winner winner soup dinner

 The Trader Joes store that I frequent had a Souper Bowl contest where you had to pick one of their boxed soups (they gave you the choice of Latin Black Bean, Butternut Squash, or Red Pepper and Tomato) and submit ideas for "jazzing it up". I submitted a few ideas for each one. Guess who won?! Yours truly.

They had me come into the store today to have my photo taken with the employee who's going to be demoing my soup "recipe" the weekend after next. 

They also presented me with a big bag of groceries!

There were nine different soups, a french baguette, oyster crackers, croutons, and a big bouquet of purple and yellow tulips. I was so touched and grateful.

The tulips are beautiful and so spring-like ~ as the winds howl outside and the temps dip down to -20 tonight with the wind chill factor.

So, which one of my ideas won? A simple one: adding their soy chorizo to the Latin Black Bean soup and topping with a swirl of sour cream. After talking to the staff today, I learned that they indeed were looking for simple, not complicated or lengthy. They said most of their customers want exactly that. This soup recipe will also be easy for them to whip up at the demo station. One of the employees who's a chef, told me that another person who had entered the contest actually added 15 items to one of the soups! He said that would defeat the whole purpose of their soups; that you wouldn't even be able to taste the soup if you added 15 other ingredients. They obviously weren't looking for transformation - just some embellishment. 

Happy weekend, everyone. Stay warm and eat some soup!