ventage tuesdays : no soup for you!

First, a quick explanation for Cindy and anyone else wondering what "ventage tuesdays" is all about. Angie, Barb, Steph, Em, and I started calling ourselves the Ventage Girls b/c 1) our lengthy daily email threads often involve venting (and sometimes ranting & raving) and 2) to make ourselves seem more sophisticated, we decided to rhyme ventage with fromage (very sophisticated, right? if that doesn't work for you, just note that we all love cheese). We decided to have a weekly shared question/blog topic to help us all stay on track with blogging – and to share how alike & different the five of us are. 

Okay, so today's topic – soup! Timely post b/c I just threw myself a little birthday shindig and declared it a soup night. I made 3 kinds of soup, and served them with several cheeses, sourdough bread, and lots of wine. Yum….

1. Cheesy Vegetable Chowder – I've made this one twice in the past few weeks. Really easy, and so good. I sub vegetable broth, so mine isn't quite as pretty (veggie broth tends to be much darker than chicken broth). 

2. Roasted Cauliflower & Aged White Cheddar – I've made it once with milk, and once with cream – and I prefered the milk version. 

3. Creamy Slow Cooker Spinach & Tortellini Soup – I like the sound of this soup, but I'd have to make some adjustments. What the heck is white sauce mix? White sauce is soooo simple to make – why would you need a mix?? I also think that I'd swap the consdensed milk for cream. Something about condensed milk in soup just grosses me out. 

4. Broccoli Edamame Soup – delish….and high in protein!

5. The BEST Clam Chowder EVER – not a recipe. Just click on the order button, justify the shipping by realizing that it will STILL be cheaper than going out, and then anxiously await for the the Fedex delivery. The first time that I ordered Splash chowder to be delivered across the country, I took a pic and texted it to a friend who went to school in SLO. He texted back "oh…I just got a tear in my eye." It's that good.

Check out the links above to see what the other Ventage Girls are slurping. :)