I am a serial food pleaser. I caught the entertaining bug from my grandmothers and mother while watching them put out dish after dish, platter after platter for holiday events, Saturday BBQs, or a Sunday meal. There was something about those moments that dug in deep with me. Preparing and offering up food made with love seemed to awaken a real joy in me. I loved the excitement of it. I love the way it makes me feel. Entertaining is part of my DNA...DANA.

In my parent's kitchen on Long Island with sumo sized vats of food. Yes, I say from WAY back. That was my brother's bird named Qubiert.

Part of my High School gang. I guess I convinced them with more than just wine and cheese. It took 16oz Buds!

From way back when, luring friends and family to come over to nibble on my food experiments has been a constant agenda. I giggle at the memories of my high school years when I would try to convince my friends to gather at my house for wine, cheese and board games instead of their suggestion to go to a bar. Nerd, or early onset foodie? Either way, it was and still holds true. Given the choice, I much prefer hosting a small gathering than going out. Seeing as it's been a while since I've used my usual bullet point list, here goes a few reasons to entertain at home:

Your guests can stay as long as they like, no one hovering over with a check waiting to seat the next group
You can make whatever food you like, and experiment and use them as test subjects
You don't spend nearly as much as in a restaurant
You don't have to deal with a bunch of people who aren't part of your group
You can laugh and dance and play whatever music you want
You can move around from room to room, sit on the floor or lie on the couch or be outdoors
You can display all your table decorating talents
You can wear comfy clothes
You can kick your shoes off, although I never do

When I lived in a studio apartment in NYC, my entertaining was contained to having a friend or two over for dinner. After moving to Miami, I had the space to entertain but with crazy work hours, I barely had the time. Go figure! I was left with one option to soothe my aching entertaining soul. Throw myself birthday parties. I knew I could at least carve out time for my own birthday, and I also knew friends would make the effort because of that. Buffet style was mostly how these shindigs went down. It made it easy to put all the food out and have people fill and refill as they wished, at their pace. Less fussy that way, too, kept the mood relaxed, informal and moveable. You've heard me talk about the importance of having some food cold, some room temp and 1-2 options warm. With these annual parties the guest list was usually my same dear friends. That meant I needed to come up with food ideas that would check all those boxes and as well as be different from the previous year.

Friends always willing to help. Yay, for me.

Dear friends that I still have as a part of my life to this day.

My dear friends: Kathy, who sadly is no longer with us, me, Emilce and Helene. Can I blow them out? Sure, I've got plenty of hot air.

I promise to post more of those old favorites in upcoming posts, but today I want to share a white bean dip. Reason being is that I recently revived this recipe during our latest trip to Miami. So, it seems only fitting having first made it decades ago in Miami.

While on this trip, we had a few people over our apartment. Perfect time to feed my need to 'food please'. So I whipped up a few bites. JC always laughs because he says, "No, biggie we can just put out some cheese" and then I decide we need a few other nibbles, and in a flash we have a spread of food.

I'm as comfortable as can be in George and John's kitchen.

On our last night of this past trip we were invited to our friends', John and George, house for dinner. We adore them for many reasons but are belly tickled that they are food lovers as well. We make a perfect complement in the kitchen together. Their part: the main meal. Our part: the appetizers.

Making the potato topped with with smoked trout & sour cream

You don't always have to make all the dishes. Sometimes buying really good prepared foods is just the right answer. Marinated olives & feta.

Leftover heirloom tomatoes from the night before...

Cut up to make the topping for bruschetta.

Talk about an excellent time to revive an old dip. This task was also going to require me tapping into my something from nothing style as we only had a few food items left in our apartment due to our return to NY. Time to whip up what's available. I had made the potatoes topped with trout and had extra, so that was on app down. I had leftover heirloom tomatoes, chopped up made a tasty bruschetta. Lastly, in the cupboard... white beans. In the fridge, standing by wanting to be needed: scallions and cilantro at your service. Perfect aromatics to jazz up a white bean dip.

This is a dip that can be modified to use what you have available or what flavor profile you like. Clearly, not a lot is needed to create this one. You can use a different kind of bean, or basil instead of cilantro. Mix and match to what you have, or whatever will rock your taste buds.

