Welcome to My Community’s Autumn Soup Supper

Warm your belly with autumn soup and your soul with good company. It’s okay if you didn’t bring a dish to pass–we have enough here to feed any and all visitors. But before you dig in, let me tell you about this here community.
We’re a cooperative group of bloggers.
Oh, there are people out there in cyberspace who blog competitively, but they wouldn’t fit in here at my place. I like it when we ALL triumph. That’s why I’m offering an opportunity for my blogger-friends to improve their search ratings and reach out to new readers–DO put a link to your blog on this page. To read the guidelines Click here.
Maybe you’re wondering whether my blogosphere can accurately be called a community.
My Consise Oxford English Dictionary says the first definition for community is “a group of people living together in one place.” But we’re spread out all over the planet.
Then there’s the more abstract definition, “a group of people having a religion, race, profession, or other characteristic in common.” But this definitely does NOT define my blogging connections–as a group, we are NOT easily characterizable. While you might say that because “we all blog,” we have a common characteristic,  these days, that’s like saying “we all talk.”
So, I’m going to assert that we do share a place--our beautiful planet earth. Cyber-technology is changing my conception of “space” and “neighborhood.”
I routinely revisit the same blogs where I feel as if I’m dropping in at an open house for a meet and greet, a wine-tasting, a soiree, or a coffee-clatch. I reconnect and make new connections. We share recipes, food/wine/travel experiences, frustrations, inspiration, and jokes. We even share stories about and pictures of our families.
Perhaps the coolest thing about blogging parties is, they’re always going on whenever I have the time and inclination to go out, and no one minds–or even notices–if I show up with my hair mussed, wearing my jammies.
So let me introduce you to five of the other guests who arrived early and helped me set up. You’ll definitely want to sample the soups they brought to our gathering (click on the soup names for recipes):

• Sheryl brought a delicious old-fashioned celery chowder.  It’s a milky, homestyle kind of soup, just right for those of us who like to congregate at Sheryl’s blog, A Hundred Years Ago. We consider a slower-paced time as she daily posts her grandmother’s diary, written from 1911-1914 when her grandmother Helena was 15-19. History and geneology buffs, lovers of nostalgia, and people with farming roots or farming ancestors will want to show up at her gatherings.

• Peri is sharing an intriguing Kadhi-Yogurt Soup for those of us hooked on the delicious cuisine of India (warning: if you try this soup, you’ll likely become addicted to Peri’s food style). Peri’s Spice Ladle blog is where we who are devoted to healthy, flavorful eating gather to be inspired by her magical cuisine-wand. A native of Mumbai, India, now living in Texas, she adds inspired flavor to our everyday favorites and tweaks Indian classics to make them more accessible to home cooks world-wide.

• Dwight has brought this exquisite white bean and garlic soup from his blog Edible Arts, for us who love the guileless goodness of a simple preparation. Dwight is a certified wine specialist and a professor of philosophy at San Diego Mesa College. He blogs eloquently and thoughtfully about food and wine with professorial meanderings into ethics, political philosophy and aesthetics. We go there to become more conscious about why we’re in the kitchen and what we’re doing as home cooks, as well as to be inspired by the natural goodness and beauty of food and drink.

• Francesca from Flora’s Table has created this meltingly tasty Pumpkin soup. A native of Italy living with her photographer & wine-expert husband, Stefano Crosio, in New York, her blog is where home cooks devoted to fresh, wholesome ingredients and simple preparations find inspiration to create little kitchen masterpieces, always delicious and often with authentic Italian flare (and featuring Stefano’s beautiful photography).

• And Oliver is my German friend and my favorite Riesling-Fanatic, also known as the-Winegetter, He brought us this amazing Korean Radish Soup (with beef). We wine-lovers head over to Oliver’s place to chat and compare tasting notes (often about his beloved Rieslings) and to vicariously enjoy the frequent globe-trotting jaunts he takes with his lovely wife, Nina.

Now, you all enjoy the party–taste and mingle. Introduce yourselves to each other while I go get the beverages and glasses.
In the comments, please link to your blog and give a short description of what goes on at your place. If you’re excessively shy, just tell us your blog name, where you blog from (be as specific or general as you want) and link to your home page.
I’ll be looking for all of you at future parties hosted by the fantastic members of my blogging community.
Because I can’t think of a better word for our coming-together than community. Can you?