These recipes can be made simply or more complex.  The garnishes can transform them into a sweet or savory meal very simply.

You can use regular white baking potatoes or sweet potatoes to get the end result you are after.

Savory potato soup for 6

6 large “baking potatoes” — scrubbed clean

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups of heavy cream

3 bay leaves

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 large Vidalia onion (or yellow onion if you prefer) chopped fine

3 TBSP salted butter

To begin, poke holes in the potatoes with a fork, rub their skins in olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap them individually in tinfoil.

Place on a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees until soft — this takes about an hour. Check the time, as it varies based on the size of the potatoes you use.

Remove from the baking sheet when done and set aside to cool a little.

Remove the foil after about 20 minutes.

Remove the skins from half of the potatoes for the next step.

Roughly chop this half of the potatoes and add to a blender (do in batches if you need to for space reasons) with 1 cup of the cream. Pulse until smooth.

Place the pulsed potatoes into a large stock pot — use a pot that has a tight-fitting lid.

Now, remove the foil from the remaining potatoes. Leaving the skins on these, chop them into bite-size cubes and add them to the pot of pulsed potatoes.

In a separate pan, sauté the onion using 2 TBSP of the salted butter.

When the onions are soft and translucent, add them to the pot of potatoes.

Add the additional cup of cream, the bay leaves and more salt and pepper.

Warm through on low/medium heat and allow to cook for about 30 minutes — everything will continue to soften and the flavors will intensify.

Remove the bay leaves before serving.

Some suggested garnishes for the savory soup are:

Cheese of any sort you like

Chopped green onions

Bacon

Prosciutto that you have slightly fried so it is crunchy.

Serve warm with crusty bread and a salad of fresh greens.

Sweet potato soup for 6

Scrub eight 5- or 6-inch-long sweet potatoes

Poke holes in them with a fork.

Place them, covering them completely in water, in a large stock pot to which you have added the following:

4 cinnamon sticks(or 2 TBSP ground cinnamon)

2 star anise

2 bay leaves

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

1/2 stick of salted butter

1 peeled and halved apple (the sort you prefer)

It will take about 45 minutes for everything to be completely soft.

Remove the potatoes and the apple from the pot and set aside.

Retain 1 cup of the cooking liquid — you can discard the rest along with the star anise, the cinnamon sticks and the bay leaves.

Add the cooked sweet potatoes, two at a time, with a little chunk of the apple, to your blender with just enough of the cooking liquid to make a smooth mixture.

Return all to the cooking pot along with the following:

2 cups of heavy cream

1/2 stick of salted butter

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Stir to combine.

Gently heat through on low heat to avoid scorching.

This sweet soup is wonderful when garnished with a swirl of heavy cream or a little creme fraiche.

Additional garnishes would be:

Peeled and chopped apple

Fig preserves

Toasted and chopped walnuts or pecans

Orange zest

Both of these soups are very easy to make with ingredients found locally. I was just at Taylor's Farm Stand in Gilbert and bought the most gorgeous small and dark sweet potatoes; the farmstand also had beautiful white baking potatoes and a variety of onions and other ingredients that are perfect for this recipe and this time of year.  We are very lucky in the Midlands to have these wonderful ingredients close at hand.

As the weather cools, I hope you will keep these incredible two soups in mind, made from the most humble ingredients available right here at home.