Last night we hosted Chinle, Arizona's First Ever [Annual?] Soup Swap!
I got the idea from an article my mom cut out for me. It's a party where everyone attending brings 6 individual quarts of soup that is premade and frozen...and then you swap!
I got the idea from an article my mom cut out for me. It's a party where everyone attending brings 6 individual quarts of soup that is premade and frozen...and then you swap! 
enjoying some hot soup in anticipation of the swapYou can read more about how it works and how other people do it here. I followed some recommended guidelines, such as having a "Telling of the Soup," which is everyone's chance to tell a story or share what is in their soup and why everyone will love it.
Brian tells us about his New England Clam Chowder (and the impressive Whales - no, not your typical Goldfish - to go with it)It was a blast! We had 14 people + a few little ones, 9 different soups (yep, that's 54 whole delicious quarts of soup in freezers [and bellies already!] across Chinle). I'm pretty excited about the Mushroom & Green Onion and the yummy Reunion Soup waiting for us in our freezer among others.
I also decided to include prizes, which added a fun element to it all.The prize round-up went as follows:
First Picked (all 6 qts gone): Maurie's Italian Sausage w/ Tortellini, prize: two Bamboo cooking utensils
Best Soup Presentation: drumroll, please. Maurie's Italian Sausage w/ Tortellini (she did have rafia and recipe cards afterall), prize: orange silicone double spoon rest
Best Soup Story: Ryan's story about our "Scarborough Beef" & Onion Soup, prize: a Batter Finger! (i promise the prizes were not rigged. He won by democratic vote. And his story did tell how Cow #394 came to meet its fate. But he did get the best prize in my opinion)
Most Unique Ingredient: Becky's Parsnips from her Peasant Vegetable Soup, prize: two fun Kitchen scrubbers
Last Picked (but-not-least): Jason & Abby's Herb Tomato Veg. (it was in fact one of my first picks), prize: two Bamboo cooking utensils
It was so much fun, I'm sure we'll do it again come fall. One idea that I did not include was having everyone bring a non-perishable food item to donate, so we'll definitely have to do that next time!
Soup Swaps are swell!
3 comments:
That is a great invite!
We'd love to include your soup swap summary on www.soupswap.com as we use the site to spread the word, meet our neighbors, and encourage others to give it a try.
If you're interested drop us a note at www.soupswap.com ("Tell Us About it!") or email directly at knox "well known symbol" soupswap.com.
That is an awesome looking Soup Swap!
I really enjoyed reading about this! I love making soups and trying new soups and have for YEARS, and I think this sounds like a wonderful way to spend an evening. We'll have to think about who we know that might be interested in doing one with us. Great blog entry!
Aunt Anita
Hi, Patricia - it took a little looking to find this in your blog again - I wasn't sure if it had been last Jan. or the one before. But now that I've read your piece and looked at the Seattle site by Knox Gardner and seen a recent article about it as well, I have some questions. I've been thinking about doing one this year but I was confused about whether or not it was a soup-eating event as well as a soup-swap, and if so, how the logistics work out. It sounds like Knox designed it as an event for munching on other things, but not eating any of the soup, but your piece makes it sound like you had some soup to eat that night. That would be nice - but also more work, to make soup for that evening as well as swapping. What are your thoughts on this, as an experienced swap-organizer? Thanks!
Aunt Anita
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