dip

For someone that is neither with child nor a growing adolescent, I have some really odd food fascinations.

It’s been six weeks and counting, and I have been compulsively buying fresh dill because I can’t get enough. And before you tell me that I should just grow it, I will show you a picture of my basil plant that I accidentally banished to the shade and watered… once. I fear for my future children.

 

At the risk of identifying myself with a certain poofy-haired Jersey girl, I’m nearly positive that my love for dill started with pickles.

Man… I loooove pickles.

But not the bread and butter kind. The dill kind. The only way I can describe that skeevy bread and butter chaos is that they taste… unnaturally sour and too wet. [Hopefully that's never what she says. Ever.]

 

While my pickle love is nothing new – I’ve always been a fan – I tend to go through stages. Sometimes I crave them and go through two jars in one week. Sometimes I forget about them because I can be flakey. Sometimes after finishing that second jar I’ve decided I’ve had enough.

After eating them straight up (usually with some olives and cheese) as a child, I eventually graduated to dipping my salty potato chips in the leftover stream of pickle juice on my paper plate while eating grilled burgers for dinner. This was long before those pickle-flavored potato chips hit the shelves in the grocery store, but I vividly remember the exact morning that a girl on my school bus hopped up the steps with said potato chip bag in hand. Totally weird and delicious. I was jealous of potato chips.

One thing I absolutely never, ever did was eat peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, which my dad ate as a kid. In fact, he’d still probably scarf one now. I can’t even fathom that mess… but if you’re into that kind of thing, I pretty much love you. And if this yucky feeling I hold over peanut butter + pickles is how some of you feel about bacon? I’m crushed.

 

Anyway, this is just one of the many ways I’ve been enjoying some dill this summer.  I think it’s fabulous, but you could probably rub roasted garlic on a shoe and I’d demolish it. So, so good.

The dip. Not the shoe.

Roasted Garlic and Dill White Bean Dip

make about 1 cup of dip

1 15-ounce can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (or about 1 1/2 cups of cooked beans)

2 bulbs of roasted garlic

3 tablespoons of fresh dill

1/4 cup of olive oil + more if desired

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Combine beans, dill, roasted garlic, salt and pepper in a food processor and blend until smooth. With the processor running, stream in olive oil and make sure to scrape the sides and bottom a few times. Serve in a bowl garnished with fresh dill and additional drizzles of olive oil.

I need a dip intervention.

[Also, if you're searching for some Labor Day recipes, here is the compilation I put together for the 4th of July: 70 Party Recipes. If you have any questions about party recipes, feel free to ask in the comments!]

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