soup party!

everyone loves to cook (doesn't everyone love to cook?), and soups are about as easy as it gets, plus they can store for days in the fridge or be frozen for months (or years, i suppose...). We set out the other day to make a broccoli/cheddar soup, and my my my was it a success!

It is really simple, actually. Fry up some garlic, onions, and grated carrot in a hunk of butter for about ten minutes. Meanwhile prep your broccoli by cutting into whatever size you want, I like doing some big and some chopped really finely. After you're initial veggies are soft add in some milk, some cream (half and half or heavy cream... you decide), a small amount of flour, a little chicken stock, a few bay leaves and even some beer! This is the soup broth.... so it will be pretty thin at this point... next add in all that broccoli (raw) and let it simmer for about twenty minutes. Finally add in a TON of sharp cheddar and a LOT of pepper jack, salt and pepper to taste, and viola! Easy hearty soup! 

Our friend Kevin had his thirtieth birthday this past weekend and for the occasion decided to have a creative and unique birthday celebration: a soup party! Everyone (or every couple) brought a small batch of their favorite soup and some bread and drinks, of course. It was so fun... there were probably fifteen different soups there, a variety of Korean and western soups. Everyone just hung around the table with cups and spoons to have tasters of each one. We had spicy chili, Swedish onion soup, seaweed soup, split pea w/ ham, turkey vegetable, potato leek, 부대찌개, and a killer gazpacho!