Soup Swap!

Did you know that January 21st is National Soup Swap Day?  I didn't either until about a month ago...So I went to my first swap today.  A group from out church hosted.  I helped by putting together the prizes.  Thiswas fun in itself!  On the suggestion fo the coordinator, I got "Chicken Soup"  Books and used wooden spoons for the "trophies".  OF course I ahd to put a crafty spin on it, so here is what I came up with...Pretty cute, huh?

Don't know if you could see, but one of the prizes was for most creative packaging...right up my alley! I had so many ideas...Here is what I settled on:

inside the bag...soup & a baguette

Completed bag with everything inside. 
Front tag is a recipe card.



Finally, to pick a soup....well, I really did want to try to do something so people would go home with new things. I have a lot of soup recipes....chicken tortilla, zuppa toscano, potato, etc. These were all good, but rather common, so....I decided on French Country Soup. It is one of my favorites and it makes the house smell wonderful! I found the recipe several years back...where, I really don't know...and I have modified it to fit our taste.

French Country Soup:

Ingredients:

8 ounces of dry navy, great Northern, or cannellini beans

6 cups water

1 pound beef or lamb stew mean, cut into 1-inch cubes

4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth or stock

2 stalks of celery cut into 1-inch pieces

2 carrots cut into 1-inch pieces

1 large onion cut into wedges

2 cups dry white wine

6 cloves garlic, minced (1 T)

3 bay leaves

1 ½ teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed

½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Toasted French bread slices (optional)

Directions

• Rinse & drain beans. In a 4-quart stock pot, combine beans and the water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover & let stand for one hour.

• Drain beans in colander; rinse. In a 3-6 quart slow cooker, stir together beans, meat, broth (or stock), carrots, celery, onion, wine, garlic, bay leaves, rosemary, salt & pepper.

• Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 8-10 hours or high-heat setting for 4-5 hours. Remove & discard bay leaves before serving. If desired, serve with toasted French bread slices.

I like to sprinkle a little fresh, grated Parmesan on top and serve it with the toasted bread. Yummy!

The swap was so much fun.  We had 9 soups to taste with only one repeat.  After tasting we all voted on the three categories.  We had plenty of time to snack and visit with one another.  Once the votes were in we gave out the prizes.  Then we swapped our soups.  I didn't come home with a prize, but I did come home with 4 delicious soups and some new recipes to make.  This was definitely a lot of fun...and I think we all decided we needed to find out when Pie Day is!