Potato Soup with Kale Garnish

<--The mere idea of kale on the plate.
<--Yum for me; tears for her.

It's been cold and rainy. Last week I planned two dinners that didn't happen: one a mildly yellow potato soup with green salad, another garlicky greens on ziti pasta with cannellini. I still have the ingredients for both, so I decided to make the potato soup with a side of sauteed greens. It was not a hit.

Menu:
Double potato soup (sweet potatoes and regular potatoes with half-and-half)
Kale sauteed in olive oil and garlic, steamed in vegetable broth.
Toasted Wheat hamburger bun as roll.
Milk or Cranberry Juice to drink

As a family dinner, this was a fail.
I forgot about the tendency of Kale to be bitter. I love it in a creamy soup, but obviously none of the children do, not even the vegetarian with the sophisticated palate. Also, the younger half of the family hate potatoes and most soups, though I refuse to acknowledge this.

Nevertheless, I assure you it was delicious. I love that greens / starchy soup / cranberry juice triad. However, I'm not sure I'm going to love it for three lunches in a row.

Falafel

There was a recipe for falafel in this month's Cooking Light. I made it tonight, and it wasn't that fabulous. Now, part of the problem was that instead of adding 3 tbs of olive oil to the pan for the frying, I misread, and added it to the falafel mix. Even still, I don't think they would have turned out.

You'd think I'd have learned by now to carefully read all the instructions when starting out on a new recipe.

Awhile back I happened to catch Bobby Flay doing one of his cook-offs with someone making falafel. I just checked the website and the recipe is there. It only got 3 stars on average, but it's really because some people rated it one star because the site didn't list his competitor's recipe. So, I'm thinking of trying his.
Or, what's so bad about using a falafel mix, really?