Josephine's Sophomore Soup: Peel the Damn Onion!
Jeff
9/15/20263 min read
It's been a couple weeks since our last Soup Club meeting, and first things first, a Nathan update...He's fine and dandy! Well, at least from the avocado oil Adam snuck into the last soup.
We did have a few personnel issues today, as has apparently become our norm…Tam is spending the week on a boat on Lake Michigan. Hopefully she and Ed made some soup for today because the marine forecast was calling for 10 to 20 footers. Yeah, it was probably loaded with cheese. You thought it. I just typed it.
Marketing Mike had a meeting run over and unfortunately doesn't own a teleporter. Andy is still "on break." However, Andy was recently raving about how much produce he has growing in his garden. Hopefully that's a sign that break time is almost over. We miss you, man!
Today's meeting was all about Josephine's sophomore soup. I woke up this morning with the usual little extra pep in my step. When Adam arrived at the office at 6:30am, we were both already hungry for some good soup!
Then I saw Josephine had emailed me a sneak peek of the recipe so I could make the recipe card. Tomato! Ugh! Blended tomato! Double ugh! Pep in step...gone.
Josephine actually prepared a soup that her mother has been making for years, something inspired by the Barefoot Contessa. Sounds fancy. Sounds good. But it's tomato soup! Blah!
I do appreciate a good effort, though, and I really appreciate a thoughtful process. That's exactly what Josephine brought today. For the most part, there was excellent attention to detail, right down to bringing 248 ounces of soup. Remember, people, the Soup Club minimum is 240 ounces. Well done!
Josephine did show up nearly 10 minutes late, somehow blamed Kevin, and Kevin actually accepted the blame. Ahhh...we have a countdown timer on the website for a reason!
Anyway, tomato soup or not, it was time to eat.
Soup Club Feedback:
Kevin: Apparently Kevin despises tomato soup even more than I do! He was, however, impressed with today's offering and gave it an 8.2 without hot sauce and an 8.9 with hot sauce. He even said he's going to make it at home. That's a pretty strong endorsement from a fellow tomato-soup hater.
Conlan: Now Kevin has everybody giving two scores. Conlan went 8.5 without accoutrements and 9.0 with. His biggest complaint? Needed more croutons!
Nathan: Said he was going to keep it simple and didn't want to be videoed. 9.9. Then he continued talking about something, but I wasn't listening because I was too busy trying to figure out how the last soup, which resulted in him eating two scoops before a hospital visit, got a 10.0...and this one got a 9.9. Nathan's scoring system remains under investigation.
Adam: Really liked it and said he'd make it for his family, then slapped down a high 9.5. He followed that by saying the score would've been even higher if he hadn't gotten pieces of onion peel. Wait..."Josephine, did you peel the onion?" Josephine: "No." Huh?
Jeff: I gave this soup an 8.0, which frankly surprised me. I would've liked some chunks. Something. Anything. More croutons? Perhaps a noodle Bottomer™? Maybe some cold peas as a Topper™? A slice of sourdough for dipping? Something! I also would've liked to see the 1½ cups of olive oil slimmed way down or eliminated. Oh, and the unpeeled onion? WTF!
Soup Club Average: 9.06
That's a really good score! And I actually think with a few changes, this could've had a legitimate shot at becoming our first soup to pull straight 10.0s. Not bad for blended tomato soup.
Campbell's Crew™:
Felton: Added plenty of hot sauce and slapped it with a 9.0, citing the lack of meat as his biggest issue. When asked what meat he would've wanted in it, however, he couldn't actually decide. So apparently it needed meat. Just...some kind of meat.
Hunter: Simple man...blah, blah, blah...10.0...blah, blah..."best soup I've ever had"...blah, blah.
Campbell's Crew™ Average: 9.5
I'll take this as another really good Soup Club meeting with a very tasty soup!
Next week will be Nathan. Or Conlan. Or Nathan's partner. Or Conlan's partner? Honestly, I have no idea who's actually making the soup. What I do know is Nathan will be bringing some soup into the building, we'll all pretend he made it, we'll feast, and then we'll score it.
Nathan, just make sure you tell whoever is actually cooking: No avocado. No strawberries. Please.
