Soup & Bread 2012 is GO

The 2012 soup season is upon is. And so far, it has been swell. And, speedy. Laying waste to idle conjecture, soup fans came out in force last night — and, of course, we ran out of soup very quickly. Apologies to those who showed up “late” — or, after 6:20 — only to find a bunch of empty crock pots.

Believe me: I have spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about how to hit the sweet spot of the soup-to-patron ratio, but it seems to defy any sort of algebraic logic. Just when you think you’ve figured it out, you’re hit with a night when you can’t give this stuff away and it’s back to the drawing board stock pot.

In any case, will keep thinking. And we promise more soup next week, in some configuration.

Still, everyone seemed pretty happy as they gnawed on their crusts of bread. And best of all we raised more than $500 for Casa Catalina in donations, which Sr. Joellyn told me would go into the food pantry’s transportation fund to pay for vehicles needed to transport food to the Back of the Yards food pantry from donation spots and the Greater Chicago Food Depository, as well as miscellaneous expenses.

Up next week we have soups from: Mana Food Bar, Peasants Plot Sustainable Farm, Eat My Words blogger Gillian McLennan, Stephanie Beyne, Soup & Bread Cookbook editor Alison True, and at least two others, hopefully more. (I’m spending the weekend test-cooking soups for a Jan. 21 class I’m teaching, and Soup & Bread may well reap the rewards.) Hideout talent buyer Michael Slaboch will take on DJ duties, and bread, as ever, comes from La Farine. All donations benefit Lakeview Pantry in, well, Lakeview.

One administrative note: You can probably expect fewer extensive updates on the goings on at Soup & Bread at the Hideout in the coming months. With cookbook promotion still steaming ahead I’ve got my hands full and after three years I’m sort of running out of ways to say “they came, they cooked, they ate.” But I’ll still post weekly schedule updates and I’m still collecting recipes — am hoping against hope to start digging into the backlog of soups collected on the road ANY DAY NOW.

In the meantime, why not take a cue from our friend DJ Treetop Lover? See you next week!

 

 

 

 

 

Posted: Thursday Jan 5,2012 04:21 PM In Event Schedule, Soup Wrapup