Soup Club LA June Wrapper

Hello Soupies!

Come one, come all to the greatest show on earth! Soup Club LA's June wrapper! What fun we had at our country fair/circus themed soup club. Food with all the fixins. Hearty soup that would make grandma do the doe-see-doe. Games that awoke the inner dirty kneed child in all of us and left some of us a bit bruised (sorry kids). The elephant woman, bearded, lady and ring master, made an appearance as did some local country bumpkins. All in all, it was fun to revert to some good old fashion fun.

Get yer soup hear! First time Mike's "Blue Ribbon Vegetable Soup" was so delicious people couldn't help but vote for it. It was hearty, light, and fresh. It had a cornucopia of vegetables including corn, tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, kidney beans, and carrots. There was also a nice bit of rice to add some starchy carby goodness. Kudos to Mike on a fabulous first effort! Yeehaw!

Lisa and Chris (JR's bro) brought the fair sweetness with their dessert contributions. Lisa made a delicious and healthy apple crisps. Layers of apples, drenched in brown sugar, butter and cinnamon were topped with a sprinkling of toasty oatmeal flakes. It left all the kids lickin' their spoons clean. Chris Reid made a delicious strawberry topping/sorbet for a sponge cake. The fruity goodness of the strawberry topping was deliciously acidic with a nice punch of sweetness. The cold and half frozen consistency was a welcome relief on this warm June evening.

Family freaks of nature Bearded woman Brown (Tiff) and Elephant Lady ring master (yours truly) gave it good ole college try with their dishes this month. Tiff made a delicious and classic dish of sausage and peppers. She sauteed onions, green bell peppers, and Eye-talian sausage with olive oil, salt and pepper and placed the deliciousness on french rolls. I made a take on the traditional corn dog and made corn burgers. I seasoned ground beef with salt, pepper, and sauteed garlic. I took the beef and put stuffed a piece of cheddar cheese inside then dipped it in a traditional corn dog batter. I deep friend it and voila, corn burgers. If I'm honest, it looked less appealing than it tasted, but if you were blind, you'd have loved it!

Joint Chief of Chefs/2nd VP Laine made an incredible homage to the classic fair fave, kettle chips. He made delicious chips out of beets and carrots. They were crisp and perfectly seasoned. Once you popped you couldn't stop. He made a homemade blue cheese ranch dip. It was soo good it'd put hidden valley to shame and cause foreclosure on their farm. It was soo good that it was one point shy of soup club glory.

Now for the winners who were also newbies!! Alyssa and Dina did not walk into their first soup club, they ran and stomped all over us old food fogies. They truly were blue ribbon caliber with two excellent dishes. Alyssa won top honors with her take on corn dogs, the shrimp dog. The shrimp were large and succulent and batter was light and fluffy. The cocktail sauce was a little spicy and a little tangy. Fabulous dish. Dina's dish won for best presentation. Her "amuse bouche" rendition of sausage and peppers were not only tasty, but ridiculously cute in mini red and white containers. The crunch of the baguette was offset by the moist and well seasoned sausage, onions and peppers. Cute and delicious, just what I like in my food and person I date. Congrats ladies!

Not only was the food fabulous, the games were as well. We played the three legged race, which Alyssa and Dina won. We also played water balloon toss (can't remember who won) and a ball toss game. Thought some people won the battle, everyone took home a little prize.

Thank you to everyone who came. We had a fun time! Thank you to JR for allowing us to invade his lovely craftsman home. It's my favorite soup club venue.

The next soup club will be on Sunday July 26th. I need a soup maker and a host. Who wants to volunteer for one or both? The theme is what I like to call Russian Roulette. I will tell you the theme the day before and you never know what trigger I will pull... So, good luck.

x,
the prez

p.s. pics to come
p.s. I'm so awful I never posted the May wrapper. The winners from May: Laine won best overall dish for his delicious beer batter fried zucchini. Instead of best presentation, we did a prize for best drink. Fatimah won best cocktail for her Lynchburg lemonade! Jessy provided the gifts, which were cute t shirts from her job as a designer for graphic tees!