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!

Virginia is for Soup Swap Lovers

I had the great pleasure to chat with Samantha in Petersburg, Virginia this morning, but due to the time difference and my late sleepy start, just missed everyone at their swap! They were already braving the icy roads to get home.

Here's what she had to say about their first soup swap held at their local church,

"Our central Virginia swap went off without a hitch. Despite the forecast of freezing rain, all five swappers showed. We also had 2 proxy swappers, so there were plenty of choices. We had white chicken chili, Uptown beef vegetable (I think it's "uptown" because it had tenderloin in it!), chicken corn chowder, mushroom soup with sherry, black bean and salsa, vegetable beef, Italian wedding soup, chili and Thai curry butternut squash soup. I, Samantha, made and recommend the butternut soup with Thai curry paste.

Everyone had a great time and I can't wait to have another swap at night with those who weren't able to come during the daytime!

Good luck and happy swapping to all those meeting on the 23rd!!

When Can I have a Soup Swap? Arlington, VA

We got a lovely note note from Pam in Arlington last week,

"I stumbled on this oh-so-wonderful idea last year but it was a bit too late in the season here for us to pull it together ... anyway, it's been on my mind so I finally googled you today and discovered that you've set the date for Jan. 23.

I'm going to try to organize a first-ever (I think?) soup swap here in Arlington, Virginia, but I don't think we'll make it for Jan. 23 ... for one thing, during the week generally is not good for us folks with kids and their various schedules (sports, homework, etc) and secondly, we're in the middle of a freakin' heat wave here in the DC area with temps over 70 so not really feeling like a hot bowl of soup right now! (so much for the pot of lentil soup I made Saturday ...). Plus, I'm obviously a little behind here as it's already Jan. 9 so not sure I can pull this together in time for the 23rd."

As you'd noticed, January 23 is not going to work for Arlington. No way! And so they are doing theirs in February.

Folks, the truth to the matter is National Soup Swap Day, while a blast and good times, is in our mind a lot more like Easter than Christmas. It's more like a moveable feast, and one that we'd encourage you to have when it makes the best sense for you. We're not one to stand on propriety, so SPREAD THE WORD, swap when you can, and remember, most soup swaps in 2007 took place well after National Soup Swap Day.

If you are in Arlington, Virginia or the DC-metro area, drop Pam a note, here, to get all the details.

Petersburg, VA

In the recent heated discussion of Red State, Blue State, I thought it interesting to receive a note from Samantha about their first Soup Swap.

She's down South in Petersburg, Virginia and thought she'd let us know that it's "30 miles south of Richmond and well-known to Civil War buffs!" When I was in that obsessive early teenage years where you spend in ordinate amount of time collecting fact, the Civil War was my thing. So Petersburg needed no introduction and we're thrilled to have them join us for a cheery Soup Swap.

What is worth refreshing ourselves on about Petersburg is that in 1864, for nearly a year, a protracted trench warfare occurred there. It would end shortly before Lee's surrender. A brutal and deadly child's play in comparison to what would follow in World War I, but another first in war right there in Virginia. It's a grim history and one worth remembering.

They will be swapping a day early, on Tuesday, January 22. For more information on the less maudlin and lovely folks hosting in Petersburg, drop a line to Samantha, here.

New Soup Swaps x 10

Gone for the weekend, I returned to an email box filled with many new and returning Soup Swaps. Over the week, you can look forward to seeing some great invites to swaps in Connecticut, New York, Indiana, Colorado, Minnesota, Virginia and Kansas, and Washington!

If you're hosting a swap and want to see your invite here, drop us a note.