Swapping Soup & Politics on the Eastside

Lisa lives in Kirkland, a suburb across the lake from Seattle. Their soup swap, happened almost a month ago, after the Washington State caucus.

While she writes in detail about it as the Nerd Eye View guest blogger, here some highlights:

Sherry.
Homemade ricotta on Cafe Nouveau bread.
Moonshadow honey.
Family recipes brought by friends
Dead Granny's (x3) table ware (I know...I know, but what she writes is so sweet)
Hot Single Guy Getting Cookies in Trade
Girl Power
Good Soup

You'll also find, mixed in with a point of view on the Washington State Caucus, a recipe for Leek and Sorrel Soup. I love the underutilized herb, sorrel. It adds a great bright lemony taste, and Lisa grows her own, because, as she notes, you need a LOT of sorrel in most recipes and it wilts to almost nothing.

Lisa's a great writer, and so I'll let her finish off this post about Kirkland's first soup swap with more details on her Leek and Sorrel Soup.

The leek and sorrel soup came of a desire to do something with the sorrel I have growing in my garden. It’s a lemony herb. You can find it sometimes at farmer’s markets or in small clamshell herb packs. It’s a cinch to grow and is impossible to kill. It tastes great in a salad with other greens, like a little surprise of lemon. The recipe requires a lot of sorrel, so find some seeds, plant them, and next fall you can enjoy the soup.

Saute two leeks (the white a light green part, sliced and well rinsed) in olive oil. Or butter if you’re feeling decadent. When they’ve softened, add a good pinch of salt and some ground pepper. Add a quart of chicken or vegetable broth, or water in a pinch. Use the low sodium stuff if you didn’t make you’re own. Add two chopped red, yellow, or white potatoes (waxy type, not baking type). I suppose you could use purple but who knows what color the soup would come out. I don’t peel mine, but you can if you want. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender. Mash the potatoes in the pot and add in six cups (loosely packed) of washed sorrel leaves removed from any big stems. Sorrel is one of those herbs like basil that turns a blackish brown when cooked. Oh well. When it’s cooked down, take a stick blender and puree, or put it in a blender in two batches and blend. Adjust the seasonings. It freezes magnificently.

If you have a ton of sorrel in your garden, you can freeze it. It looks awful after you take it out of the freezer, but no different than when cooked. That way you can enjoy it without having to spend a fortune buying a dozen clamshells of the stuff.

Woo hoo! That's the way to extend the "group hug" of caucus into a swell afternoon of Soup Swap, Kirkland! We're so happy to get the update and you girls look awesome, but I gotta say, we want to see the guy behind the camera! (wink).

Soup Swap Continues! Arlington...

Just because National Soup Swap Day has passed you by, it doesn't mean you can't gather up your pals and swap some soup! Au Contraire!

Take our new friends in Arlington for example, it worked best for them to swap an entire month after Soup Swap Day. And boy howdy, it sounds like they had a great time.

Pam and Liz write,

... And now, here it is: the photographic record of the Feb. 24 soup swap held in Arlington, VA, hosted by Pam and Liz and held at Liz' home. We had a total of 12 soups, as listed below, and 10 soup-makers who spent a lovely afternoon together, drinking wine, chatting, snacking. It was great!

We had a wonderful Telling of the Soup, with stories that ranged from the old family recipe handed down by Great-Uncle "Trader" Joe, to the husband who got stuck with peeling the squash since he failed to buy the kind that was precut and already peeled, to an actual *real* old family recipe, to recipes both tried-and-true, and, made for the first time.

We had 2 soupmakers who could not attend in vivo but the rest of us picked soup for them. Our gracious host Liz had surprise gifts for the first and last soup-pickers, and for the person who had the best Soup tale (it was the woman whose husband peeled the squash. Acorn squash. Raw. We thought he deserved it. )

Everyone of us agreed that we want to do it again, and we even talked about doing a summer soup event - chilled soups, like gazpacho, melon, cucumber, etc. Yum!

Woo hoo for Soup Swapping any time it makes sense. If you folks in Arlington can pull off a summer soup swap, you let us know. Everyone else, what are you waiting for? There's still more than enough winter left to inspire some folks to swap some soup!

The Most Disgusting Sounding Soup from Texas

My mother.

Now I don't want to bust out on anyone's Soup Swap, but I got this recipe from the Whitney, Texas Soup Swap and I thought I'd share it. It sounds awful.

I know in Texas they love their Velveeta, so it would make sense that there would be a soup with it, but I am on a diet, so I have not tried it. I leave it to you, swappers of the world, to determine the nature of this soup. Easy to make, cheap enough ingredients, but Boy Howdy! it sounds um....different. But then my mother called me a "Soup Snob". She write, "We think you will like it A LOT!!!!"

