soup, glorious soup!

(You have to SING it, in the style of that commercial about cheese or the song from "Oliver Twist".)

Oh, what a fabulous night last night!
This is my breakfast today: a bowl of Margaret's 3rd Place entry, Tuscan White Bean Soup, with a grilled cheese sandwich (my first in many years!).
How did I come to have such good soup at hand?
I'll tell you: Dawn's annual Soup Party!

There she is!
The hostess with the mostest!
She's regaling us
with the answers
to the 10-question
trivia game we played.
Amazingly, she had chosen to use the same questions from last year's party (which I had missed).

More amazingly, I managed to get
nine correct answers, beating out those who were taking the quiz for the second year in a row!
Seriously, I was not trying to do so.
I am notoriously bad at trivia.
But I won, fair and square!
My prize?
As well as learning about international soups I had never heard of, I won these five soups!
What a great prize!
I practically live on soup at this time of year.

Those welcome canned goods weren't the only prizes I garnered, either.
Oh, no, not by a long shot!
I did mention she was the hostess with the mostest, did I not?
She doled out raffle tickets before the meal, making sure everyone had two.
(Mine were *639 and *642, jsyk.)
I ended up with this handy egg slicer (in the pretty purple-striped bag) on one ticket and two more cans of soup on the other!

This orange bag was slap-dap full of goodies as my 4th Place prize!
Yep, I was one of the four lucky chef-testants!
(smile!)
I chose to make my version of Mother Pat's Easter Soup.
(It's one of my favorites and I usually prepare it when the ex is in town.)
What a pleasure to be able to share it with new people!
Sure, sure, I can tell you've done the math.
My soup came in last.
Big whoop. Somebody's had to!
I have no problem that mine was last.
Everybody ate all in their sample bowls and Margaret even took some home for her Polish husband!
Success!!!

What's this last bunch of goodies all about?
Dawn gave these to all as parting gifts for attending the party.
For real!
No one ever leaves her parties empty-handed.
Seriously!
I am so happy that she invited me!!!
I even met some new fabulous folks: Jennifer of Summerville, SC, and her mom, Faye; Allison, who should be having a baby soon; Kay, Angie's friend; Cara, Dawn's New Jersey niece; and, of course, Margaret!
SO... MUCH... FUN!