Soup & Bread springs forward

It may seem like soup season is still in full effect, but spring is peeking around the corner, which means there are just five weeks left of Soup & Bread. So while the past month has been hectic — so many weeks without an update! — we’re buckling down now for the final stretch. But first, a quick recap of soups gone by.

Over the past dark and icy month we’ve slurped up soups inspired by everything from Maximalism to the return of Daylight Savings Time. We’ve been soothed and moved by music from DJs Scott Shaefer, Mike Smith, Carrie Weston, and Michael Slaboch. And we’ve raised $2,240 in pay-what-you-can-donations for four excellent organizations: Common Pantry, Ravenswood Community Services (featured in chapter 3 of the Soup & Bread Cookbook), the Chicago Help Initiative, and — last night — the tiny, Portage Park-based Hands to Help Ministries. Our thanks go out to every cook who participated – too many to mention by name! – and all those who came and ate and so generously donated.

And now, those days are behind us and we’re peering ahead into the ever-brighter future, where the snow has finally melted and the daylight stretches into the dinner hour. Coming up next week, on March 19, we’ve got a full slate of soups celebrating the flavors of The Hills. Mountain goat stew? Hill country burgoo? Your guess is as good as ours.

Cooks this week include Graze magazine editor Cyndi Fecher, artist Edra Soto, filmmaker Jack Newell, Inside the Artist’s Kitchen creator Kristina Daignaut, Vital Bridges case manager Chelsea Dare,  and cooks from Gapers Block’s Drive Thru section. Our guest DJ is Jim Becker, and bread is donated as ever by our friends at Publican Quality Meats. Pay-what-you-can donations benefit Vital Bridges‘ food pantries, serving people living with HIV/AIDS on the north, west, and south sides of Chicago. As ever soup is served from 5:30 to 8, or until the crocks run dry, at the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia. We hope to see you there, and if not this week then be sure and check the schedule to see what’s in store as spring creeps ever closer.

Until then …