Every week, your challenge is to create an eye-opening dish within our capricious themes and parameters. Blog your submission on Open Salon by Monday 10 a.m. EST -- with photos and your story behind the dish -- and we'll republish the winners on Salon on Tuesday. (It takes only 30 seconds to start a blog.) Please note that by participating, you're giving Salon permission to re-post your entry if it's chosen as a winner, and acknowledging that all words and images in your post are your own, unless explicitly stated. And yes, mashed potato sculpture counts as a dish. Emphatically.

This week, we asked for your best hot soups.

THIS WEEK'S WINNER:

Ever-evolving minestrone, by Felisa Rogers: Some things we make from memory, the same way time after time, and some things seem to want to make themselves, a little differently from one day to the next. These living recipes are repositories of memory, and yet they can change in their particulars without losing the magic of their stories. Felisa's minestrone reunites her with her godmother, who's passed on ... but her recipe, featuring unusual touches like cooking the vegetables in two stages and a garnish of mozzarella cheese, is here for you to make your own connections with.

THIS WEEK'S ALTERNATE WINNERS:

Spicy Florida clam chowder by Felicia Lee: It might seem tough, food-wise, to move from L.A. to a city whose greatest culinary contribution is Gatorade, but Felicia finds hot comfort, at least, in a little-known St. Augustine specialty of Minorcan clam chowder, featuring the delicious and fiery datil pepper.