Soup Social Ideas for future parties

A soup party is a group effort; you and the guests all contribute a favorite homemade soup, bread or other fixin' to the party. Non-cooks in the group? Someone needs to supply the tableware, napkins, etc. Or perhaps an appropriate centerpiece.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when hosting a soup party:

Keep tabs on who's bringing what and head off any duplications. (How many, do you suppose, would show up with turkey soup or pumpkin soup after the holidays?)

Serve the meal buffet-style, when practical. Keep the soups warm in crock pots, cords safely out of the way of traffic, with a place card in front of each one to identify the soup.

Use small disposable bowls or mugs so that guests can more easily sample all the soups.

Ask the soup and bread-makers to supply copies of their recipes for the other guests to take home. (Or at least get the recipe to you so that you can make copies.)

Any laid-back cool-weather gathering is right for a soup party, a perfect showcase for those delicious homemade soup recipes.

What to Serve with Soup
The simplest and often the best approach is to just serve...
Bread, definitely.
Warm, garlicky French bread is always good, or make your own Sourdough Breadsticks or cornbread.
Dessert is preferably not one served in a bowl, eaten with a spoon; after the soup, it's redundant.
But you may also want to serve...
Cheese, an assortment, especially with a carb-heavy soup.
Crudités, finger-food veggies like celery and carrot sticks or
Salad, served on the side as you would for any other meal.
·

Your Parties: Pam Kammeyer, Soup Social

Pam Kammyer from Highlands Ranch, Colorado found my blog and after reading about Jeff and my goal to have all the ward members over during the year have taken a similiar goal upon themselves. Pam and I have been corresponding sharing tips and ideas and I have to say that she is a very excited gal! Here are the details of her soup social.
Invitees: 6 couples and their children
The Kammeyers (hosts Pam and Kurt)
The Nelsons
The Tharpes
The Greaves
The Amasons
The Chamberlins

Party Details written by Pam:
We didn't mind having the kids because they had their own activity/food downstairs. They had homemade mac cheese, a fruit plate, cookies and drinks. Plus there were games: Twister, Chutes and Ladders and two movies. Anna, our granddaughter, took care of the kids and it made it easier for these young couples to join us.

We did invitations using your wording and asking each family to bring something. Then a few days before I checked with everyone via email. They all seemed thrilled to be coming to our home...which is so sweet of them to say.

It was buffet style and then we sat at our table and ate together. Our decor was just our home. I didn't do anything special....next time I will add that into the works. We had two soups: Chicken Chili and Baked Potato....two salads [fruit and green], rolls, and brownies for dessert. Everything was homemade. I wish you could taste the rolls Tanja made.....WOW.. Water was the drink of choice.:) We stole your idea for the crackers with the creme cheese and raspberry topping. Everyone loved them.

People came around 6:30 and the last of them left around 10pm.....are we starving for these socials or what??? We played the game you recommended asking the couples to write down some of their "interesting" experiences. It was so much fun and I honestly thought I was going to die laughing. One couples first date the guy told the girl "Oh you are going to make a wonderful mother"... We found out that one couple went camping in Hawaii for their honeymoon and in Maui after it got dark. The place was infested with cockroaches....another couple only dated 10 days and got married. It was just a scream.

We picked our guest list pretty much around people we don't know very well, except of course our kids and the Greaves. We had a mixture of ages from 60's down to late 20's. I think that alone was really interesting. [the one draw back is one couple thinks we should do this every month and invite them....I guess that wouldn't be at all bad....but I like to mix it up]

Pam's Ideas for future parties:
I have been mulling over a couple of ideas for the next party. First of all, our daughter is having major surgery some time in Feb so we want to work around that. I thought about doing an indoor BBQ making beef brisket and making the BBQ sauce..and the rolls..then having others bring fruit, salads etc. I can do the beef the day before and shred it and heat it back up in a crock pot. I might follow your lead on the Valentines party. Hadn't thought of that one....so keep me posted. I want to do the mystery party in April.

Pam wants you to know:
Be sure and mention on your blog the inspiration you are to me. Maggie I feel like we are kindred spirits.....thank you so much. I really mean it.

Taco Soup from the December Soup Social

I requested this yummy soup from Anita Cranney. She and her husband brought this delicious soup to our dinner.

1 lb. ground turkey or beef
1 large onion, chopped

Brown above ingredients together then add:

28 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 cans kidney beans, drained
1 can chili beans NOT drained
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 pkg. frozen corn (10 oz)

Heat through and serve over Fritos. Top with sour cream, cheese, lettuce, olives (sliced) and salsa if desired.