You be the judge.

Texas Velveeta Veg Soup

1 package 16 oz* frozen broccoli, cauliflower and carrot mix
1 large chicken broth (48 oz)
1 3/4 lb velveeta - cut up in cube

Place veggies and broth in large saucepan, cover, bring to boil on med-high heat. Reduce heat to low; simmer 10 min or until veggies are tender. Mash veggies with potato masher to desired consistency. Stir in Velveeta cubes; cool 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and soup is heated.

Soup Swapping in Roz...

Sometimes the Internet makes you want to be other people.

Mark and Christi both have a command of the Internet that gives you a peak into their lives that inspires and intrigues. Maybe it's the off-cropped photos or the beer swilling during croquet, but personally, I think I want to know these people.

When you read about their soup swap in Roslindale, Massachusetts, I think you'd likely agree. For a full recap, including those recipes everyone is always asking about, you can check out Mark's dedicated page to the Roz Soup Swap 2008, here.

There he writes about Soup and Not Soup, "The winner this year (meaning the first to be completely out) was due to my sister’s ‘Strawberry Soup.’ This cold soup has been brought up on allegations of not really being a soup by NPY. When I did a post-party call with him the next day he complained and said that it wasn’t really soup and that it was mearly a milkshake that had been thawed. (I don’t care what it was... it was good.)"

I vote Soup. But I'm skeptical of strawberries in January in MA, so maybe Not Soup Based on Validity of Ingredients.

Christi meanwhile spent some time with packaging. Here's something interesting that I did not know (see, her blog is that way), there is a rule to Bento, which should include a wrapping cloth or furoshiki. "I found some old notes researching bento (A bento is traditionally made in a 4:3:2:1 ratio... 4 parts of rice, 3 parts of the main dish [either meat or fish], 2 parts of vegetables, and 1 part of a serving of pickled vegetables or a dessert) and furoshiki for a post, so I maybe went a little overboard with my packaging..." I think her packaging is swell and you can look at it here. It obviously moved her soup a heck of lot faster than murph's.

In May, we're back for some East Coast work and vacation, and I hope to be sitting down in some pub drinking beer with these folks. Yep. Check their blogs, won't you?

Soup Swap 2009!

Houston! We knew it...

A month ago, the world of soup swap was mysteriously swirling toward Houston.

These southern soup swaps always intrigue me. I don't think of them as a sweater and bowl of soup place, so naturally, I was anxious to learn more.

A blog posting, and a few of our favorite types of photos: smiling folks and the blue lidded containers filled with soup, show up on Lacie's Forever Flamingo. Check it here, if you are curious what kinds of soup they eat in warm places. It sounds amazingly just like the soup they eat in cold places!

Grin.

UV Scene's Second Soup Swap

You can say that several times for grins, eh?

The Upper Valley is located in the cold land on the border that makes up Vermont and New Hampshire.

To tell you how behind we are making posts for the great number of Soup Swap, they hosted theirs on National Soup Swap Day, January 23.

We tried giving a Tim a call from Seattle for a serious bicoastal shout-out, but alas they were having so much loud fun, they never heard the phone ring. There are not a lot of people living there...so you can imagine how loud they like their fun not to hear phones ring.

Writes Tim about the swap,

Truth be told, the phone was in my bag off to the side, and we were all pretty engaged in some mad swapping at the time. Here's a quick summary (I'll give you a more detailed entry once I get the photos together):

- we had 5 participants and 5 soups for swapping -- potato leek, buffalo chicken, carrot honey nutmeg, vegetarian lentil, and a split pea & smoked ham.
- collected 10 cans of soup for a local food pantry
- we also all opted to give one of our quarts (each) to a co-worker of one of the swappers -- she broke her back sledding a few weeks ago (!!!!) and is laid up pretty bad...she and her husband have 2 little kids, so any help we could give them we were more than happy to do. Needless to say, the healing power of soup will be put to the test.

It was a smash success and we're all eager to break into some soup!

Thanks again for this awesome idea -- you've got us hooked for years to come. Someday we can have a cross-country soup swap!

Like we said last year, if there was ever a place deserving of a cross country soup airlift, this bitter cold land is it.

Well done to the UV scene (you can read their smack talk here...) and we'll see you next winter at National Soup Swap 2009!

Creative Marketing for Rochester Soup Swap

Taking an icon and making it so much better, the folks in Rochester, New York obviously rule. I love this snowy land.

This is what Ellen has to say,

On a freezing Rochester, New York night on Saturday, January 26, I hosted my first soup swap.

