday, when I went to make dinner:  Acorn Squash Soup with Kale.  The picture at the top corner of the recipe is a bit misleading, if you ask me.  Here is what my soup looked like.

     First, I did not have any bacon (tragedy, I know).  So I skipped to step two, but I needed some fat to cook the onion in.  I had run out of butter.  I frantically searched the fridge for some form of animal fat, and lighted upon a few jars of chicken broth, which had a bit of fat layer on top of them.  I scooped that out, and used that to fry the onions in.

     Next came the kale.  The recipe called for 4 cups of acorn squash, I had 6, so I took the recipe amounts and multiplied them by 1.5, giving me 6 cups of acorn squash and 12 (!) cups of kale.  It says 8 cups of "finely chopped kale", right?  I read it over and over before I finally added the kale.  I decided against adding 12 cups (mostly because my kids were sick of bringing me in bowls and bowls full of kale leaves from the garden, just to have me tell them to go back and "fill 'er up again".  I am not sure if the author of the recipe meant 8 cups of kale before it was finely chopped or not, but my soup did not look like theirs, so I am assuming 8 cups of finely chopped kale was a bit more than what they used.

     Step three is where I made a mistake.  It clearly states "Add squash puree" and I assumed my nearly boiled to death squash would suffice.  I was wrong.  While it did not ruin the soup, I think if I had run it through the food processor the soup's texture would have been better.  I ended up taking a potato masher to the soup before I served it...it didn't really help.

     The recipe then calls for water.  Water?  Really?  Let me give you some advice.  If ever your recipe calls for water, no matter what you are making, stop and think, "Would chicken broth make it taste better?"  I bet 75% of the time you will answer yourself with a "HECK YEAH!"  (If you are a vegetarian, you might think vegetable stock.)  Thus I added 6 cups of chicken broth, in lieu of water. (I should have added 4.5 cups if I was following the recipe, but after adding 5- I do not like fractions, I decided it wasn't "soupy" enough.)

     After bring the soup to a boil I let it cool a bit and then tasted it.  It was alright, but I knew immediately it needed garlic.  Hence, I added half a head of garlic, about 2 tablespoons, minced, and then a lot of salt.  When I tasted it, it was perfect (except for the texture....again, I wish I would have blended it).

     Now, the really funny part about this whole thing is that if I was not writing a blog I would never have written any of this down.  I would not have measured the broth or the squash, and I would not have eye balled the garlic.  I do not measure things.  Which is why my husband, and now my children, tease me nearly every meal.  After eleven years of marriage my husband has finally come to expect recipes to differ from time to time, and not to get too attached to any one meal.  It will change, and be different next time.  Most of the time my changes improve the recipe.  (Though, I have had my disasters as well.)

     So, here is the recipe with my changes I made, plus the changes I will make for next time.  It was really tasty, and very inexpensive.  I was really pleased with how it turned out, but I think cheese would have made it!

Katie's Acorn Squash and Kale Soup

Things you will need:
2 tbsp. butter
1 large onion, diced
5 cups of kale, finely chopped
6 cups of pureed acorn squash (about 3 medium acorn squash)
2 tbsp. minced garlic
5 cups chicken broth
salt
cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Melt butter in soup pot.  Add diced onions and cook until tender.  Add kale and cook until soft.

2. Add pureed acorn squash and chicken broth.  Stir and bring to a boil.

3. Remove from heat and add salt and garlic.  Mix well, and serve with cheese sprinkled on top, or you could add the cheese after it is done boiling, and have a cheesy kale and acorn squash soup, the possibilities are endless! ;)