It's that time of year. Time for chowders like the one I made last week, and soups like the one I made last night — curried cream of butternut squash soup.

There's something really comforting about this soup, especially on a cold day.

It's even comforting to make it — with or without a manhattan on hand. I did happen to have one on hand when I was making it last night. It was after five. Hello.

My recipe came from the Silver Palate Cookbook back in the early 80s. If you were cool, or thought you were, and loved good food, chances are you had a copy. It came out in 1982 and it was, for me anyway, a revelation. I had always loved good food, and cooking. The Silver Palate offered “gourmet” recipes, many of which contained elements I'd either never heard of, or just never used.

The other good thing about that cookbook, other than it bringing admiring glances whenever you dropped the name in relation to something you'd cooked recently, was that most of the recipes were pretty easy. Easy, but impressive. (I'm imagining Margaret McLellan rolling her eyes as she's reading this.)

Anyway where was I?

Oh yeah! Curried cream of butternut squash soup. YUM-my!

I've made it so many times over the years I don't use the recipe anymore, and chances are I have made some changes over the years, but I'm pretty sure the pot I made last night was very similar to the original recipe. If you don't like curry you can make this soup without the curry powder. Either way it's comforting, yummy and healthy!

I love curry. Curry powder is actually a blend of a few spices: mainly cumin, coriander, cardamom, and tumeric. There's something about that flavor that I find irresistible. It's mainly used in Indian cooking. I have a recipe for chicken curry that I got from a dear friend at Sugarloaf back in the 80s. Milu Webber and her husband Al owned the Blue Ox Inn. I worked there as a chambermaid and Milu and I became fast friends. Milu was a sprightly little fireball. At around 5'2" she ran that place like a tyrant. Those beds all had military-style corners and I'm pretty sure you could've bounced a dime off the bottom sheet.

Anyway, when Milu wasn't barking out orders to her chambermaids in her Czechoslovakian accent she could usually be found in her immaculate kitchen.

She was a gourmet cook. She made pie crusts using five layers of paper thin rolled out dough with butter spread between each layer. Talk about flaky pie crust.

And her chicken curry was heavenly. I've made it many times over the years. I'll share that recipe with you in a couple weeks. Unfortunately it never tastes quite as good as hers, partly because the curry powder she used always came from Quincy Market. It was mixed up fresh by someone in Boston. Milu died way too young from cancer, along with too many other friends.

OK. Curried cream of butternut squash soup. Ready? Throw a good-sized chunk of butter into a big pot. Chop up some sweet onion and garlic and cook slowly 'til translucent. Throw in as much curry powder as you want — anywhere from a teaspoon to a couple tablespoons. Stir that around and cook some more. It's good to let those flavors meld. Now cut a butternut squash into chunks (peeled, duh). I don't care what size chunks — obviously the bigger the chunks longer you'll have to cook it. Cut up an apple and throw that in too. Stir those around for a little, then pour in some chicken broth or stock and cook 'til the squash is soft. Throw in some salt and fresh ground pepper and stir in some half-and-half or coconut milk to make it creamy.

That's it! As my cousin Janet would say, “ENJOY!”

See ya next week.

I’m not a chef. I lay no claim to being an authority on food or cooking. I’m a good cook, and a lover of good food. And I know how to spell and put a sentence together. This column is simply meant to be fun, and hopefully inspiring. So to anyone reading this whose hackles are raised because you know more about the subject of food than I, relax. I believe you. Email me at suzithayer@boothbayregister.com.