My friend designed the invites to look like a Campbell’s Soup can (thanks, Pete!). (To see a larger image of this, click here.)

Eight guests arrived, bearing, if not tidings of great joy, at least soups of great flavor. After a few hours of wine, hors d’oeuvres, and nice company, we gathered in the dining room for the Telling of the Soup.

We discovered one common element among all the soup makers: people did a lot of research before making their soups! Websites were searched for what soups freeze well; online customer reviews of particular recipes were pored over; sites that help you double/triple recipes were consulted.

The soups were Curried Pumpkin; Beef, Mushroom and Barley; Chicken Tortilla; Ultimate Baked Potato; Cream of Watercress; and Hoppin’ John.

I like the idea of soup spoon prizes. We’ll do that next January, at our second annual Soup Swap! Thanks for the idea… loads of fun.

Maybe you folks can make invites for everyone! Wow! It is so excellent! Thanks for sharing your good times with us and we hope to see you and all the towns that participated outside of Rochester again next year (or later this winter again...I think there is a lot of winter left up there)!

Groveport, Ohio's Do-Gooding Soup Swap

A long time ago, or so it seems, in January we received a note from Becky on the first Grovesport, Ohio Soup Swap.

The Groveport United Methodist Church in Groveport, OH held our first Soup Swap in 2008. What fun! We used the Soup Swap to kick off our drive for the local food pantry. So in addition to taking home 6 delicious quarts of soup, we also collected 70-80 food items for the pantry.

The first soup picked and the person who picked the #1 each received a wooden spoon engraved on the back side with "GUMC 2008 Soup Swap." We had 15 different kinds of soups, with 13 attendees (plus some spouses to make it even more fun!). Soups ranged from chili, white chili, white bean and sausage, Mexican soups, vegetable soups, chicken noodle, and a tortellini soup -- yum, yum! With temperatures outside below freezing that evening, the thought of warm soup was delectable."

It is awesome to hear of folks having fun and doing so much good with collecting can food for foodbanks at Soup Swap. Way to go, Grovesport!

You can keep up to date with their work with the foodbank and the community at their blog, For a Good Cause.

We're Terribly Behind in Posting

Folks, you can keep sending me updates on all the Soup Swap around the country! I know there out there happening in Arkansas, Washington DC, Wisconsin! Woo hoo!

I am terribly behind though in getting posts up, so bear with me...or better yet, grab the controls yourself. I'll gladly set you up with an account and you can post your own Soup Swap story right here on www.soupswap.com.

It's Soup Swap vs. Day jobs! and day jobs is winning.

Centennial, CO's Giant First Swap

Jan from Centennial, Colorado writes:

We had 17 kinds of soup, 20 participants and a lot of fun! The “Soup Nazi” listened to all the stories during the “Telling of the Soup” and gave his nod to Tamara, who told of packaging up her soup after having dished out some for her children, and then realized she didn’t have enough for her 4 quarts and took the soup back from her children! Talk about taking food from babies!

Bribes for the “Soup Nazi” included several single servings of soup, which he awarded a gift of a soup mug to his favorite Cream of Mushroom, and some Peanut Brittle, which he immediately hid from the rest of the guests. I still don’t know where he put it and he’s my husband!

The funniest part of our swap was that I, the organizer somehow ended up with only 3 quarts of soup. Someone out there has an extra quart and they are not talking! I did make up for it by taking all the leftover veggies off the appetizer table and roasting them in the oven and pureeing them for later soup!

Here is our fabulous soup list. Everyone went home with the recipes that people either e-mailed in advance or brought with them, so it was quite fun!

3 kinds of Chicken Tortilla Soup, all different and one came with Zucchini bread as a bribe!)
Peanut Squash Soup
Sweet Red Pepper and Crab Bisque
Split Pea with Chorizo
Chicken Corn Chowder (from our token male swapper)
Lentil Soup
Vegetable Lentil Soup
French Onion with cheese and toast included!
Butternut Squash soup (the makers husband gave the telling of the soup and swears it’s better than the soup it was derived from which came from the Brown Palace Hotel here in Denver)
Cream of Mushroom (Soup Nazi Favorite taste)
Chicken and Salsa
Zesty Pumpkin
Chicken and Sausage Gumbo (most stolen soup from those who had wild cards!)
Hungarian Chicken Paprikash Soup (made with Shmaltz, which was described during the telling!)
Vegetable Bean (which was supposed to be Vegetable Basil Bean, but Thelissa forgot the basil!)
We had a bonus recipe for Wisconsin Beer Cheese Soup from Lynn, but she was ill and her soup could not make it!

