Over the last month or so our CSA, Oakhill Organics has offered us beautiful, dark red, sweet as candy, beets. Dominic, our girls, and I love beets, others in our family do not share the love. When I think of beets, I daydream of roasting them and eating them in a salad with lovely fresh greens and some pungent goat cheese. Sometimes my thoughts wander to my awesome Sister In Law, who lives way too far away in California. When we talk about beets, which is not too often, my Sister In Law tells me she does not like them because they taste like dirt. That always makes me smile, because I know what she means. Even though beets do taste faintly like the earth they were grown in, they have a powerful sweetness, and are totally delicious. I am looking forward to creating new yummy recipes and eating them passionately with my family and friends.

We had our “friend’s dinner” recently, and the theme was appetizers and dips. Last time we got together for and appetizer and dips themed dinner, we enjoyed a no fuss, relaxing evening. This dinner was relaxing and fun, with terrific food and great company as always. We shared stories about our Summers, and talked about the upcoming school year, while our kids played happily as they always do.

The fare around the table consisted of our host’s delicious fresh baked bread, a yummy 7 layer dip, some gluten free cocktail meatballs, made with beef from Mossback Farm, swimming in a divine sweet and sour sauce. I made a vibrant pink beet root hummus dip. We made this recipe a couple times before, following the original recipe more closely, using breadcrumbs. One of our friends, who was coming to the dinner is gluten free, so I left the breadcrumbs out. We brought some organic gluten free blue corn chips as a crunchy, salty vessel for our dip. This recipe is inspired by River Cottage Everyday.

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