A good soup is in season - winter snow or no

"Shh! I gotta focus. I'm shifting into soup mode."

    - George in the "Soup Nazi" episode of "Seinfeld."

I'm preoccupied with how this winter's weather will accommodate my own soup cycle.

I'm stocking up on chicken, vegetable, and beef broths, making sure that my deep bowls with handles are in good shape, and checking on my supply of freezer containers.

I catch myself looking forward to a few days of very deep snow, the kind that puts my world under house arrest and erases every obligation except the self-imposed one of making and eating soup.

Is it also wrong to anticipate a minor cold just to recall childhood days of recovering while watching cartoons and sipping Mrs. Grass Chicken Noodle Soup, the boxed dehydrated skinny and short noodles and that magic "golden nugget" of spices and broth flavoring that came to life in boiling water?

The yearning for incarceration will, as it always does, dissolve after a day or two. And it is foolish to ask for minor illness when soup - any kind - is appropriate no matter the weather or state of well-being.

The universality and comfy nostalgia attached to soup, along with the fact that it's such a "go-to" meal, have expanded my repertoire beyond Mrs. Grass and Campbell's canned varieties to include the pureed, the exotic, the international, and the impromptu.

And while I once scorned slow cookers as gimmicks, I now own two that get a workout once the leaves begin to fall. Life would also be much harder without a stick blender, which eliminates the chancy process of pureeing a hot mixture in a blender or food processor.

There are few hazards in presenting soup to guests. (Really, who can say anything bad about a gift of soup?)

Still, various "camps" exist. Some people swear by creamy soups, be they ones that incorporate dairy products or ones that are pureed into smoothness. Others consider concoctions that teem with "stuff" (read: bits of vegetables, starch, and protein) the most appealing.

I recognize that a subset of soup lovers insists on clear broth as a curative and mood-lifter, but can't see confining my family's consumption to that category.

The recipes presented here include the pureed, the vegetarian, the brothy, and those crowded with "stuff." They may all be made ahead.