A fun night of Soup and Socializing

After dinner conversations

Hosts: The Goebel's

The Jorgensen's

The Malone's
The Cheney's

The Robison's

The 'other' Goebel's

The Cranney's

The Allen's

It was such an enjoyable evening with new and old friends. We were rushing around till about 6:50 trying to get all the last minute details taken care of ... like water on the table, tableware and all the food out of the oven. Everyone helped bring part of the meal. Here is the menu:

Green Salad

French Bread

Crackers with cream cheese and Raspberry Chipotle jelly

Taco Soup

Minestrone

Potato Ham Soup

Cheesecake

Divinity

Chocolate Cake

We played the old standby... a favorite of all the groups. I gave each couple a slip of paper to write down something that they had done together as a couple. I will only share a few of them... although they were all really great!

• One couple went sky diving on a Fourth of July
• Another couple have lived in 42 homes during their married life
• One wife made reservations for their first honeymoon night while on their way to that hotel following the wedding ceremony
• One couple parasailed over Lake Tahoe
• and one couple kissed in an international airport while onlookers applauded and cheered.

And the others were interesting and funny too....

I know that I need to get a copy of Anita's taco soup. I'll get that posted as soon as she shares it with me.

After the dinner when our kids were back home and in bed, Jeff and I just sat worn out in our recliners and reviewed the evening. We both feel that these parties are some of the best things that we have ever done. We love that preconceived ideas of how certain couples are are either proved right or wrong... but it's always good! We found that some couples who we knew were wonderful really are!!! And others that we had only shared passing comments with at church (or none at all) were very kind and funny! I wish so bad that we could get these new friends back to our home soon! We have a few more months to get the rest of our church friends over... but once we have had everyone over then we plan to repeat and do it again!

Soup Social Details

The Malones helping get salad onto the table



Raspberry Chipotle crackers on those $1.00 silver trays from Dollar Store

It's finally time to eat!

Invitations- I had on hand some 'cooking ' themed 12x12 scrapbook paper. So I used that paper, some kitchen style ribbon and a die cut of silverware to make the invite. See invite instructions for measurements. I mailed some and hand delivered those who lived closest. I received phone RSVP's from most, a few 'in person' RSVP's and I personally called the 3 who didn't respond and all said they were coming.
Food- When I made the invitations I put "Please bring a green salad for 8", "Please bring a pot of soup" or "Please bring a dessert to share" on each of the invitations. As I invited people I asked the female guest which part of the meal she would prefer to bring. We ended up with an ideal amount of food. For our 8 total couples we had 3 large pots of soup, 2 green salads, 3 desserts, and hor d'ourves and french bread. I was a little worried about having enough, but it seems that most everyone had seconds of soup and those who brought the soup all took home about 1/3 of a pot. This theme required that those bringing the soups specify which kind of soup they would be bringing. Many of the soups are similiar in appearance, texture, taste and ingredients like Pasta Fagioli and Minestrone. It's always good to have a good creamy potato soup, and then a brothy chicken noodle soup, a spicy Taco Soup or Tortilla soup, and a soup like Fagioli or Minestrone. You should have at least one non-meat soup and the soups with meat in them should have different kinds of meat... ground beef, chicken breast, pork sausage....
Decor- Something that I learned too late was... YOU NEED TO DECIDE ON A TOTAL THEME BEFORE YOU MAKE INVITATIONS. I did not do this. I made cute homey cozy invites with the paper having the names of cooking herbs and spices on it and the inside resembling a recipe card. Then when the time came to get some decor for the tables I collected about 8 gorgeous red satin tablecloths from my mother. I originally got them thinking ahead to January's Chinese New Year party... but then I realized that they would be perfect for a Christmas party. So.. I changed it to a holiday soup social. We had our Christmas tree very simple. It is a prelit tree so it was lit up with no other decorations. Just lights. We had a simple garland on our stair railing. I had 3 crystal taper candle holders and candles. I also had three 6ft garlands for the tables. It was simple and pretty. The only thing I would do next time would be to remember and play some pretty Christmas background music, get out the crystal punch bowl for drinks, and do some more decor like our nativity set and a wreath on the front door.

Tableware- We got some really elegant paper napkins, disposable plastic plates and silver looking plasticware at Costco (can elegant and disposable be used in the same sentence.) I used those clear plastic tumblers for cups... those wedding reception punch glasses. My biggest score was the silver trays, and clear plastic trays for hor d'ourves at the dollar store. I don't throw things away so I washed everything up after the party.... except the napkins.... and will use them at our next nice party.
Darryl fills water glasses for me!

Game- As always we did the game where each couple comes up with something that no one in the room knows about them. Something about them as a couple or what they did as a couple. This is a game that has always been a great ice breaker and usually quite entertaining.

Soup Social Invitation

front of invite

Inside invite

To make these invites I cut some patterned 12x12 paper into 4x6 rectangles. So I got 6 per page. I took green 8 1/2 x 11 sized cardstock and cut each page into a 6 1/2 x 9 inches. I scored the green cut cardstock in half. Then I centered the patterned paper onto the front and glued. I then cut ribbon to fit from corner to top and using Quick Cutz I put die cut silver spoon and fork and attached all with brads. Inside I attached 4x6 invites made from coordinating paper and run through the printer. See photos.