We ended the evening by talking about a summer swap!

[ed. note: This rules!]

Freezers of Soup in Overland, Kansas!

Does this picture warm your heart or what?

Kelly, from Overland Park, Kansas sent us this note:

We had our soup swap last week at my work. Seven of us swapped soups here in the youth services department of the Central Resource Library of the Johnson County Library. Here's a list of who made what:

Linda: sausage tortellini
Katie--roasted tomato
Susan--ham and pea
Dennis--broccoli and cheese
Jan--pistou (French pesto)
Angel--mystery [HOW ALLURING!!!]
Kelly--French onion

Attached is a photo of just a few of our soups in our work freezer

The freezer at work! Hurrah! How much would I love a freezer stuffed like this at my place of employment...and coworkers who loved good tasting soup!

We hope to see Overland, Kansas next year during National Soup Swap Day...but if not, we hope they are inspired to try it again.

Soup Nazi Spoons in Atlantic City

Here's a special request we're glad to accommodate: Linda near Atlantic City, wanted everyone to get to take a look at her "No Soup For You!" Spoons.

They are hilarious and a great riff on the fancy spoons from Albany, NY last year.

It seems that the Soup Nazi is the unofficial mascot of Soup Swap, at least this year.

You can read about Linwood's National Soup Swap Day activities, right here.

The First Illinois Swap Rules!

From way up in cold northern Illinois, we hear the weather was brutal but the Orchardists Soup Swap of Rockford was a resounding success.

Just had to let you know that the first ever Illinois Soup Swap went terrific. Despite the cold and snow I had 8 of my coworkers from the orchard gather for a dinner of soup, salad, bread and dessert before we swapped our soups. One of my coworkers was sick, but she sent her soup. [Way to proxy!] So we had 9 to choose from. Everyone seemed to have a great time and left around 11pm with their quarts of soup. What a great way to help the dreary month of January have a fun party and something to look forward to all month.

Jennifer's email ends the way we like them to: I can't wait to host it again next year.

Marion, Ohio: Great Swap, Cute Snacks!

Valerie of Consider It Done, writes on her blog, "The Soup Swap was a huge success! We had a nice variety of soups to swap, and enjoyed a wonderful evening of food (thank you, Charley!!!) and fellowship."

On her blog, you can see some creative snacks she made for the swap that delight us to no end: hors d'oeuvres designed to look like bowls of soup from above. She succinctly sums them up this way, "They don’t really taste like the soups- that would be gross."

Soup as soup: Yea!
Crackers that taste like soup: No way!

Take a look at them right here on her blog, Consider It Done.

Loveland, Colorado Tall Tales and Soup Swap

Instead of sticking to drawing numbers out of a hat or pot for the soup picking order, the tennis club of Loveland, Colorado went for the high entertainment value of giving the person with the best "telling of the Soup" tall tale the first pick.

What the second best story get? Well, they got the second pick. This would leave folks with mundane stories very last in soup drawing order. Wow! Harsh and Intense! In our crowd, we'd have to compete with interpretive dance, music on tin pipes, and bawdy jokes just to have a chance to draw some soup.

Oh the humanity!

Loveland, Colorado: Brave souls.

Jo writes of their swap this Saturday, "Our group of 8 shared their tall tales in the form of poetry, prose and stories. And the soups are terrific!"

We hope we'll see them again during the National Soup Swap 2009!

Parish 4/Havertown, PA Swap Success!

I got this note from Jane about the Parish 4/Havertown, Pennsylvania Bible Study Soup Swap, over a week ago! She wrote me, "I was afraid I'd have a soup FLOP on my hands for a while (I got a lot of odd looks from folks!), but it was totally worth it. I love looking at the new soups lovingly prepared (or purchased!) by these gals in my freezer, and think the idea is brilliant.!"

Her easy-to-post write up follows,

Ten ladies plus 11 kinds of soup equals great fun!

On Saturday morning, January 26, 10 folks gathered in Havertown, PA, to drink tea and coffee, munch muffins, fellowship, and get down to the business of swapping soups.

Coolers full of delicious soup were first inspected by the TSA (terrier sniffing associate).

Variety was great. Soups included everything from a vegetable beef (the cook was on a first-name basis with the cow!) to a pumpkin bisque, Italian wedding soup, taco soup, split pea with barley, pasta e fagioli, chili with beans, African peanut chicken, bean and ham, lentil-sausage, and beef barley. One soup arrived fresh, not frozen, and immediately graced several dinner and lunch tables later that day.

Prizes were given for first and last soup picked and each person went home with homemade croutons and a suggested list of things to eat with soup. Requests were made to repeat the event next year.

