soup swap, the details

Following up from my in-brief post on the soup swap, here are some details about afternoon of food-sharing.

a sample of the soups - maybe one-fourth of the bounty

The Soups
Wow - 28 (29 if you count the late-day add-in) different soups were brought to the swap. Actually, some folks brought two or three kinds of soup, but there were 28 swappers, so that's the official number for us.
In any case, here's the run-down:

• Dave B.'s Indian Beef & Berry Soup with bonus papadam
• Beth's (Emeril's) Tortilla Soup w/ Cajun-Spiced Corn Crisps
• Chef Carl Conway's Gumbo ("If you put a spot on your forehead, your tongue might beat you silly.")
• PJ's Thai Spice Chicken ("Jalapeno Hot") - "Most Likely to Blow Your Brains Out (with Heat)" winner of a squeezy-brain head
  
• Leanne's (that's my mom!) Corn Chowder
• Vinnie's Minestrone (now called Vinnie-strone among swappers)
• Beth's Spicy Curry Lentil Soup
• Lani's Cashew Chili
• Denise's Curried Squash Soup
• Amy's Spicy Black Ben Soup
• Valorie's Vegetable Soup with Tofu
• Rachel's Quinoa, Spinach & Corn Chowder
• Nora's Corn & Potato Chowder
• Jen's Celeriac Bisque AND Almost African Soup
• Mark's Cream of Cauliflower & Stilton
• Andy's Homemade Chicken Noodle (noodles and stock from scratch!) AND White Bean & Kale Soup
• Mitch's Mexican Corn, 3 Chile & Cheese Soup with homemade spicy croutons
• Ben S. & Kirsten's Spanish Garbanzo & Almond Soup with Saffron and Parsley
• Megan's Corn & Potato Chowder
• Ben J. & Natalie's Transcendental Lentil - "Most Worthy of a Dinner Party" winner of a meal-planning pad
• Nikki's Black Bean Soup
• Robyn & Jason's Westphalian Lentil Soup (with nut-fed hammyness) - "Rookie of the Swap" winner of an EnviroSax
• Christy's Southwestern Veggie
• Derk's Sopa de Puerto Rico ("I would have made it with love, but I didn't want to get too serious yet.")
• Damon's "Empty My Pantry" Pork Chili
• John's Oxtail Stew - garden veggies, homegrown sweet corn, oxtail base & love!
• Natalie's Indiana Chowder (with lima beans!)
• Dave G.'s Spicy Veggie Chili
• And the late-arriver: Richard's Kill Granny Smith - apple curry soup
  

Natalie and Dave G. also won some Second Helpings schwag for bringing the most pasta to donate to this worthy, food-rescuing, hunger-fighting, people-empowering, Ben-employing non-profit!

the best view of the soup table & crowd: Mitch telling his soup

I can't begin to say how much I love the swap - the telling of the soup, the sharing stories, the multigenerational crowd, the fun, the black bean and potato tamalitos that we shared, the prizes, the people - really, the people. We are so fortunate to be a part of a community that is this fun, this participatory, this joyful. And the community goes beyond our little Naptown gathering, check out the National Soup Swap site, too!

Naptown Soup Swap: 28 soups!

CORRECTION: There were actually 29 (and arguably 30) soups. Holy cow.

In a feat heretofore unseen in our living , this year's Naptown Soup Swap included 28 soups. And, if it hadn't been for a teensy time mix-up, there would have been 29 soups. Ben and I never knew that our table could handle 168 quarts of soup, but it did.


A complete roster of soups will follow this post, but here is an almost complete picture of the mighty Soup Swappery crowd, as well as a picture of a couple of the many, many soups. (Thanks, Nora!)

spraka peppermill, coming soon to IKEA

Oh, IKEA, how I love it. Their inexpensive and modern designs make me happy. And, as emmas designblogg reports, they'll add some very fun pieces soon to the PS collection.

The new PS pieces, which won't be out until later in 2009, appear to be mostly non-kitchen items. But one special peppermill, the Spraka (read about IKEA naming conventions elsewhere) has caught my eye. And I must have it!Looks like I'll have to wait a while. But a trip to Cincinnati means a visit with a great gal, so I'm happy to have more reasons to head there.

Naptown Soup Swap 2009

It's that time of year again... the 2nd Annual (and 4th actual) Naptown Soup Swap will take place Sunday, January 25! If you received an email or postcard about the party, then this is where you can get the soup-swap guidelines. If you didn't get an invitation and you'd like one, email me to join the good times. (You can read about last year's swap in this previous post.)

last year's telling of the soup

This is a national movement of cookers who bring six quarts of their homemade soups and leave with six quarts of other people's homemade soups. Pretty awesome, huh? At our swap, we also gather dried pasta for Second Helpings, a donation made extra special this year since that's now Ben's employer. Check out the many other places swapping and souping at the national website.

