Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Soup night

A recent post over at Small Town Rambling got me thinking of something I've wanted to do for a while now, but have never gotten around to instituting: namely, soup night. I read about this a while back in a magazine -- either Sunset or Cooking Light, I honestly can't remember which -- and thought it was a great idea. You pick a day, once a month or fortnight depending on how ambitious you are, then invite friends and neighbors to drop by on that day for soup. Then you make one or two generous pots of soup and provide bowls and utensils; others might choose to bring bread or drinks. Basically it's a chance to sit around, gab, enjoy the soup of the day and (around here) get out of the rain -- and dinner's taken care of for the night.

Many of the soup recipes I have taste better if they're made a day ahead of time, either partially or completely, so there wouldn't be much need for last-minute prep work where I run around the kitchen like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off. If I have only one thing to worry about -- OK, at most, two things -- I'm not as likely to engage in wanton comestible destruction as I wander away from the stove burner AGAIN.

So, show of hands, who would want to come to soup night if you were invited and within driving distance?

8 comments:

Gretel said...

I would! But as I am thousands of miles away, it would be a rather expensive bowl of soup.

tlawwife said...

You had me until the within driving distance requirement. I'm with Gretel it would probably be an expensive bowl of soup.

Scarehaircare said...

Me! Its only, what, 12 hours to get there? Mr. Wonderful's gas is free so we're only paying with time. We've done Soup Night here (just once, not a regular monthly date) and it was hugely successful. I think I should do this, too. BTW, it was in Sunset magazine.

Captain Midnight said...

Soup would be yummy, but not manly enough. It needs to be STEW NIGHT!

Soozcat said...

Hee. Well, I figured that, as amazing as my Cinnamon Beef Noodles are, most people wouldn't hop a transatlantic/multiple-hour flight just to sample them. (But if you like, you are more than welcome to do so!)

I like the idea of having two choices of soup (one of them being vegetarian-friendly, as there are always a few folks who need or want to avoid animal proteins) and an open-ended, no-reservation setup. The other nice thing about most soups is that if there's anything left over, it reheats well.

Thanks for the reference to Sunset, Carrie. There are a couple recipes in there that need testing.

Hmm. Now to consider the possible candidates for soup night. Tuesdays or Thursdays seem most likely, and earlier in the month rather than later. Ooo, I could make Dutch Christmas soup for a crowd!!! Yom.

tlchang said...

If my schedule accomodates, I would love to. :-)

natural attrill said...

Sounds like a lovely idea.
Penny.x

Soozcat said...

You are ALL invited! No matter how far off!

Hmm, I wonder how well soup goes through the mail...