Too Fast...

My sister arrived safe and sound early Friday afternoon.  As always it's great to have her here...and the boys are so happy to see their favorite "auntie."  She comes bearing gifts:

For them...

And for me, including this old-fashioned harvest bucket filled with cool squash and crisp juicy apples, pumpkin seed brittle, my favorite Italian cookies, and a rare tea blend with blue Bergamot flowers that I will savor in the chilly days ahead...

Then for dinner we made the Roasted Garlic soup and Asiago crostini (here's a link to the recipe if you want to check it out.)  We had a great time making the soup together and an even better time eating it with a good bottle of red wine.

Six heads of garlic, roasted for about 1-1/2 hours until soft and sweet...

After adding the other ingredients, making the crostini, and about half an hour later...

The soup was creamy and nutty, sweet and garlicky...the crostini had a little bite (from the paprika--see recipe) and was deliciously crunchy and cheesy. We didn't talk much, it was mostly ummm and yum and omg.

Next day though, when we got to Mom's and did the big hugs and kisses stuff, Mom reeled back after hugging my sister and said, "What in the world have you been eating?" Apparently the side effects to the soup could kill a vampire at twenty paces.  Since my sister and I had eaten the same dinner, we couldn't smell the garlic at all.  It seems that garlic is stronger than toothpaste and Listerine.  Good to know.

In spite of our garlic-ness, we had a nice day with Mom, went out to lunch, talked and laughed and had a really nice drive through the mountains both going down and coming back.

Yesterday, after taking the boys for a long walk in the morning, we drove several miles out into the valley to the monastery cafe/store and bought organic, fresh out of the brick oven bread, and gooey, caramel/pecan sticky buns and almond biscotti--mostly for my sister to take home for her husband. And okay, yeah, I had a sticky bun, too and it was worth every calorie and carb.

We stayed up too late, ate way too much food, talked until we were hoarse.  The boys are now conked out, exhausted from all the excitement, and I'm reminded once again that I live far away from the people who know me best.  Ah well.  It just makes me appreciate them all the more when I do get to see them...

Thanks for the great weekend, sis...