yes we are! i haven’t documented any cooking attempts in a while. mostly because i’m hungry, and don’t feel like grabbing the camera. but i snapped a few shots while making soup for the swap. i love simply recipes, and am hooked on elise’s zucchini muffins. i was excited to find a fun recipe for kale and roasted vegetable soup. i forgot to tell the swappers that most of the ingredients came from the awesome schenectady greenmarket. (so bummed that it did not exist while i was living in schenectady) i bought way more kale than necessary. ooh that reminds me to cook up some kale for dinner tomorrow night.

where am i going with all of this? (a question i frequently ask myself) the soup was nourishing and straight up wholesome. i have been accidentally over hot peppering everything lately, and this was a nice balance. although when i make it again, i will add some hot red pepper and a parmigiano-reggiano rind. i bet a handful of barley would also be nice.

we sampled two soups yesterday, and put the rest in the freezer. they will come in handy on those “i don’t feel like cooking, and we really shouldn’t eat out” nights.

go soup! go soup swap! when will we see t-shirts? one day i will get that fabric screen printing kit up and running. in the meantime, check out these unrelated gems.

soup swap 2010 was a success in albany ny! we had 26 soups (listed below). i made it a point to have everyone log their soups in a spreadsheet. that is one little detail i have been forgetting about every year. learning from the past? yes! and loving it! another thing was asking a few people to bring their cameras. i think they would have brought them anyway. i love hosting soup swaps and potlucks, but it gets kind of chaotic trying to keep things on track while documenting the process. i had the point and shoot camera hiding out in my apron, and you can see our version of the day here. check out sébastien’s version here. he takes great photos!

skfl and i bought a house at the end of november, and this was the first time people were seeing it. my goal was to have the dining room finished by the time of the swap. unfortunately working on making our walls better has been taking way more work than i ever planned on. my poor shoulder needed a break after painting the bedroom. plus joint compound sand is some of the worst stuff ever. i want to pick up the project again after we can open the windows. repairing the kitchen walls almost did me in last month. (i barely documented that process because it was SO awful). anyway, the robin’s egg blue color i was going for in the kitchen looks great in the background of some photos. and i especially love it with the red some gals were wearing.

back to the swap! the energy in the room was wonderful. everyone was so grateful to be there and meet new people while talking soup. i scheduled the event from 2-4 pm, and when we hadn’t starting talking about our soups around 2:45, i got nervous. but the whole thing ended at 4:05, and i couldn’t believe it! my project management skills are much better than i give myself credit for. speaking of project management, 5 people from work even showed up with their soups! i am lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life. i really felt great yesterday.

another thing we will need to be prepared for next year is the amount of booze to have on-hand. we went through 3 bottles of prosecco, 2.5 bottles of red wine, and 1 case of beer. oh, and the cheese wafers i talked about in my last post will totally be making a repeat performance next year. those things were off the hook! they were like homemade cheez-its. yum.

we tried something new this year, and went online to choose names instead of picking numbers out of a bowl. that was fun! i wonder why this guy was highlighted in that shot. i originally started numbering pieces of paper and adding compliments and positive messages, but that got to be too time consuming. there is always another way. i think that is one of my favorite things to do in life…finding another way to do something.

thanks to knox for coming up with this awesome idea. thanks to skfl for being patient and helping to make this swap happen. thank you to the almost foodies peeps who showed up. thank you to my work homies for being excited and coming over. thanks to my new friends (you probably don’t know that we are now friends…like it or not!) for representing. i am grateful to have all of you in my life. yesterday totally rocked. i am one lucky gal. did i already say that? well i mean it. i need to wrap this up and make some dinner. we already had soup for lunch!

here are the soups we swapped yesterday:

▪    apple parsnip
▪    broccoli leek soup
▪    butternut squash
▪    chicken gumbo
▪    chicken tortilla soup
▪    coconut/peanut moroccan stew
▪    corn chowder
▪    curried red lentil soup with sweet potato + greens
▪    french onion
▪    heuvos flamencos
▪    homestyle organic potato w/ garlic
▪    kale + roasted vegetable
▪    lamb stew with turkish spices
▪    north african spiced soup
▪    peppered celeriac with chestnuts
▪    poblano corn chowder
▪    sausage + kale
▪    sausage vegetable
▪    smoked black bean soup
▪    smokehouse potato leek
▪    squash pear curry bisque
▪    squash sweet potato + carrot soup
▪    the most delicious split pea soup in the known universe
▪    tortellini + italian sausage
▪    vegan curried lentil
▪    watercress + potato / zucchini carrot

national soup swap day is on saturday, and we are doing it up almost foodies style. this is year 4, and we are psyched! right now i am trying to figure out what sort of delicious snacks to prepare. i have had my eye on cora’s cheese wafers ever since she mentioned them on twitter a few months ago. i also have a craving for mint brownies, and still need to find a good recipe. they will probably not go well with sparkling wine and beer. hmm. do you have any suggestions for quick and delicious snacks? space will be limited. ooh, cookies! time to keep looking. and, i sure hope these name tags make another appearance. what a great way to label food. well done, you. well done.

