Saturday Soup Supper

Several years ago, we started our Saturday Soup Supper event.  It came about because, like is the case with so many families, Jack and Ansley had other places to go on Thanksgiving Day.  After a couple years of trying to juggle schedules so we would have the opportunity to spend a little time with them during the holiday weekend, I finally settled on the soup supper idea.  It has actually worked out fairly well.

In Tennessee, it is usually cool in late November--a great time for soup.  After all the turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, green beans and mounds of desserts, a simple bowl of soup sounded pretty good on a cool fall day.  After all the hours in the kitchen preparing turkey dinner for all the relatives, a simple pot of soup sounded pretty good.  Thus, Saturday soup supper was born.

It has always been an small, intimate group--Gene and I, my parents, Jack and Ansley.  I originally thought about inviting a few other relatives and friends that we would like to see during the holiday, but a large group can quickly become impossible to manage in an RV.  So it has been just the 6 of us each year.  This year, however, my mother didn’t fill up to getting out just yet.  Kayley, although she didn’t help us eat soup, made five for this year.

I have tried to have a variety of soups each year.  Everybody loves beef stew so it is on the menu every year.  This year, however, I left it off since our group was going to be so small.  I always have some type of chicken soup.  This year it is chicken with wild rice.  This was  new recipe and it was yummy.  As a third choice, I have had split pea, smoked sausage stew, Italian sausage and noodle, and cheesy vegetable chowder.  The cheesy vegetable chowder has always been very popular so we had that as a second choice this year.  A variety of rolls and dessert round out our meal.  This year’s dessert was buttermilk custard pie.

Since the soups were in the crock pots, there really wasn’t much to do in the kitchen.  We had a wonderful, relaxing afternoon together.  Kayley slept through the entire thing.

After I post this, we’ll take the leftover soups to mother’s for their dinner.  That way they don’t have to miss out completely.