Autumn Soup

No, not a closeup of a raw egg, just my delicious butternut squash soup, served in a deep white bowl, topped with toasted sunflower seeds, sage leaves and drizzled with pumpkinseed oil.

The colors echoed the ones we'd been seeing as we drove up to the CIA in the Napa Valley, the gold of the tired vines in bright sunlight, the rich browns of the soil, the fading greens as fall approaches.

The soup itself was as velvet as the smooth California hills and the taste pure butternut squash, sweet and creamy, with only the swirl of oil and the crunch of sunflower seeds to add texture to the dish. Too bad it's not polite to dip one's face into the bowl to lap up the last few smears.