a snowy soup tromp

Sunday December 21st was one of the snowiest days of this winter, and actually, one of the snowiest days I've ever seen in my whole life. There was already several inches on the ground and it kept coming down in huge beautiful flakes.

The fact that Seattle all but shuts down with so much snow is pretty great. I put my soup ingredients in the truck, put it in 4 wheel drive low, and had a ton of fun plowing down the middle of the street with not a soul on the road at 8 am on Sunday morning.

CWB was pure magic entirely covered in fresh snow and I was happy to be there early enough to just have tea and enjoy a peaceful (but very cold) spot in the Boathouse. I made the lentil just according to the recipe, only quadrupled it. It was very delicious. Soon Brian M. came along too with a giant iron kettle of potato soup - only he had ridden his bike with bike trailer through the snow - and gotten reprimanded by a police megaphone for being on the streets.

We heated up his soup, drank more tea, and devised a plan for hauling the 26 containers of soup to downtown. Brian had also brought a cooler and a huge old sleeping bag to wrap the soup in. I used a cooler with a blanket in the same fashion, we both tied rope to the handles, loaded up soup, bread and spoons, and off we went. My cooler tipped twice on the way out.

Trudging through the snow was fun, but slow. With the trolley car out of commission and unreliable bus service, we loaded the coolers into the truck and drove downtown, so at least the soup would still be hot when we gave it out. From Pike Place Market we set out on foot, coolers sliding along nicely behind and quickly found plenty of people who were happy to be offered the soup. It was especially nice to offer them the choice of potato or lentil.

We ended the afternoon in front of a shelter where reportedly there is normally someone who comes by with food and didn't show up due to snow. They were happy to see us and our soup.

It was a good day. Thank you everyone who helped out, and especially Brian. You are awesome.

shelly