Thanks for the update from Havertown, Jane! We hope you've got a repeat event on your hands, as all your friends are inspired to do another one!

The Swap is Eternal

We have all been hearing the usual post-Swap excitement, with lamentations that National Soup Swap Day comes but once a year. Remember this: the swapping of soup is no more tied to NSSD than planting trees is to Arbor Day. The founders arbitrarily selected a day so that we could all celebrate across geographical boundaries and give focus to the Swap. But that doesn't mean that you can only share frozen soup once a year. Charity extends beyond Christmas, and Mardi Gras can not contain drunken revelry. Go crazy and keep the Swap alive!

Laguna Beach: New Time, Same Place?

By popular demand, a February Soup Swap has been scheduled for February 11th, 2008 at 7pm in either Laguna Beach or San Diego.

RSVP today and you will be sent all the details, and you will be able to see what soups everyone else is bringing.

Show off your grandma's recipe - Its a fun, easy way to get to know neighbors, friends old and new and get a wonderful mix of homemade soup for your freezer.

For more information about the Laguna Beach soup swap, drop a note to Megan here.

Southern California Soup Swap goes big!

They came. They brought condiments. And despite a rainstorm of Nor'Eastern ferocity, Ten hungry men, women and children descended on the Bad Home Cook's humble flat to break bread together and swap soup.

The whole story is here


On the menu for the night were tastings of:
Tom Ka Gai soup
Beef soup with soba noodle
Cream of potato and leek soup
Celery and cashew nut soup
Mexican winter squash soup
Cream of zucchini soup
Ayurvedic "breakfast" soup.

If Blogger were more adept at downloading pictures, I could show you a lot more. Alas. You'll have to check my blog, Bad Home Cooking, for a closer examination of these amazing recipes.

Thanks, Knox, for providing the enthusiasm and leadership for these Swaps! Lots of my guests are on board for their own swaps next year.

Henrietta, NY Warms Cold Day with Soup Swap

We received the following email from Kim, who types in cold upstate New York,

Hello Knox!

I'm so grateful that you introduced we found Soup Swap to us! We started our first swap with just nine people - it was so much fun! We had four soup spoon prizes - Best Soup Story, Heartiest Soup, Most Decorative Soup Container and a prize for who volunteered to host next! Here is a picture of our group! Thanks again!

The italics are ours, because the whole point of soupswap.com is that all these groups share their great successes (and minor mishaps) and in doing so, inspire others in their neighborhoods, cities, and yep, right across the country to do some good home cooking and sharing. We love that!

New Bern, North Carolina's Soup Swap

We just heard of a another sweet little swap on in coastal North Carolina. This one happened a couple hours north of our busy second year swappers in Southport in New Bern.

Says Dottie & Bob,

6 couples attended our first soup swap in New Bern, North Carollina. It was great hearing everyone's soup stories. Many of the attendees were new transplants to New Bern, so our stories came from all parts of the USA.

A great experience and one that we'll repeat.

That's what we like to hear. And we like that Soup Swap is spreading like a lovely, friendly virus up the coast of Carolina. Wilmington! Jacksonville, Greenville! You know what to do...plan a Soup Swap!

Linwood, New Jersey's National Soup Swap

Linda writes, Well, my first Soup Swap was a BIG success!

First soup swaps are scary but so much delight. It is such an easy idea that your friends will applaud your brilliance when they return home with so much delicious sounding soup.

Linda of New Jersey continues,

"We had 8 swappers here, and 3 brought family members! I served some well appreciated snacks and drinks which were enjoyed during the 5p - 6p get-together. Our "Telling of the Soup" did start promptly at 6p and the stories were all good. We then choose numbers so that we could start picking our soups! My husband graciously held up each soup as each person described their gourmet entry! I then had a gift for each person, depending on how they excelled in either the soup or the story!

And, for the finale.............each person got to take home a "reminder gift" from our first "swap". All are definitely waiting with excitement for the "3rd Annual Soup Swap" next year! In fact, some want me to do another one even sooner..........we had a great time."

Linwood, NJ's Soup Swap

Jersey City: Fair Warning

Soup Swap Jersey City, where we swap on the weekends, is this afternoon.

It's not too late! You have about 7.5 hours right now to whip up a delicious soup and get it in the freezer. You can do it!

The Great Jersey City SOUP SWAP 2008
Sunday January 27, 2008
4:00 p.m. to meet and mingle
4:30 p.m. SHARP - SOUP SWAP begins
Barrow Mansion, 83 Wayne Street, Jersey City. (Wayne Street between Jersey & Barrow.)

