soup swap (#4!)

we had this strange burst of spring-like weather, and then, as if on cue, thursday dawned cold and wet. the perfect setting for Soup Swap!! i'm finding it hard to believe that this was our fourth swap. it is still one of my favorite activities of the year, so i'll venture to say that in six years, i'll be all, "i can't believe that this was our tenth swap."

(have you swapped yet?!? if you haven't, then you must stop reading this right now, and hop over here to remind yourself why you should do this.)

we had some new swappers this year (yeah!) and as everyone arrived, the table filled up quickly. i noticed quite a few swappers have learned how to "upped the ante" with things like croutons and marshmallows and mini loaves of mexicali corn bread! (last year i gifted the person who chose my soup first with a set of cocktail napkins. i forgot to do that this year.)



you'll notice some of us are getting crafty with freezer space and are using quart size bags. this is a GREAT idea, especially if your household is providing two soups (12 quarts). WORD TO THE WISE: when strategically emptying out your freezer in anticipation for soup swap, do NOT assume that EVERYONE will use bags. there are approximately 27 ways to package soup in a quart-size container, and just because you could fit 12 "bags" of soup in your freezer, you should not assume that you will be able to easily refill it with 12 "other containers." a-hem.



we chose from 10 soups this year (our second highest loot). without any coordination on our part, this year boasted a bevy of vegetarian-ish soups:

roasted butternut squash soup with curry toppings
ancho chicken chili
Irish onion soup (with Guinness!) first gone!
"almost TGIFriday's" black bean soup
smokey portobello first picked!
chicken and spinach
garlic and chorizo soup
curried sweet potato bisque
crock pot chicken and dumplings
traditional potato soup

i continued with the traditional prizes of first picked (the silver ladle) and first snatched up (the wooden spoon). you might remember i usually give out a prize for the last soup picked, but after the same person "won" that distinction two years in a row, i decided to mix it up a bit. (hi, tonya!) (and, by, the way, being last picked had nothing to do with her soup!! they have all been delish!)

i love giving prizes, and i think it definitely challenges the swappers to step up their stories during the telling of the soup. i got some fun ideas from the official Soup Swap site. this year i included a magnetic shopping-list memo pad for the soup with the most ingredients, and a few boxes of tic tacs for the soup with the most garlic. YUM!!

when it was all said and done, this was all that was left on the swapping table. oh, those two containers you see there? they were just waiting for me to find a way to squeeze them into my freezer...



another great event! jack was ever the gracious host as he allowed his room to be taken over by a bunch of kiddos half his age. (who knew that a leftover bag of dollar store balloons can be so entertaining?)

i kept with my tradition of keeping it simple with coffee and brownies. this initiated an interesting discourse on the The Perfect Brownie Pan vs. traditional baking dishes. (is it just me, or does the PBP really produce thin, cracker-like brownies? we've taken to calling them "brownie brickle" around here.



which gives me a new SWAP idea!! coming soon: a reason for me to get rid of all of the As Seen on TV stuff i've been talked into purchasing. (do you really want to know how much we have?)

soup swap '09

if there is a better way to 1)entertain a group of friends; 2) share your love of good food; and 3) stock your freezer before heading out of town for a week, i don't even want to know about it! because after three years of swapping soup, i am fairly convinced that knox gardner and the original soup swappers have created brilliance!

Third Thursday happened to land on the night before i left town for a week in New Orleans. now, your average hostess might be a little daunted by the prospect of having more than a dozen guests over when she should be doing laundry and packing. but, not a Soup Swap hostess!! i'm telling you, once you've made and frozen your own soup contribution, Soup Swap basically takes care of itself!

gathering for the Telling of the Soup. (see those two adorable little soup afficianados dressed in pink? hard to believe they weren't even around when we started swapping soup three years ago!)

the Telling is an awesome opportunity to share your love of soup, your inspiration for this years contribution, and the nutritional and/or caloric content of your soup. (is it any surprise that the soup that was described as "SO not good for you" was the first to be snatched up?)

of course, you know everyone only comes to Swap because of the awesome prizes!! (just kidding, of course.) this year, the Silver Ladle was offered up to the first soup chosen from the table. (by the way, i found the inspiration for the Silver Ladle, and TONS of other great ideas, on the National Soup Swap site.) there were soup bowls for the first soup gone, and, of course a little something for the last soup to be picked. there's no shame in last people! especially when you see what we had to choose from this year:

Save the Squirrels" Brunswick Stew (oh, how we appreciate the fact that no squirrels were harmed in this *adaptation* of a traditional recipe...)
Any Day Chili
Potato Leek
Southwestern Soup
Santa Fe Soup
Beer Cheese Bacon Soup
Spicy Tomato
Potato Spinach Tomato Soup
Sausage & Peppers Soup
Buffalo Chicken Soup
Ma's Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken Pepper Pot

(links to many of these recipes found here.)

