My sister, Kathy, is a great cook.  She would laugh at me for saying so, but she truly missed her calling. She should’ve been a home economist.  She is great at decorating, too. Last weekend she threw her husband a 50th birthday bash.  The food was so good!  She had the usual layout:  barbecued brisket, coleslaw, baked beans, and appetizers all around.  Well, let me tell you, it was far from ordinary.

I don’t know where she gets her recipes, but she finds the most interesting ideas in food!  She always adds a twist to make her recipes a little more delicious, a little less predictable. The sauce she put on the meat was even different than I have had!

She made Texas caviar, which is a black eye pea based “dip”and served it with tortilla chips.She also served a shoepeg corn “dip” that was not creamy.  I ate my weight in it. I am putting quotation marks around “dip” because these are really not the average dips that we think of.  These are yummy, fresh, scoopable veggie and bean concoctions that the chips just help to shovel into my face! So, I actually tried combining the two out of necessity (because I didn’t have all of the ingredients to make either one), for a quick snack I had to take to a function last night.  It was a big success. I had no leftovers.  Here is my new rendition, a combination of the two. Enjoy with corn chips or tortilla chips.

1 can black beans, rinsed
1 can black-eyed peas, rinsed
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
1 can of chopped, mild green chiles
1 can of chopped black olives
1 can shoepeg white corn, rinsed
chopped cilantro (to taste)
chopped parsley (to taste)
2 generous squirts of fat-free Italian salad dressing

Dump in bowl and stir. The longer you let it sit in the refrigerator, the better it will taste. When you are ready to serve, you may want to drain the dip before serving.  Serve with baked
tortilla chips as an appetizer.

Photo Credit © Proseuxomai | Dreamstime.com

Tags: Beans, corn, dip, olives, onions