Here are the guidelines for soup-swappers:
1. Decide on the soup you'd like to share, cook it up, freeze it, and bring six one-quart portable containers of it. There aren't rules about the kind of soup you might bring, but there are plenty of vegetarians and vegans on this list... Sadly, we cannot guarantee that individual food needs will be met with each quart you receive. If you are meat free, you may get to share with your meathead friends who will doubtless appreciate your generosity.

2. We all get together at the appointed time and have a little mingle time, then a little "Telling of the Soup" time, and finally we swap. The soup is selected in rounds. Special prizes will be distributed, per the host's and hostess's unpredictable but also lovable whims.

3. Can't come, but want to swap? Send a proxy. Your proxy must bring your soup, but they will have the last pick in each soup selection round.

4. Tastings will not be possible, as soups will be frozen, but each swapper will tell the special story of his or her own soup, to guide our selections. We'll have some snacks & drinks, but not a whole meal. Your soup bounty will be enjoyed at a later date.

5. No cook-y, no come-y. You get one quart of soup for each quart you bring, which means you get six quarts of new, exciting soups. If you don't make soup, you don't get soup, so why come at all?

Email me with any additional questions.

congratulations to Ben!

Today, Ben kicked off his new gig with Second Helpings. In case you don't remember, from several previous posts, Second Helpings is one of Indianapolis' very best organizations. They work to eliminate hunger, fight food waste & empower people. Ben will be helping them to craft messages and raise support. Basically, he'll be inviting more people into their fold.

So, what does Ben do the weekend before he starts a brand new job? Does he spend the whole weekend planning and resting? No, he throws a cozy but elaborate dinner party for my birthday, preparing the main dish, appetizer and dessert and orchestrating contributions for the rest. Here he is frying mushrooms, rather than resting on his laurels. Great guy. Love him. So happy. (More on the gathering later!)


Not only am I proud of Ben for getting a job with such an undeniably cool organization, I'm also incredibly excited about how Ben will be contributing to their work.

super-simple brie & berries

We invite people over a lot. Some might say too much. But it still doesn't feel like often enough to me... In any case, when you entertain regularly, it is nice to have a few pretty and simple dishes at your disposal.

Today's featured dish couldn't be simpler. It relies on access to affordable "baby" brie (yes, brie is best aged, foodie folk, but this is a good use of its less complicated little brother), a well-stocked pantry and pretty berries. So, here it is, as part of our New Year's Eve spread, brie with raspberries and pomegranate.


Recipe (or really, assembly instructions): Brie with Raspberry & Pomegranate
Serves a house-full as party of a buffet

Ingredients
1 20-ounce round of baby brie
3-4 Tablespoons of raspberry preserves (a less-sweet preserve is ideal)
pomegranate molasses - a generous drizzle/too taste
1 pint of raspberries
pomegranate seeds* from one pomegranate (or buy one of those packages of just seeds)

Assemble
Slice the top rind off the brie. If you'd prefer, to you can slice off the sides of the rind, too.
Combine the preserves and molasses, tasting to get the flavor you'd enjoy. Spread the preserve mixture over the brie. Add berries and pomegranate seeds, scattering them over and around the cheese wheel.

*Pomegranate seed tip: I like to break open a pomegranate and knock hard on the chunks into a bowl of water with a fine-mesh strainer set inside. The water prevents it from becoming a juicy mess, helps you find any lingering white pith and the strainer makes it easy to remove the seeds.

big bang birthday

Before I head out to birthday dinner with my guy, I want to share a fun little idea for personalizing poppers. If we hadn't let all of our guests use them at midnight on New Year's Eve, little explosions of confetti would likely mark my birthday celebration.

How to jazz up your cheap poppers:

1. Take a label off of one of them.
2. Use any paper that you like - I used origami paper - and cut them out, using the original label as a template.
3. Apply glue to one edge of the wrapper and smooth it tightly over the other edge.
4. Done - party up!

pantry upgrade: tamari, the real soy sauce

In celebration of my 30th birthday (whoo-hoo), I'm finally returning to my blog. I took a technology hiatus over the holiday and it was lovely. But it's time to come back. I've missed you!

If you'd like to celebrate my birthday with a grocery trip, I'd like to make a recommendation to you. If you're not already enjoying tamari, if you're still rocking the "soy sauce" sold by liars or handed to you in little packets at the Chinese take-out joint, then you probably don't know the dirty little secret played on America by condiment companies. Most of the "soy" sauce available in this country isn't pure soy. No, no, no! It is made with a combination of wheat (cheaper than soy) and soy and sometimes scary flavoring and additives.

For true soy sauce, brewed and fermented from just soy, buy bottles of "tamari". Behold, the tamari from our fridge, light in sodium because of a little blood pressure issue that creeps up on me now and again.


For more details about "soy" sauce and tamari, read this article from YumSugar.

Check out my previous pantry upgrade, tomato paste in a tube!