Soup Social is back
Around 18 months ago I decided to create a monthly Soup Social event for various personal reasons - not least that I love to cook and entertain, and wanted to meet new people.
Six of my friends were invited to share three beautiful lunchtime courses (a soup, a salad or savory tart, and a dessert) and had to bring one of their own friends to the table. We all congregated in my kitchen around my large wooden table... Some sit, some stand, and the kitchen is filled with not only the wonderful smell of soup bubbling and baked goods in the oven, but with the energy of each of us shedding layers of work and home life, motherhood, marriage and more... and tapping into that inner child that is somehow playing hooky from everyday life.
None of us shares the same background, profession nor talents, yet we are all connected by a sense of possibility and new beginnings that our conversations together, over soup, inspire.
Soup Social has become so popular in my food-oriented Carroll Gardens neighborhood that I now have to agonize over whom to invite to the next monthly gathering. Sometimes it is someone whose choice of bright red lipstick has inspired me for years but whom I have never dared talk to, other times it is an old friend whom I persuade to sneak off from work for a few hours. I am also in the process of writing the Soup Social cookbook - a seasonal collection of 12 monthly get-togethers - 36 recipes in all - to help inspire others around the country who may be in need of some new company and unexpected conversations to make their lives feel better.
Most of my recipes are inspired either by the seasons, my mood, or certain friends and guests whom l know will appreciate a dish l have prepared with them in mind - for example, a delicious beet soup for one of my best friends who happens to be Russian; a hearty Minestrone which recalls my days living in the north of Italy and prepared for a dear Italian friend; or a friend from Prague who brought back a beautiful bag of wild mushrooms that she had picked with her family last summer, that I turned into a wonderful wild mushroom, butternut squash and fontina tart.
Last time we all congregated was June time before the schools broke up for the summer, so it feels like an age since we last got together for a good olde natter. Now everyone is back after their summer vacations and into a groove either with work or family life.
l'm excited to open up my cozy kitchen, catch up with friends, share my achievements and vulnerabilities, of course goes without saying make some delicious eats for everyone.
Soup Social is back....which makes me happy.