COEUR d'ALENE - Brush aside the bells and whistles, look past the costumes and signs, and it all comes down to a recipe.

No trick plays or gimmicks.

Spices, vegetables, meats, poultry, fish: Any ingredient goes, it's what you can do with them.

So if creativity is key for the cooks who participated in the third annual Souport The End of Homelessness - a soup tasting competition to benefit St. Vincent de Paul - then hand it to Barbara Bennett, who entered her chicken noodle soup.

You have to have confidence in your homemade recipe because everyone's had chicken noodle before, right?

"Not like this. Not like this at all," said Bennett, who described the recipe she has been making for 35 years as "like grandma's," and one she entered because she had that much confidence in her pot. "You ever taste the other chicken noodle? That's what made me do it."

Around 780 people attended the benefit at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds, about 30 more than last year, to sample the variety. The goal was to taste each of the 31 soups, then cast a vote at the end for the most delicious. But 31 samples, at an ounce apiece, is 2 pounds of soup.

"The problem is you get full before you're done," said Kacey Wall, an attorney who brings her co-workers to the event each year. This year, though, she only sampled a tiny taste of the 1 ounce sample to leave room for the rest.

"Just a little of each one," she said, leaning toward the - you guessed it - chicken noodle early on.

Everything, from chilled pumpkin to mushroom hamburger, was on hand. A nice changeup from the workweek lunchtime routine for Matt Hague and Dusty Harris. They went for the soups, of course, but also to support the cause. St. Vincent de Paul is the largest homeless provider in the five northern counties of Idaho.

"I never knew there were so many soups," Hague said. "It's chicken noodle or tomato."

Not so.

One of Harris' favorites, after half the room had been sampled, was the spicier one that tasted "like the sweet hot wings at Capone's."

Still, it was a competition. Courtyard Regency Pacific took first, followed by Coldwell Banker in second place and Panhandle Kiwanis for bronze. Best Decorated went to Northern Lakes Fire District, which dressed every bit the part.

As did the Yogatinis, a yoga group out of Carlin Bay, which entered Mexican corn chowder while wearing those T-shirts that look like you're wearing a bikini.

"We had to outdo them," Leslie Covey said of their costumes, aimed at the firefighters, who they knew would dress up.

The event was part of a week's worth of activities in recognition of Homeless Awareness Month. Tonight, proceeds from Triple Play sales will go toward SVDP. The nonprofit partnered with 19 agencies and offered 82 different services through 24 programs last year for homeless or near homeless people.

SVDP Executive Director Jeff Conroy estimates there are 800 homeless in the area, and the turnout this week, including Thursday, has showed him that people are willing to respond to the need.

"It's been an amazing week. I love this community," Conroy, director for five years, said. "This community never ceases to amaze me."