On Saturday, I hosted one of the most fun get-togethers I’ve had in a while – a soup swap party. It was like a cookie swap, but more appropriate for January weather. Everyone brought 4 1-quart containers of soup for swapping and then some extra to sample.

As everyone arrived, I noted their soup on a chalkboard right outside the kitchen for everyone to see.

To go along with the soup, I set up a DIY grilled cheese bar for lunch. It was super easy and super fun.

Since things were super causal, I just laid out ingredients on a disposable table cloth and made quick notes to explain the flow of things and label ingredient choices.

1) Grab some bread – I had out wheat and white.

2) Add some cheese – there was a choice of American, Jalapeno Cheddar and Swiss.

3) Top it off – personalize your sandwich with regular mayonnaise, garlic mayonnaise, sriracha mayonnaise, ketchup, tomato slices, roasted red peppers, pickles, caramelized onions, pear slices, bacon and ham.

4) Heat it up – I had out two panini grills for toasting the creations.

And 5) Grab some soup. We heated up some of everyone’s soup and divided them into shot glasses. Add mini spoons and they were perfect for sampling!

After we’d eaten, we voted on soup awards and the winners took home mini bags of chocolates as recognition.

For favors, I found microwavable soup mugs at my favorite dollar store. I added mini loaves of homemade bread too, since they seemed like the perfect soup accompaniment.

For the kids that came, I filled their soup mugs with baby Goldfish crackers and picked out some fun coloring books.

At the end, we divided up the soup so everyone left with 4 quarts of soup.

It was such a fun way to spend a snowy afternoon – I’m already looking forward to next year’s soup swap!