the swappin' was good!

last night was our second annual soup swap. while some of us struggled to find soup inspiration during the past few weeks of 60 degree sunshine, the weather finally cooperated, and soup swap day dawned with gray skies and rain and, well, more rain! perfect soup swapping weather!

we swapped early this year in order for it to coincide with our *third thursday* calendar. *third thursdays* are a series of social/cultural/educational/recreational/relaxing/
entertaining/networking evenings that were actually born of the fun we had at our first annual soup swap! (what i'm telling you here is, if you haven't swapped soup yet, get crackin'! you never know where it will lead...)

in anticipation of a slightly larger crowd, we moved the swap from my home to a local historical building on the grounds of the former Fort Johnston, right down on the Cape Fear River.



while the swappers were arriving, we snacked on desserts and hot beverages. a few swappers struggled with "soup spill," which should just be further incentive to make your soups earlier! (note: a quart of soup will not freeze in three hours.) while they were mopping up, and the rest of us were socializing, i took a few moments to run through the "rules" and to lay out the fun prizes!

this year, we offered three prizes.

first picked,


frequently picked (the first soup to disappear from the table),


and, of course finally picked!


thinking that some of our newer swappers might be intimidated by the telling of the soup, i jokingly announced that each swapper would be limited to 7 1/2 minutes. i'm happy to say we all had no trouble at all talking up our soups! when we finally drew numbers, here is what awaited us on the soup table:



soups presented this year were:
garlic soup (first and frequently picked!)
organic carrot soup
2 French onion soups
ham and navy bean soup
3 cheese potato soup (finally picked!)
sweet potato black bean soup
chicken noodle soup
North Woods bean soup
Senegalese peanut soup

matty and i brought the sweet potato black bean soup, choosing the "let's throw a soup out there that we've never tried!" route. i am happy to say that the soup is fabulous, and i only regret we didn't make enough to keep some. in my anxiety over presenting a soup that wasn't a tried and true "go-to" recipe, i decided it might not be a bad thing to offer a little *incentive* for choosing our soup. during the telling, i produced some lovely milk chocolate, and promised it to the person who was first to pick our soup. (as organizer, i have no qualms at all about throwing a curve ball!) it worked like a charm, especially when one of our swappers tricked another by telling them to choose the wrong soup so she could claim the chocolate! (even funnier because they are husband and wife - well played, tonya!)

the swapping was over all to soon, and there was nothing left to do but go home and admire our newly stocked freezer.



get your swap on, people! if you haven't already been invited to a swap this year, get off your sofa and organize one. you will not be disappointed!

to read up on other swappers around the world, don't forget to visit knox gardner and his gang over at the soup swap blog. if you're interested in recipes for the soups at our swap, they'll be posted over on the where we live, inc. site!

swap on!