A mansion, wine, cheese, veggies, prizes, and, most importantly... SOUP! Hope to see everyone there!

Des Moines Sends In A Report

One of over 20 soup swaps on National Soup Swap Day, Amy writes of their first swap in Des Moines,

We had a fantastic time swapping soups! There were 10 attendees ( 8 of whom made soups). We had a wonderful time swapping stories & soups!

We added a tasting portion to ours & really enjoyed the night! I'll send photos soon!

Thanks for the idea! We've passed the idea along & think others (from all over) may join in the craze. We're planning another swap for March!

Another one in March? Are we surprised? No way. Everyone who has ever swapped soup, opened their freezer to see that big mix of delicious soup, wants to rush out and do another!

The Heart of Ohio is a Bowl of Soup

January 25th, with temperatures in the single digits and sub zero wind chills, the day of the Heart of Ohio soupswap had arrived!

By 10:00A.M. swap time we had broken double digit temperatures!(10) Five swappers with 6 soups gathered to enjoy a brunch of muffins, breads, hot fruit casserole and lots of hot coffee and tea. Conversation and Telling of the Soup began. The soups: Cream of Portobello, Twenty-seven Ingredient Chili, Cauliflower with broccoli and cheese croutes, Minestrone with Italian Sausage, Corn and Wild Rice with Smoked Sausage and Mrs. Parks. Broccoli Soup.

We also collected 10 cans of soup to be donated to Helping Hands food pantry. A summer soupswap with cold soups is in the planning.

Thanks to Sylvia for this update from the Great State of Ohio!

It's a Long, Long Way to Reno, NV

Up in lovely northern Nevada, from the Biggest Little City in the World, we get this report from Sue:

We held our first soup swap on the official day, Jan 23, 08. I was disappointed that only 3 people responded to my 12 invitations. But, with a little lobbying of her own at our Democratic caucus, Pam was able to get two more soup enthusiasts to attend. We had a great time and it looks like we'll have another swap some time in the fall before the holidays.

I'm sorry we didn't get a photo of the group of people, but here is a picture of the two soups which were nominated to get the "best dressed" soup award. The little Mexican man covers a quart jar of Albondigas soup and the other soup with the maracas garland is a Chicken tortilla soup with a little baggy of homemade tortilla strips.

Thanks to Dan, Vernell, Kathleen, Tammy and Pam for making our first soup swap a success. Look out for Kathleen next swap! She didn't know we were decorating the soup this time but she works at Michael's craft store!

Soup Swap in Derby City

At the time of year when the fast horses are in the barn, the beautiful women of Louisville, Kentucky were having a soup swap on Monday January 21.

It was the first one for the host and it was great! Each person's heart and body was warmed with soup, salad and dessert before the swap and the stories of the soup were equally heart-warming.

Hope to have an annual event that rivals the Kentucky Derby celebration.

Signed,
Kentucky Belle

Soup Swap: It's Like This

Here's a quote about one of last night's soup swaps, that I thought sums it up.

"We had FUN last night. Seriously, I'm like a kid after a ride at the amusement park: Again! Again!"

Louisana's Inagural Swap

Why wait till next National Soup Swap Day?

Mia from down in Metairie writes, "We had a great time and will be hosting another soup swap before next January. Everyone thought that it was a great idea, and, of course, I gave y'all the credit! Can't wait to taste all the delicious soups."

January 2009 is a long time to wait for the next Soup Swap. Follow Metairie's lead. Don't.

Forest Hill, Maryland says, "It's a Blast!"

Carolanne wraps up Forest Hill's participation in National Soup Swap Day this way, "Our group had a blast. It was small-5 stay at home moms. We finally swapped soups 3 1/2 hours later. They left at 11 pm.

We will definitely do it again next year. Hopefully the group will be larger. One of the moms really got into calling other groups. [And out in Seattle, we had a great time chatting, no yelling through the speaker phone to the Maryland contingent]. We called Renee in New York.

Thanks again for organzining this event!! Enjoy your soups. Also, just a thought. Did not know if there would be interest in swapping recipes over the net??"

We haven't got the right site built yet to swap recipes on www.SoupSwap.com, but definitely keep an eye open for changes to the site over the summer and think about what you might like to contribute to the Soup Swap Cookbook!

IndyStar.com: Soup swap tastes fine

We got a nice bit of coverage in yesterday's IndyStar.com, the online version of the Indianapolis Star.

It includes a brief interview with Victoria of Going Local, who will be hosting her swap later this week.

