Three Beautiful Things 03-06-2023: Gibbs Portrait, Preparing Vegetable Dip, A Rousing Family Dinner

1. I worked more on editing pictures and if you scroll down, you'll see my favorite picture of Gibbs. 

2. Carol asked me to prepare appetizers for tonight's family dinner. I knew Carol was making beef barley soup/stew for dinner, so I wanted to bring something that was not beefy.  I decided it wouldn't be meat at all. 

So I prepared a plate of cut raw vegetables and I made a dip called Healthy Greek Bean Dip. 

I hope the dip was healthy! 

To make it I drained two cans of cannellini beans and put them in the food processor with a quarter cup of water. I spun the blade until the beans were smooth and transferred the beans into the slow cooker.

Next I added chopped green onion, chopped red pepper, two minced garlic cloves, olive oil, fresh squeezed lemon juice, salt, pepper, and snipped fresh dill to to beans and let all this cook for a couple of hours on low in the slow cooker.

Slow cooking this mixture tenderized the onion and red pepper. I transferred the contents into a bowl. The contents cooled off. Then I added a half a cup of plain Greek yogurt and some chopped cucumber, combined everything, and topped it off with more snippets of dill. 

I refrigerated the dip for the rest of the day. Later I chopped a variety of vegetables and the appetizer was ready.

3. We started family dinner with the vegetable tray and dip. Paul mixed us each a Bean and Barley, a cocktail combining Coffee Stout, whiskey, lemon juice, simple syrup, and bitters. I'd never heard of this drink and I'd never had a Coffee Stout cocktail before.

It was delicious! The flavors complimented each other really well and it got me thinking about other cocktails I might try mixing with stout ale.

Carol's beef and barley soup/stew was hearty, very tasty, and substantial. Christy made a gorgeous and very tasty salad with an orange vinaigrette and we had hard rolls to round out our meal.

Conversation before and during dinner was lively, with a lot of great discussion about teaching and public education. Debbie, Paul, Carol, and Christy all are involved in the local school district, Debbie full time, Carol and Paul part time, and Christy as a volunteer. Molly has recently worked in public elementary education. They have a lot to talk about and it's fascinating.

Here's Gibbs!