I’m back! Did you miss me?
I spent a very long weekend covering the big FamilyFarmed Expo for the Reader; if you’re curious you can read about backyard chickens, shared-use kitchens, and more here. But, as a result, all pending soup coverage had to go on the back burner. (Sorry.)
I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was a sneaky maneuver on my part to get other people to do the work for me. Soup cook Bonnie Tawse, who brought a terrific vegetarian tortilla soup adapted from Rick Bayless’s Authentic Mexican, has a great wrap-up of the evening over on her blog.
Pictured above are our lovely cooks for the night. From left to right, we’ve got dancer and author Maggie Kast, who wrote a bit about Soup and Bread over on her own food blog as well. Her cauliflower-watercress soup was great — the coziness of cauliflower nicely cut by the light and fresh ‘cress — and those breadsticks were the bomb.
Next to Maggie is Charlie Hall, who remains a man of mystery, as he arrived with a late-breaking green chile soup and then disappeared before I had a moment to come say thanks. Thanks, Charlie!
Next to Charlie is Bonnie, and in the middle is David Kodeski, who last year whipped up a pair of borschts from some old family recipes, and provided said recipes heavily annotated, in the style of his ‘pa. This year he made a cazuela, a Chilean chicken soup with nine zillion vegetables, served over mashed potato dumplings. Way to slack off, Kodeski.
Danielle Marvit, from Mint Creek Farm, wrote up a little preview of her Soup and Bread plans, and then followed through with a stupendous mutton stew, rich, hearty, and with rosemary just bustin’ out all over.
And, over on the end Susannah Kite Strang offered a little preview of spring, with a vibrant fresh pea soup topped with yogurt. This is the easiest soup ever, she says. If I remember correctly, it’s just peas, cream, and a tiny bit of broth. And maybe some … onion?
In any case, I’ve got recipes for many of these soups in hand already, and should have them up soon, along with those for the olive ciabatta and cornbread Luke Joyner, of stout soup fame, brought in as a last-minute surprise.
Somehow I neglected to let the good people at Benton House know we were doing this (usually I give the beneficiaries a heads-up) but, through the magic of the internet, they found out anyway. Executive director Mark Lennon and some of the staff came and ate with us, and went home with a tidy $429. Thanks for coming out! Sorry I wasn’t more organized!
This week’s soup donations go to Inspiration Corporation. They will be joining us, along with a very exciting roster of cooks, on Wednesday, March 17, from 5:30 to 8. See you there, yah? No green plastic hats required.
Posted: Monday Mar 15,2010 12:46 PM In Soup WrapupSusbscribe to our awesome Blog Feed or Comments Feed