Alfonse and I headed out to my dear friend Denise’s house for a SOUP SWAP yesterday.  Because I’m kinda lazy tonite I’m just gonna copy and paste Denise’s description with a link to her group (in case any locals would want to join–she teaches amazing cooking classes and is an all around cool gal).

From-  http://www.meetup.com/cooking-239/events/130682122/

How it works:

• Every attendee needs to come with 6 quarts homemade soup individually frozen in 1 quart containers. Please keep in mind that some soups freeze better than others. For example, creamed soups or potato soups do not necessarily stand up well to freezing. Please bring your soups in a small cooler which you can use to carry home your new soup selection. We will be awarding a prize for “Most Original Soup”, so the sky’s the limit!
• We will meet at Noon, and plan on swapping at 1:00 to give everyone (and their soup) a chance to arrive.
• Your soup containers should be labeled (you don’t have to get fancy–just a sharpie marker will do–include your name and the name of your soup) We will, however be awarding a prize for “Most Creative Packaging” so if you are so inclined–get creative! Also, please bring a copy of your entire recipe so that folks with allergies, food restrictions, etc. can look over the recipes prior to swapping.
• We will pick numbers from a soup bowl to determine the order of picking–everyone will leave with 6 quarts of soup!
• Please be prepared for “The Telling of the Soup” which is a time when all present will tell a little about the soup they have prepared. You can include details like: it is all organic, it is a favorite recipe passed down by my great grandmother, etc. We all just want to know a little about the soups. We will be awarding a prize for “Most Coveted Soup” based on this telling, so be as descriptive as possible!
• We will not be issuing ‘rules’ about what type of soups people will be bringing, so if you are a vegetarian for example, please be aware that you might end up with some meat based soups which you can give as gifts to friends, etc.

• I will provide munchies and beverages to enjoy while we swap and visit.          

So John and I spent the week looking for recipes (and I found SO MANY great soup recipes in the process) and landed on Sweet Potato Basil Crockpot Soup for me and a Vegetable Soup (with wine!) for John.

Here is a little photo montage of my soup making.  Now since I was making this times 4, I didn’t use my crock pot but made it in two pots on the stove and just cooked it for a few hours on a low setting.

I used three types of sweet potatoes and yams, all organic–just thought those peels looked cool

LOVE my immersion blender–added that tropical sea salt for a little heat

little basil leaf on top for interest before freezing

This is my recipe:

And John’s (but he used beef broth..it was sooo good!):

http://www.chow.com/recipes/29367-basic-vegetable-soup

Because we always kind of decorate our containers, I tied an apricot colored ruffle around the top and brought my recipe printed and dolled up like this:

John also put a bronze wired ribbon around his veggie soup but doggoneit I didn’t get a pic of them.  He also folded his recipe papers in all kinds of unusual shapes, like paper airplanes!

As I got to thinking about what to wear and considering I was not feeling well that morning and wanted an outfit that went with “comfort food” as I considered my creamy soup, I decided on this ensemble (yes those are my jammies):

We got to the swap with our 12 quarts of frozen soup and did our “Telling of the Soup.”  I talked about how mine was an all purpose soup and would go for basically any diet type:  vegan, vegetarian, paleo, primal, low carb, etc.  Instead of a contest, Denise had lovely gift bags for us all from a local oil/vinegar shop.  They had small specialty oils/vinegars and other seasoning stuff and a great list of what flavors go with what to make various dressings and marinades.  John and I managed to leave them there at her house in the hustle and bustle packing up our soups…arrrgh.  At least I think they are there because I’ve been searching high and low all day for those gift bags.  : /

I also brought a little hostess gift for Denise which turned out to be a BD gift as well as her birthday was the day before!

 

Awwww….perfect for special Denise

Here are some random shots from the swap and lovely luncheon she prepared for us all:

What a lovely lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

I wish I’d gotten a pic of Alfonse as he was wearing his new bright pink striped Izod shirt and looked so handsome.  I think I was hungry so took all food pics.  😉

Here’s the national website for soup swaps.

Soup Swap

And in perusing that site, I found this one…WOW!

Soup Chick

It’s so fun now knowing I have a freezer full of homemade, healthy, nurturing soups for awhile.  Should last me a few weeks..maybe.  😉

I think I’m gonna plan another one around the first of the year when we all go on a health kick as I have so many friends who were like “oooh I wanna do that too!”.  And I have my eye on a Moroccan chicken vegetable soup so………

Slurp!