WARNING! SELF-INDULGENT RECIPE SHARING

Ok Chums, wasn't going to do this, but I can't help myself. Like so many diary/notebook type things that I sit down to write this may dissolve into a cache of recipes. I hope that this post is the exception and not the rule but this soup was really good (if not really my creation).

White Bean Soup with Kale (version February 26)
Serves 4-6, I don't really know.

3-4 Strips bacon sliced into strips 1/4 inch wide
1 large onion, chopped
1-2 medium carrots, chopped to about the size of your beans
(1/2 tsp?) thyme, chopped if using fresh
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced/squeezed
1/4 tsp (or less, depending on how potent they are. Smell them from about 6 inches away and if you recoil in pain I suggest less) red papper flakes
1 can chopped tomatoes w/liquid
1/2 cup of dry white wine
1, 6-inch sprig of rosemary
2 inches of parmesan rind (you pick the side that is 2 inches. Length or width, whatever, it's your soup)
Cannelini beans (if using dried, soak them overnight in cold water, or a few hours before soup-time in a few different boiling water baths until they swell up. After soaking cook them until tender/creamy) what, 2 cans if you're using canned? I dunno. 1 can will feed 2-3 people.
Water
Kale, washed and deprived of the tough stalks (pull the leafy part away from the backbone-y part)

Fry the bacon in your soup pot until crispy. Add the onions and carrots and saute until softened. Add the thyme, bay leaves, paper flakes, and garlic and stir until the garlic smells nice (30 seconds? maybe less?). Add the tomatoes and their liquid. Stir. Add the wine and let it simmer for a few minutes, until the alcohol burns off. Throw in the rosemary, parmesan rind, beans AND the liquid that you cooked them in, and then water 1 inch from the top of the soup-stuff. Simmer for 10-15 minutes. Then throw the kale in and simmer until the kale is tender but isn't grey yet.
Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with shredded parmesan. Also, don't forget to avoid eating the bay leaves, parmesan rind, and rosemary sprig. You will regret it.

Can probably be vegetarianized if you cut out the bacon (then saute the aromatics in vegetable oil or somethig) and use vegetable stock instead of water and add a tablespoon or 2 of really good olive oil at the end. Maybe the same for veganizing it if you cut out the cheese rind as well? I dunno.