Squash-o-matic

Squash has been on the menu for as long as solid food has been consumed. Summer squash, from small pattypan types on up. And winter squash, from giant Hubbard squash, the kind that must be chopped into pieces using an axe, on down. Baked. Steamed. Boiled. Cooked on top of rice. In chunks in soups and stews. This season it's been lots of acorn squash from the South Austin Farmers' Market. And here in Austin there has been squash in soup forever. All kinds go into caldo Azteca, the chicken soup that has every possible kind of vegetable in it, and rice, chiles, pico de gallo, and lime wedges on the side, along with corn tortillas. And Chez Nous for years, besides its daily soup special, had a wonderful pureed vegetable soup every day that certainly contained squash, and probably parsnips and mild turnips along with much else. I seem to remember that Apple Annie, besides its delicious carrot-ginger soup, used to have one incorporating sqaush from time to time. Over the past weekend, I ordered a cup of squash soup at a downtown restaurant, expecting it to be savory. Not only was it covered with a mountain of sweetened and perhaps also vanilla-ized whipped cream, the underlying soup itself was sweet beyond belief. This was not something that could be ingested beyond the first sip or so. The idea still sounded good, though, so we tried the Imagine brand of squash soup. It wasn't sweet, but did have an aura of uncooked cinnamon about it. We tried onions, poblano peppers, grated ginger, green bell peppers diced, and cayenne, but nothing really helped it. Campbell's Select Gold Label squash soup will be bought again. It seems to take to all kinds of additions. If it really does get chilly, we'll be eating plenty of it on those nights cooking just doesn't seem like fun. I think we'll try the black-bean soup as well.