Ingredients

1 15 oz can Cannellini or Great Northern beans
1/3 c cilantro (plus extra for garnish)
2 T lemon juice
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 T olive oil
1/2 t salt
1/8 t pepper
1/3 c scallions, sliced (plus extra for garnish)

Instructions

Drain the liquid from the beans reserving 1 T. Place the beans, garlic, salt, pepper, oil, lemon juice in a mini food processor. I used a blender because it was all I had, but found it didn't chop as well as I would have liked. Buzz them up to your liking. You can make this dip super smooth and creamy, or leave it a little chunky. I like it both ways.

Remove this mixture and place in a decorative bowl. In same blender, add the scallions, cilantro and reserved bean liquid. Buzz until you get a chopped mixture. Dollop this mixture in the center of the bean mixture. Then slice a few more scallions and cilantro and sprinkle on top. Serve with crusty bread or vegetables like cucumber slices, celery, carrots, or even blanched broccoli.

Dollop the scallion, cilantro mixture on top.

My appetizer offerings make with love part in our Miami home, part in theirs.

All of the appetizers were a big hit at our friends' house. But the dip got the most ohhs and ahhs. I almost felt I should have made more! John's sister loved it so much she kept asking for the recipe. Hey, guess what? I have a blog just for that reason. So, here you go Ann, and for all of you who might enjoy this super simple dip that will please your own guests, or bring to a party and please other guests. Either way, a crowd pleaser.

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Yeah, yeah, I know that you know that I LOVE roasting vegetables. Honestly, it's one of the easiest, most efficient and delicious ways to cook them. All the work is done for you. Place 'em on a pan with the magic 3 (oil, salt & pepper), slide into a 400 degree oven and done and done.

Knowing this, you won't be surprised that I've come up with 3 more ways to serve up roasted vegetables. This was yet another time when we had a handful of unused items from a party that needed to be cooked up. As usual when I looked at these, I wasn't sure what their final use would be, but before they went bad they needed one last curtain call.

The stars of this day's performance: Introducing the Carrot, The Vine Tomato, The Beet, The Yellow Pepper and of course, Miss Fennel.

Destined for sweetness by way of roasting.

Adding the Magic 3, Olive Oil, Salt & Pepper

I added potatoes because JC loves these roasted

Lunch Performance #1 - The Stack 'em Up Sandwich

Place a few of the roasted tomatoes in a small food processor along with crushed garlic, pinch of salt and 2-3 T olive oil. Pulse until you get a chunky paste.

Place a few slices of your favorite cheese on one side of the bread and broil it until the cheese is melted. (I used Ojeva Negra, an earthy Spanish sheep's milk cheese.)

Add a smattering of the tomato-garlic 'jam' and begin stacking the veggies onto your sandwich. From here you can begin diving in or take it the next step and panini it. This earthy, crunchy lunch was for JC since I don't eat bread. Sucks for me.

Lunch Performance #2 - Quinoa Bowl

Cook up your favorite quinoa. I used an organic multi grain one. Ready up your roasted veggies and cut into bite sized pieces.

Once quinoa is cooked, arrange in a the bowl, top the quinoa with the tomato 'jam' and dig in.

Lunch Performance #3 - Pasta Toss

I don't need to tell you that this was my favorite. I'm such a pasta monster. You can use whatever type of pasta floats your boat. Semolina is still my favorite but I can't eat wheat anymore so I cooked up some brown rice elbow macaroni.

While the pasta was cooking, I sautéed 1/4 c chopped shallots, 2 cloves chopped garlic and some left over grape tomatoes equally about 2/3 cup. (Again, any amount that you have will work, so don't worry so much about amount here.) Once those were soft, I added all the other roasted vegetables that I chopped into bite sized pieces.

To add a bit more heartiness as well as creaminess, I added a can of baby cannellini beans with their liquid, and a touch more salt & good amount of crushed red pepper.

Then came the star of this show. Can you tell I like pasta? In went the cooked elbow macaroni. Add whatever shape you like and gently stir together.

Plate it up in a nice serving bowl and grate some Locatelli cheese on top. This was satisfyingly yummy. Add a glass of red wine, and you'll have a Joie de Vivre lunch, for sure.

I hope you love roasting vegetables as much as I do. They are so adaptable to so many dishes. Be forewarned, roasted and grilled vegetables will make encore presentations in the future... and often. Why not, their versatility is not to be reckoned with. Get your veggie on!

P.S. The roasted potatoes were not called upon for lunches, but did make their appearance as a side dish for dinner. Plus a few were eaten right out of the oven while making the lunches. Seriously, who could resist those crunchy bites.