"After reading about the concept, it sounded like so much fun (plus a great way to try some new soups without having to make them myself) that I've decided to declare Saturday, January 26, as Indiana Local Food Soup Swap Day," Wesseler said on her blog site, noting that she's come up with just a couple of guidelines.

"Since it's a local food soup swap, ask your friends to be sure that at least one of the soup's main ingredients is Indiana locally grown, produced or raised and ask them to include the name of the producer with the recipe."

With three groups excited and swapping in Indiana, we are guessing the Hoosier's are going are going to blow the door off this Soup Swap madness next year. If I were a betting man, I'd bet next winter will see at least ten groups out there.

See the whole article, here.

DeBarry, Florida's First Swap

Karen writes, "We had our first soup swap in DeBary, Florida on January 23, 2008. We each brought 4 quarts of frozen soup, had a light snack and drink, had a light supper of soup made by the hostess and some good breads, and then swapped soup!

The party favors were a pair of quilted pot holders, hand made and used as a placemat for each participant. We also gave a couple of soup ladles for the first and last soup chosen.

Everyone is talking about next year's soup swap already. We had a ball!

Naptown Proudly Swaps

The Naptown Soup Swap crew proudly gathered last night for our first official National Soup Swap event. Last year, we had two late-spring, early-summer events, but there was palpable excitement in Indianapolis to be part of a national movement of soup-swappery.

A basic overview:

• So many soups, so many people... We had 18 soups, with 25 people in attendance.
  
• The longest Naptown Soup Swap ever, it took over 20 minutes for the telling of the soup, never mind the swapping.
• Good snacks, good wine. Mushroom pate, white beans with rosemary, goat cheese with pepitas, nine bottles of wine, one bottle of beer, two burritos, and plenty of vanilla cupcakes with chocolate glaze were consumed.
• Each soup contributor received a special pack of official Naptown Soup Swap recipe cards and a Le Pen. Special awards were given for the soup that required the most grocery shopping and/or gardening (a cute little single EnviroSax bag that went to Suzy) and the soup that seemed to do the most clearing out of the refrigerator (a fun magnetized shopping list pad won by Beth & Dave).
  

A quick fun-down of soups (above are the information cards for all the soups):

• French Onion Soup with Special Four-Cheese Blend (buy your own bread!) - Jen and Mark
• 5-Alarm Veggie Chili - Beth & Dave
  
• Sadie's Vitality Broth - Rachel
• Butternut Squash with Goat Cheese Croute - Andy
• Creamy Corn and Roasted Red Pepper Chowder - Lani
• Great Northern Chipotle Soup - Megan
• Spicy Veggie Chili - Amy
• Autumn in Jamaica (Squash & Black Bean) - Leanne (aka Mom)
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day Soup with Black Currant Glazed Onion Garnish - Richard
• Fountain Square Peasant Soup - Suzy
• Veggie Chili, Chunky Style - Mark and Jen
• Oxtail Soup - Nora (and her Papa)
• Queimar a Bota (White Bean Kale Soup - Portuguese-ish Fart Soup) - Ben and Kirsten
• Carrot Ginger Velvet - Chris
• Black Bean Soup - Nikki
• Nutty Beet Soup - Mitchino
• Portuguese Potato Soup with Chorizo - Tammy
• White Chicken Chili - Tammy

Look at that impressive crowd of soup-swappers. We're still waiting for the poundage tally, but the group brought an impressive array of dried pasta for Second Helpings, a local nonprofit that not only recovers food and feeds hungry people, they also empower people with job training. Pretty nifty, eh?

The swap was also a learning experience in the fine art of marketing. The first lesson: do not make a vague reference to "essence of meat" if you would like your soup to be picked quickly. The second lesson: goat-cheese croutes and special onions are excellent up-sellers.

We'll be posting recipes for soups and party snacks at Middle West Meals over the next few weeks. Word!

Cambridge, MA: No Injuries Reported

I had really hoped for more violence. As Master of Soupemonies, I did my best to goad Cambridge's swappers into exaggeration, deceit, logrolling, pushing, and shoving. But all in attendance were far too classy to lower themselves to my level. In the end, this year's Swap was a model of breezy charm with a mere undercurrent of highly strategic optimizing. We improved from last year to 16 swappers, 13 soups, and no injuries.

The tally:

• First selected: toutbeurre's something-or-other. I don't even remember what she made and it doesn't matter. She's a professional chef. When in doubt, grab her soup before it's gone.
  
• First sell-out: stripeyg's wonton soup kit. A multi-step affair with noodles, homemade wontons, and frozen broth cubes. I calculated nobody would pick something so labor-intensive and was shocked when it didn't even survive the first round. Thank Gods that I had two rotation slots or I would have missed it.
  