you bet that's my soup, all decked out in football regalia! do you think i was being too pushy by offering Superbowl cocktail napkins to the person who grabbed my soup first? hah! there is nothing quite like the thrill of hearing a plastic football whistle blown when someone scores a quart of Buffalo Chicken Soup!

it was hotly contested this year that i might, or might not, have told a new swapper that we brought pints of soup, instead of quarts. did she stay home with her soup and sulk? no way! she supplemented! a half dozen, still-warm(!) chocolate chip cookies to go with an awesome soup? i think my friend crystal has stumbled upon a winning recipe!

you should always take a picture of the full bounty of soup swap. there really is nothing so pleasing on a cold winter's night. six of these delicious quarts (well, five quarts and one pint) ended up in my freezer that night. my only regret about swapping the night before heading out of town for a week, was that the tasting would have to wait!

sign of the times

this is how you know that it's almost time for soup swap!! (scene from my grocery store last night.)



we are getting ready for our THIRD soup swap. you can read about the first and second swaps - a great source of inspiration if you are going to try your own swap this year!

pop over to the official Soup Swap site for lots of fun information (and a guest post by ME!)

will you swap this year?

it's national soup swap day!

check it out! i got a little guest press over at soupswap.com

i know some of you are swapping, or thinking about having a swap. please let me know how it goes! better yet, let them know at the soup swap blog - you can read up on soup swaps all over the country.

today is the *official* soup swap day - but i know from experience that any day can be soup swap day!

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!

soup's on!

it's time for the annual soup swap!! we'll be swappin' on thursday, january 17th this year.

check out last year's swap here.




this was an easy, easy gathering to put together, and required just a few hours of prep to make the soup (after all, if you're going to make one pot, you might as well make one really. big. pot.!) check out my sidebar for a link to the official soup swap site.

let me know if you decide to swap this year!!

soup swap saturday

saturday night was my first (hopefully, annual) soup swap. i stumbled across this idea via not martha. it only took a little more surfing to come up with national soup swap day. i seriously had no idea there was such a thing! how could i have not known? it's totally up my alley.

since the official day had already passed, i said, "oh, well. guess i missed that opportunity." ha HA! that would have been the old me. the new me said, "i'm totally doing this next month."

so i printed up invites, in Word, people! i didn't even get all fancy with my graphic design. i quickly mailed them off to 12 of our friends who enjoy food as much as we do. (i shamelessly lifted most of the wording straight from the soup swap site.) the gist? each person (or couple) makes a big batch of their fave soup, divided into 6 one quart containers. then you swap. and you go home with 6 different soups.

this was an incredibly easy gathering for me to put together. we opted to do coffee and desserts, rather than wine and cheese. i suppose you could also offer nothing, and stick to the swap itself. but i find there is so much fellowship in sharing food, and i wouldn't feel like a proper hostess if i didn't put out a little something, a little amuse-bouche (like that, dontcha?)



brownies and turtles. couldn't have been easier. oh, and apples with dip for the non-chocolate people. (there weren't any.) but they loved the dip! and the apples! and my sister brought swiss cheese fondue. because she had a lot of swiss cheese. so, bread and cheese and chocolate, and, oh right, we're here to talk about soup.



lovely airpots from our catering days. pretty utilitarian, but we use them all. the. time. look how i was able to identify the coffee using amanda's snazzy magnets! (by the way, see the little soup logo? word clip art. and i used it everywhere...)


guests started arriving, and the soup started piling up. i made table tents so that each soup would be labeled during the swap. we had 9 positive RSVPs, but in the end, one couple had to back out. (i think it's fun to have more than 6 soups, that way, there is more sport to the swapping.)

the soups in attendance were:
italian sub stoup
french onion
chicken minestrone
italian wedding soup
tortellini soup
garlic basil tortellini soup
chicken tortilla
dried red bean soup


here we are, starting to gather for the "telling of the soup." there were some cute stories behind the soups, and even if people thought it was bit corny to go around the room and talk about soup, it definitely helps to know what the soups are. plus, this group was definitely not above 'trash talking' each other.

we then drew numbers for the order of the swap. the party moved into the kitchen for the actual swapping. we gave a door prize to the maker of the 'first soup picked' (an apron with our soup logo on it) and the 'last soup picked' (three wooden spoons). [i think next time we will also give a prize for the first soup gone.]

i had gotten some paper grocery bags with handles for people to carry their soups home. i didn't even think that some people would bring their soups in coolers, so they automatically had something to carry their soup in. just a little tidbit for you.

at the end of the evening, all that was left was this:



oh, and this:



wrap up -
do this. it was an awesome evening. we are already planning on a 'pasta sauce' swap for the spring.

don't forget to ask people to bring copies of the recipes to share. i sort of forgot to put that on our invite.

keep your host/hostess duties light so that you can really relax and enjoy the swap.

be corny. corny is fun.

i think next year i will ask each participant to also bring some canned soup so that we can make a donation to the food pantry as well.

over-invite. i think the more soups to swap, the more interesting it will be. ask for RSVPs, and then track everybody down for another RSVP. don't get me started. RSVPs are an entirely different blog entry for me...