08.24.11_Rooftop "Happy Hour"

This month we have been really good about trying to eat almost all of our meals at home and taking our lunches to work. We also have not gone to Happy Hour this month for a few reasons: 1) I've been excited to cook and if we do go to Happy Hour we end up getting food there and 2) It's hard to find vegetarian bar food unless they have nachos or mozzarella sticks or something. The weather has been so amazingly perfect the past couple of days so we decided to invite some of our friends over for drinks up on our roof and to do our own rooftop "Happy Hour." We figured this would be a lot cheaper than going to a bar and we got to do a smaller-scale tapas of our own!

I decided to make the Seven Layer Dip that my mom has made ever since I was a kid. It's one of those dishes that is so good to me because I associate it with my family, plus its so incredibly easy. They layers are:

1. 2 cans of bean dip (I used refried beans this time because our Safeway did not have the Frito Bean Dip I wanted)
2. 3 avocados mashed up with 2 Tbsp of lemon juice, S&P
3. 1 a cup of sour cream, 1/2 cup mayo, and a package of taco seasoning mixed together
4. 2 cans pitted black olives rinsed and diced (I just throw them in the food processor for a quick chop)
5. 3 medium tomatoes diced
6. 1 bag of Cheddar cheese
7. 1 c. green onion on top for garnish 

It always looks so pretty if you serve it in a glass baking dish since you can see all seven of the layers. I ended up cutting the recipe in half since there were only four of us. I didn't have a small glass dish so it wasn't quite as pretty, but just as delicious.

Phillip made his favorite Bagel Dip. All it is is a package of cream cheese and a  small jar of Old English cheese mixed together and served with bagels ripped up for dipping. So delicious. We also bought Totino's Pizza Rolls. Our friend Amanda brought a block of cheddar cheese and Diana brought grapes and sweet potato fries. It was a great, relaxing evening and all the food was awesome. Clearly we were not going for healthy eats but after three weeks of being vegetarians, I think we were allowed to eat some less-than healthy food for a change.