Although I love to cook, this is my first recipe to share.

We had a few cold days and I cooked up some killer Collard Green Soup. Most of my recipes are packed due to our remodel so I had to find a recipe on the internet. I will post the recipe and in ()s is what I did.

1 T olive oil (3-4 T. olive oil)

2 c chopped onions (1 bunch chopped green onions including tops)

1 bay leaf

2 stalks of chopped celery (4-5 chopped stalks of celery)

2 medium sized chopped carrots (no carrots)

3 c cooked white beans (1 can Great Northern White Beans or Chick Peas or both if you like)

2 ts salt (NO SALT substitute 3-4 slices chopped salt pork)

6 c. stock or water (10 c. chicken stock)

3 T minced garlic (3 heavy T minced garlic)

1 1/2 lb collard greens; stemmed and torn into small bits (1 bunch of collard green stemmed and torn)***

1 tsp fresh ground pepper (7-8 turns of the pepper mill)

Heat Oil in soup pot; Add onion, bay leaf, celery, carrots, garlic and salt or salt pork. Cook over low heat for abt 10 minutes, then add stock or water. Cover, bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer for abt 20 minutes.

Add beans and as much of the collard greens as you can fit, cover and wait a few minutes for the greens to cook down. Keep adding greens in batches, waiting between additions for them to cook down, which they eventually will.

Add black pepper to taste.

Serve hot with thickly-sliced buttered dark Pumpernickel bread.

***Make you you remove the very bitter heavy center stem in each collard leaf.

ENJOY!

Recipe adapted from "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest".