Wine Club Soup Bar

It was our turn to host our wine group and since it was the last day of October (Halloween), we opted for a very fallish menu and made up a soup bar.  We asked others to bring the appetizer, salad, and dessert along with their bottle of wine so we ended up with this menu:

Red Assaritas as an aperitif

Appetizers

Salad with wine of choice

Soups with wine of choice

Homemade Limoncello as after dinner drink (digestif)

Dessert 

We served four very different soups from our serving area - the triple slow cooker comes in very handy.

Sausage Bean Chowder using the following recipe and served with Mexican cornbread mini-muffins.

3 lb. Bulk sausage browned and drained

4 ea 1 lb. Cans kidney beans

2 ea 28 oz. Cans of diced tomatoes

4 cups water

3 med bay leaves

¾ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon pepper

½ -teaspoon ground thyme (or 1 ½ tsp dried leaf)

2 medium onions chopped

Cover and cook for 1 to 1-1/2 hours on simmer

Taste and correct seasoning if necessary.

Add the following:

2-1/2 cups diced potatoes

1 green pepper diced

Cook another 30 minutes or until potatoes are cooked.

Hot And Sour Soup using a double of Tricia’s recipe from Saving Room For Dessert -  check her site for the recipe and photos that will inspire you to cook this soup.

French Onion Soup using the recipe from Cook’s Illustrated and served with a Swiss cheese covered crouton heated under the broiler

Clam Chowder using three-time World Champion Tonys Clam Chowder from a can – I don’t believe I can make any better – served with oyster crackers.

Tony's has a restaurant in Cedar Key, FL and it is available canned from Publix - almost as good as the restaurant.  

I believe everyone enjoyed the soup bar concept and the food brought by others was all very good.  While not everyone liked every soup, someone liked each of them and I think the onion may have been the biggest hit (not counting Dave).

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

10/22/17 Meal Date