Soup Club Justy’s “BS” Week

The sacrifice we make for this prestigious Soup Club! Last week I was out of town with a broken truck “being looked at” on Monday (Soup Club is Tuesdays). By some miracle, they fixed it and I made the 3-hour trek back for soup. This week? Same story, different excuse. I was out of town Monday for school work, couldn’t drive back Sunday, so another late-night return just to make Tuesday Soup Club. I wouldn’t miss it for anything—but let’s be honest, it’s always soup’r special when it’s Andy’s week. The dude lives to serve soup. Who could forget that “Celebrity Celery”? Yum!

All morning the rumors were flying as we all waited—Pizza Soup? Potato “Leak”? (“the waiting is the hardest part…”, right Tom?). But not much snooping today—too many people actually doing their jobs. Even Kevin, who’s notorious for sneaking a half cup at 11:55am, didn’t show up to the breakroom until after noon.

So what did Andy bring? A Justy soup. He’d been on a nice run proudly making his own soups, but apparently this week the ladle got benched. Why? Word is Andy was too busy binge-watching “Unknown Number” on Netflix. Props for honesty dude, but soup waits for no streaming service. Luckily, Justy knows her soups. The catch? She’s a blender. She even has an acronym for it: “BS” = Blended Soup (yep, I added it to the homepage).

This one was called “Fall Cruciferous Veggie.” Health-conscious, veggie-packed—right up Justy’s alley. Pros: lots of super healthy veggies. Cons: the white stuff. Greek yogurt + soup? Missed my chance to grab some before Andy added it. Also, maybe a pinch of salt wouldn’t hurt.

Still, we had a great meeting and, as usual with our soup club, an excellent BS session (the other kind). Kevin and I were on the same page, each scoring it 5.5 after we added salt and hot sauce, of course. Tam limped in with a 7.0. Conlan started at 7.0, then jumped to 8.0 after another taste. Andy, since he wasn’t technically the chef had a vote, scored it 8.0. Average = 6.8. Not our highest, but hey, only one 22-oz bowl for me this time (last week was 3.5 bowls and I was miserable).

Next week is supposed to be my week! But I had to call an audible. Barry (yes, the Barry who bowed out of Soup Club and insists jambalaya = soup), Ashley, and I are starting a 5-day water fast. Soup is off the program. Sounds wacky, but I’ve done it before and I’m totally looking forward to it. In the meantime, I will be formulating the October 14th gameplan…Soup Club never sleeps, even when the host is sipping water.