• Welcome compromise: meat on the side. youraverageninj served a red pepper bisque with removable shrimp. My ultra-pandering Beer Cheese Soup arrived with a separate Bacon Pack. Wontons were available in pork and veg varieties. This enabled everyone to find their own dietary way without feeling marginalized or oppressed.
  
• Subtle marketing ploy: During her Telling, greatdane managed to casually let slip that she attended cooking school in France. We all then realized that you don't try to outsell a management consultant, especially when she's armed with creamy pesto.
  
• Kitchen equipment infomercial: fanw convinced us simultaneously of the virtues of her butternut squash and the glories of the immersion blender.
  
• No pain, no gain: countlibras cried through five pounds of onions to bring us a french onion soup. Other chefs suffered for their art as well. Your collective sacrifice is appreciated by all.
  
• Videographer: aerynne found the movie mode on my camera, capturing several Tellings for posterity. Her apple-based soup, on the other hand, will certainly be gone very soon.
  

Thanks to all for a successful Swap. cinnebarine is lightning-quick with a jpeg download and beat me to posting by several hours. Enjoy your soups now, and remember to start thinking of next year's recipes when your breath first clouds autumn's air.

Judkins Park: The Soup, The Glory!

I'm just back from National Soup Swap pioneer Knox Gardner's soup swap, and what a soup swap it was: 19 soups (2 swapped by proxy!) and plenty of good wine, good snacks (Knox is also a master of the gourmet build-your-own-taco), and high soup spirits.

I can't remember all the offerings, but highlights included a black bean turkey chili soup hybrid with tiny frozen ancho chili toppers, a pink lentil with copies of the NY Times article the recipe came from acompanying each quart, an alluring soy-cream-of-edamame, a tropical squash puree to brighten winter days, and a "Heavenly Mushroom" soup (pictured) that offered a box of Jiffy cornbread mix for anyone lucky enough to get a quart. The table was full, soup swaps from around the country called in to report on their events, and swap newbies and veterans alike mingled around the house in anticipation of soup stories and delicious times to come.

Hosts Knox and Vic's creamy mushroom and truffle-tinged blend was my personal favorite (the label read "perfect for apres-ski!"), but it was hard to choose; the "telling of the soup" made each one special: whether involving homemade chicken stock, vegetables giving their lives for the cause, or ingredients carefully sought out at specialty markets, each soup's story was warm and personal, from kitchen to table, just like soup should be.

So You Wanna Swap Soup? Notes for Newbies!

Ed note: I asked Lelly down in North Carolina if she'd be willing to share her thoughts on hosting a Soup Swap, now that she's done two of them...here's what she had to say.

However you heard about soup swap, however you found your way through the blogosphere to the gang at soupswap.com, you probably thought the same thing as I: Hey, that sounds like fun! Followed shortly thereafter by: Hey, I could do that! Before you knew it, you emailed a few friends, you compiled a list of potential soups to swap, and you dutifully tested the freez-ability of various quart-sized containers.

It was that easy!!

But then you started to worry about having a fun logo, or if you should provide door prizes, or how you would tell the story of your soup! You planned to spend a blissful Saturday chopping and simmering and freezing your soup, yet here you are, less than a week away from the swap that you proposed, and you haven't found the "perfect" recipe yet. What's a frazzled soup swap host to do?

Relax. I know, the pressure of hosting the perfect swap can be overwhelming. When we had our first swap, just a year ago, we were already about a month late. Somehow, knowing that I wasn't swapping on the "official day" made me feel a little more relaxed. Heck, if the swap bombed, I knew the powers that be at soupswap.com didn't even need to know about it! But, it didn't bomb! It was a huge success, and we grew from 6 soups to 10 in just a year, even moving to a larger space to accommodate more swappers.

There are tons of tips on soupswap.com. (But if you're hosting a swap this weekend, and you haven't made your soup yet, I suggest you get off the computer and get into the kitchen!) Don't stress about the event. Worried about the telling of the soup? Believe it or not, your closest friends will gladly get up in front of the group and share their stories. You might even learn something new! Worried that someone might not appreciate receiving a prize for bringing the last soup to be picked? Heck, it's a prize!! Who doesn't love receiving a prize? Worried that no one will pick your soup? Mathematically, that can't happen. So get over it!

There is something very gratifying about going to your freezer and eying the bounty you bring home from your soup swap. As you reheat each soup, you will think about the person who made it, you will think about their story, and you will wonder what soup they will be bringing to your next swap. Now, get out there and swap some soup!

It's Finally Here!

Like waiting for Christmas, man.

Welcome National Soup Swap Day! Hurrah!