C'mon, get happy!

Our neighborhood is a social bunch -- always looking for an excuse to sit down and chat over a glass (or ten) of wine. Everyone seemed to be in the mood to celebrate the end of the first week back to school after the Holiday break, so I decided to invite my homegirls over for a little happy hour this afternoon.

The catch (and I'm sure you know what's coming) -- the wine and the appetizers had to be on sale. I'm happy to say that I mostly stuck to this rule! The wine was on sale, and so were the ingredients for the Roasted Eggplant Dip. Since I had kind of a Mediterranean theme workin' with the dip, I also served hummus and stuffed green olives (alas, not on sale....but they didn't exactly break the bank, and they are sooooooo delicious). For dippers I served the salty, crunchy, and addictive Stacey's Pita Chips, and pita bread from the deli that I toasted under the broiler.

Talk about happy hour; the grocery bill for the munchies (ingredients and all) were only 13.74!

Confession: I could have skimped a bit more on the cost of the wine....there were less expensive options available. If I was being true to my pennypinching self, I would have bought the Crane wine, on sale 3 for $9.00. But, I decided to splurge a little on my neighborhood friends, and I went for the Toasted Head Chardonnay (one of my fav's) and it was also on sale for 9.99 a bottle.

All in all, I hosted a two hour gathering for four people for roughly $33.75 -- not too bad. Just think: if I had gone for the Crane, it would have been under 20.00!

Here's the recipe for the low cost and low calorie dip!

ROASTED EGGPLANT DIP
The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, p.41

Serves: 6-8

1 medium eggplant, peeled

1 red bell pepper, seeded

1 red onion, peeled

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 T. good quality olive oil

1 1/2 t. sea salt

1/2 t. freshly ground pepper

1 T. tomato paste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the eggplant, bell pepper, and onion into 1-inch cubes. Toss them in a large bowl with the garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread them on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes, until the vegetables are lightly browned and soft, tossing once during cooking. Cool slightly.

Place the vegetables in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, add the tomato paste, and pulse 3 or 4 times to blend. Adjust seasonings and serve with pita bread.