by the time you read this, it will officially be national soup swap day. what a wonderful idea that has inspired so many of us to hit the kitchen to get our soup on! i have been going crazy planning, cooking, cleaning and shrinky dinking. i have no idea what to expect for our second soup swap, but i sure am ready! updates coming soon…

i revisited working with shrinky dinks last night and it didn’t go too well. i’m trying to make fun magnets to give away next week. why in the heck am i spending so much time doodling, shrinking plastic (with my head almost in the oven watching) and then photographing the results instead of calculating proportions and making a giant batch of chili? because i’m nene! (and my brain is on possible overload) i’ve got to come up with a different shape…

i’ve been gettin’ my doodle on trying to come up with a cute soup swap party favor for the big day next week. i should probably be trying to perfect my chili recipe instead.

sometimes i get lost in a sea of e. they always seem to creep into my doodles. it’s kind of like pressing the c button on a calculator. drawing out e’s helps me to clear my mind, focus and recharge for what’s next. right now i feel like i could spend an afternoon on some e’s. i’m sure my temporary employers would like that.

back to the soup. i am psyched for soup! i’m not exactly sure how many people will be showing up. i haven’t done a great job of promoting the event and fear that my cheerleading skills have faded a bit. there is still time!

i decided to put up soup swap flyers at work today. i don’t know too many people, and wonder what they will think of national soup swap day. i’ve already had to “defend” my need to take pictures of food. most of the office people are probably wondering who i am. (i usually refer to myself as the temp, but not that temp.) but it’s not about me (i swear), it’s all about the soup. i am all about bringing people together through food. if i were to finally get around to writing the “about me” section of this website, that would definitely be mentioned. (it’s starting to seem like it’s all about me here, but that is not the case.)

on a side note, i am really trying to “get things done” in 2008. even if it means putting out a flyer that i could’ve spent more time on, to look a bit more nenetastic. (to all of you newer readers, nene is my nickname, and hello!) instead, i decided to get the facts out there and move on to the next task. i’m having mixed feelings about it. (it being the decision not to spend an overwhelming amount of time on something to look a certain way, when the message can be communicated in a simpler manner.)

anyway, it will be interesting to see new co-workers mixed with a handful of almost foodies and a couple of other people i don’t know. i just hope we don’t have any secret soup poisoners in the mix. (and that could be someone rolling up with a reconstituted box of mrs. grass. oh how i used to love that stuff. i once popped the golden flavor nugget to find out what was inside. my favorite green shirt was ruined from the grease stains. it was worth it for my first rebellious act in the kitchen.)

okay, i haven’t been thinking too much about the upcoming soup swap. i can’t help but be a little jazzed after finding this letter in my mailbox the other day. so what if the guy’s staff got the facts a little wrong, and didn’t realize that our big soup swap is coming up on january 23rd. is it corny that i went out to buy a frame for this letter? we do have our winning wine selection certificate hanging up in the kitchen (please remind me to NEVER get my haircut that short again).

i think skfl and i are going to make chili. we can each bring a little something to the table – he enjoys the fake meats and i enjoy the chipotle. i need to come up with a clever flyer and post it up in the lunchroom at work. there are a bunch of people who look like they’d enjoy swapping the soup. i also need to figure out what would make great souvenirs. the spoons of last year were terrific, but we need something new for 2008. i’m thinking magnets. time to go figure that out…

national soup swap day got some big press yesterday, with an article in usa weekend. i got a call from my folks in the morning with a notification of my name in print. my dad was flipping through the insert and mentioned that i might be interested in the article. my mom took a look at it and said that i was in the article! good times. say what? oh yeah i had a brief phone interview about how almost foodies took part in the swap earlier this year. (so what if my name was misspelled, the quote was right on!)

plans are underway for us to take part in the next swap, on january 23, 2008. i have no clue what to make yet, but there is plenty of time to figure it out. we had a blast at the last soup swap and i hope the good times carry over into the next one. i think the soup swap is such an awesome idea and a great way to bring people together. mad props to knox!