DAN'S PAPERS, April 3, 2009 Page 30 www.danshamptons.com
The Annual Soup Luncheon By The Cutchogue Homemakers By Phyliss Lombardi I looked all over the place but not a sign of the guy. Not seated at any of the tables set up in the middle of the room. Not poking around in the kitchen, overseeing the pots of soup, the salads, the desserts. Not anywhere. Now you just can’t hide a big man like Al Gore. Why wasn’t he here at the annual soup luncheon put on by Cutchogue Homemakers at Cutchogue United Methodist Church? Members of Homemakers prepare the various soups at home, bring ’em to the church hall and heat them up in the church kitchen. Then they sample soup after soup, after soup. Mmm, mmm, good. Obviously Al Gore should have been there. So much heat emanated from the huge pots in the soupy kitchen that global warming might well be verified. But since Al was a no-show, not one single soupy guest gave a thought to our planet’s temperatures. Instead, heartwarming was the degree of the day. Let’s set the soup table. It was a long one, running almost the length of the church hall. On it
were pots of all kinds. Stainless steel, ceramic, some quite colorful – bright orange, pale green, gold. Each pot had a “name card” in front of it. And sev-
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eral soup-makers were generous enough to provide copies of their recipes. Those name cards were important. After all, if you have a choice of three pea soups, you need to know which one has bits of ham in it, pieces of frankfurter, or barley. I chose the pea with barley. That was a combination I’d never had. Pretty good. Then to the chunky chicken soup. This was from Irene Schmidt’s North Fork kitchen. Chunky indeed. Irene’s no skinflint when it comes to a hearty soup. I’ve never eaten in Irene’s kitchen but I hope she invites me. I believe you can judge a cook by her chicken. Yes, I did have some of the minestrone with pesto and meatballs, a group favorite. As was the potato chowder. Now potato anything should be a North Fork specialty. And this soup was certainly special. Helped along by bacon, leek, celery, and chicken broth. Delicious. The recipe seemed easy enough to follow until I go to one of those sophisticated cooking words. Roux. I think that means a kind of pasty mixture. How can something so awful-sounding taste so good? There are other food words like that, too. Sauerkraut, for example. That’s one ugly word. But back to the soup. For the health-conscious folk, there was good old vegetable-beef soup. And clam chowder. These two were especially popular with one cluster of soup-spooners. The guys. Perhaps I neglected to mention that Cutchogue Homemakers is a women’s group whose members meet each Tuesday for everything from book discussions to craft classes to soup. This soupTuesday, guys (husbands, I suppose) were invited and a good number of them showed up. But you know what? They all sat together. Reminded me of a high school cafeteria where all the male types ate in a group. Oh well, they seemed happy. Indeed, they were. On line first at that long soup table, they also helped themselves to salads and breads – in great quantities. I wandered over to their tables and just kind of lingered and listened. Their conversation was as you might imagine. They shared service experiences (almost as many navy guys as army) and they talked baseball. And while A-Rod was mentioned, it was the soup-guy who saw Lou Gehrig play who got the most attention. Yep, North Forkers like Jack Hearn and Jack Hoffman, Bob Foos and Stan Rubenstein had a darned good time. They and their pals finished their soups and headed for the dessert table. Can’t say I blamed them. Puddings and cakes, coffee and tea. A fine way to end the lunch. I know I took home some recipes and I suppose the guys did, too. Only difference is, most of them will expect some female to cook the soup. Well, with Al Gore or not, soup day was a heatrousing success. Recipes were exchanged, talk turned to spring gardens, and everyone went home feeling delicious. Delighted, too, that the event would roll around again next year. You can join them if you’d like. Just pick up a pound or two of soup bones and start simmering.