I dug through my blog post drafts this morning and found this one buried back in my 2011 folder. It made me laugh because I was (and still am) SO enthusiastic about that garlic clove soup. And it also captures most what I miss living in California: Simple, silly meals with family where we do dumb things like watch Star Trek.

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I love meals with family more than anything in the world except snuggles with Brad. Last Friday night, my mom and dad and sister came over because a glut of CSA garlic compelled us to make THIS.

Yes, that’s right. A 44-clove garlic soup. And because we’re culinary overachievers (and have so. much. garlic.) we doubled it to make 88-CLOVE garlic soup. It’s the healing component to end all healing components!*

Take a look at our full menu:
The soup, which promised to put us in a garlic haze (but was actually really subtle and amazing).
Cold grilled beef roast for those who did not wish to be in a garlic haze.
A big salad with the most perfectly acidic apple cider vinegar (a healing component!) dressing.
Sourdough bread with Brad’s garlicky kefir cheese (TWO healing components!).
A homemade vanilla chocolate chunk ice cream that we all enjoyed while watching an episode of Star Trek. That’s how cool my family is.
Chardonnay to drink.

This was probably the best meal I’ve eaten in six months. I know I said that about chili and cornbread just a few days ago, but I mean it equally for both. They were both the best.

*If you have no idea what I’m talking about: When Brad finished his protocol diet, Tim (his nutritionist) told him to try to include at least one healing component with every meal. Even though we sort of joke about it, I actually take it pretty seriously. And if there’s one healing component we enjoy and would include in almost every meal, it’s garlic.