Taste of Greece in . . . Scranton?

One thing my college roommates and I never disagreed on was whether or not to crack open a new bottle of wine, always white wine, never red. However, once I graduated and moved home for the summer, I retured to life in the household of a Mamabear who loves her glass of wine, always red, never white.

So I got to thinking about a small dish I could make to help me really enjoy a glass of red wine. Frankly, I would turn into a addict if I started buying bottles of white wine for myself becuase no one at home drinks it but me.

A few nights ago, I was eating some green olives out of the jar, per usual, and I noticed that the slight bitterness of the olive didn't go so well with my glass of white wine. I poured a little sip of red wine and became instantly captivated with the perfect compliment that the merlot gave to the aftertaste of the olive.

I fished through my cabinet to see what kinds of ingredients I had lying around. I found a can of kidney beans, which I thought I might beable to use, I found some black olives, and I found a small can of capers. I began to place myself back a few summers to when I studied in Greece, back to where stores smelled of specialty wine and balsamic, and the natives loved olives ALMOST as much as me. I attempted to bring those memories into this kitchen and try to create something fantastic.

So, I started to open the cans I placed on the kitchen counter, drained them, and dumped them into a big bowl. I drizzled EVOO and a few dashes of balsamic.

And then I discovered a can of chickpeas.

Thanks to my good friend, and fellow food blogging junkie Molly Porth, , who brought the fried chickpea to life, I recalled how wrapped up I became in the chickpea after she shared her fried creation with our Food Writing Class.

So, after mixing in that can of chickpeas, I hit jackpot.

What I love about this dish is that the beans make it filling enough to eat as a meal, or serve as just a small appetizer, AND it's cheap and quick to make. It would have cost a total of 9 dollars to buy all of the ingredients, and takes under 5 minutes to toss together.

My dad put a few scoops on his plate with his london broil and ate it by itself. My mom and I opened a new bottle of Merlot, and paired the "dip" with Garlic Panetini Pita Chips. http://www.newyorkstyle.com/newyorkstylepanetini.php


Here's the recipe:
1 cup of chickpeas
1/4 cup of kidney beans
1/2 cup of sliced blackolives
1/2 cup of sliced green olives
1/4 cup of tinly sliced red onion
1/4 cup of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
few dashes of balsamic
tablespoon of capers (drizzle in some of the caper juice as well).

I'm convinced that the special ingredient in this dish is the caper juice. It's a little salty, but really REALLY superb.

enjoy!