A few years ago I wrote in this column about my friend Pam Gerry of Charlemont. It was January, National Soup Month, and she made her Sausage, Kale, and Cabbage Soup. I always associate Pam with soup, although she can make many other delicious things.

Pam has cooked all her life. One of four children growing up in a household where both parents worked, she was responsible for putting a lot of meals on the table.

She spent much of her childhood in Minnesota, where her father farmed. “That’s where my love of gardening and feeding everybody and the animals came from,” she told me with a smile. Her father died suddenly when she was 14, and her mother moved the family to western Massachusetts to be near relatives.

Pam learned more about cooking as a young woman when she worked as a waitress at the Old Willow Restaurant in Charlemont.

“There was an old gentleman there who was the cook. He taught me to make cock-a-leekie soup,” she recalled. “He was fascinated with food and wanted me to come watch him and learn.”

This teacher helped her develop her love of soup. He also helped her learn to trust her instincts as a cook.

In the late 1990s Pam and her husband Michael ran the now defunct Buckland Bar and Grill. She threw her cooking skills and her sunny personality into the job. Her specialty was the hearty, delicious soup fare she dished up in Buckland.

Pam went on to work at many other jobs, although she never lost her love of cooking. I met her after she became a professional caregiver. She helped me take care of my mother Jan in the last year of Jan’s life. Pam brought laughter, love, organization, and lots of good food into our home.

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Now that summer weather has left us (at least I think it has left us; one never quite knows what the weather around here is going to do), I asked Pam for the recipe for another of her soups. She arrived at my house with her seasonal Autumn Bisque.

This colorful pureed soup uses vegetables from her substantial garden. Pam told me that when she started making the recipe years ago, she boiled the vegetables in chicken or vegetable stock. For this version, however, she roasted the vegetables, which caramelized them a bit and increased their flavor.

I asked how she developed the recipe. Pam’s method of recipe development is a lot like mine. She calls it reconstructing, or maybe refurbishing.

She starts with a base — a formula she read in a book, received from a friend, or thought up all by herself — and elaborates from there.

“A lot of things are expensive,” she explained. “You try to utilize what you have. If I have butternut squash, I’ll look up a recipe. If it doesn’t taste like it should, I add something else ... I make it my own.”

This particular recipe, she noted, can use almost whatever fall vegetables one has on hand. The flavor profile can be changed. The cinnamon enhances the semi-sweetness of the roasted vegetables, but one can also go Mexican with more cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, and a pinch of cayenne.

“Maybe add different proteins,” she suggested. The recipe is vegan if made with vegetable stock … until one adds the sour cream and bacon on top, she pointed out. One could try other toppings instead — pepitas, roasted sunflower seeds, or even pomegranate seeds — to keep the soup vegan and add a little crunch.

Pam uses her recipe “refurbishing” method for noodle dishes, meats, and marinades, and even cakes (within reason).

Her motto is “Taste as you go.” Those are wise words. They make cooking more creative … and more fun.

Ingredients:

for the soup

1 medium butternut squash

2 medium sweet potatoes

2 medium potatoes

3 carrots

1 medium onion

2 parsnips

3 cloves garlic

1 stalk celery

a splash or two of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon thyme

2 quarts chicken or vegetable stock

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon cinnamon

for garnish:

sour cream, crumbled bacon, and fresh sage leaves (optional but yummy)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel the vegetables and chop them roughly. Toss the vegetable pieces in the oil with a little salt and pepper and the thyme. Place them on a rimmed sheet pan, and roast them in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, stirring them halfway through.

In a large soup pot, heat the stock. Add the roasted vegetables, the spices, and a little more salt and pepper.

Bring the soup to a boil; then turn it down, and simmer it, covered, for 20 minutes. Carefully puree it.

Ladle the soup into bowls, and have your guests garnish it with sour cream and bacon, along with sage leaves (if you have them).

Makes about 4 quarts of soup, depending on the size of your vegetables.

Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.