Green soup, no ham

They say one is more likely to cut oneself with a dull knife than a sharp one, but you can't prove it by me.

If one bleeds into a vegetarian soup, is it no longer vegetarian?  That's just a rhetorical question.  Really.  And besides, I used chicken stock instead of vegetable broth, so it wasn't vegetarian anyway.

Today's soup is Green Soup with Sweet Potato and Sage, from Love Soup.  Instead of waiting until late in the day to start cooking, I decided to get it all over with this morning.  And since I needed to eat lunch anyway, I sampled the soup.  Tres bien!  Except for the grit.  Apparently, I did not wash the kale well enough.

This recipe raised some interesting questions.  Ingredients include "one bunch of Russian kale (8 oz.)" and "one bunch of green chard (8 oz.)" and the instructions said to remove the woody stems.  Question number one is, is that 8 oz. before or after removing the stems?

I don't think my kale was Russian, but once the stems were removed, it did weigh around 8 oz.  I didn't weight the chard, but there was a lot less of it in its bunch.  Its stems were not woody.  In fact, they are like celery and I munched on them while I cooked.  So, should I have left them in?

The directions said to saute the onions for 30-40 minutes.  Sure this was a misprint, I searched the Web for errata, but could not find any, nor could I find anyone who questioned this instruction.  So, yes, I sauted the onions for 30 minutes.  This was step 3.  By the time I started step 3, steps 1 and 2 were complete and the soup was waiting for the onions, so shouldn't the onions have been step 1?

This is one of those soups that is pureed in a blender.  After I pureed soup all over the kitchen wall, I decided I need one of those immersion blenders Anna Thomas keeps mentioning as an alternative to a regular blender.  Anyone ever use one?

The soup is finished with lemon juice, which REALLY HURTS WHEN IT GETS IN A CUT, and a swirl of "fruity green olive oil".  I have searched high and low for this FGOO and cannot find any.  While in Fresh Market, I did identify a brand (California Olive Ranch Arbequina) that described itself as "a fruity and fragrant varietal", so that is what I went with.  Does anyone know what this FGOO is?

Somewhat exhausted by now, I decided against a yeast bread, and made the corn bread recipe from The Bread Book.  Also very good, but.  It has caraway seeds in it, which give it an odd flavor.  Not a bad flavor, just different from what one expects when one bites into a hunk of corn bread.

And now my tummy is full and I feel a nap coming on.  I think I deserve one, don't you?

P.S.  The owl was back last night, and it occurred to me that maybe my neighbor with the new puppy should be made aware of said owl, and the daytime hawks as well, just in case that dog looks too much like a meal to avian eyes.