Feeding My Competitive Soul: Three Bean Salad and some good friends

Happy Labor Day ya’ll! The weather has been amazing here and I couldn’t be more excited. The temperatures have dropped down to the low 80s with virtually no humidity with TONS of sun.

We drove up to Hanover MD to visit my friend from home, Megan, and her husband Richard. We really wish we lived closer to them since they are the first “couple friends” we’ve been able to hang out with in a while. Finding couple friends is really hard in my opinion, so I’m glad they’re only an hour away.

While there we hung out on their deck and grilled up a traditional Central NY dish, chicken spiedes.

And I made some 3 bean salad.

My neighbor Sue made this a few months back and I’ve kind of taken over the recipe since. It’s a very quick, light, healthy and easy way to add flavor to any meal.

3 bean salad (adapted from Simply Recipes)

1 15-oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 15-oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 15-oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
2 celery stalks, chopped fine
1/2 red onion, chopped fine
1 cup fresh, finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 Tbsp fresh finely chopped rosemary

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup granulated sugar (I used 2 packets of Stevia in the Raw)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Method

In a large bowl, mix the beans, celery, onion, parsley and rosemary.
In a separate small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, sugar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Add the dressing to the beans. Toss to coat.
Chill beans in the refrigerator for several hours, to allow the beans to soak up the flavor of the dressing.

Also while visiting, Richard gave me a tutorial on my camera. I have manual settings and I have no idea how to use them. One of the pictures I took from our friends’ wedding last weekend came out very bright and I didn’t know why. I learned how to use the aperture feature and control the shutter speed, so I took many practice pictures.