There are two things you should know about me.

One, I love a good food publication, whether a blog, a cookbook or a food magazine.

Two, I cannot stand to waste food. It pains me to throw week-plus-old casserole or decaying vegetables or moldy cheese in the trash. Pains.

So imagine my relief when I joined the Sweet Paul mailing list a couple of weeks ago. As a thank you, they sent a recipe for a Lemon & Feta Dip that just looked amazing. And as luck would have it, there was some leftover feta in the fridge. I also always have a few lemons lurking about.

Several years ago, I was introduced by a fellow foodie friend to Sweet Paul, an online, digital magazine started by food stylist Paul Lowe. Paul also writes a blog, which I think was the genesis of the magazine. The recipes in Sweet Paul are always simple and scrumptious, but the photos (the photos!) are the highlight. Just gorgeous, mouthwateringly delectable food.

I was too lazy to walk outside and cut some fresh thyme, so I tweaked the recipe a bit to use what I had on hand, namely basil. A couple of years ago I daringly added basil to lemonade, and pretty much thought I invented that combination. (I didn’t.) But it rocked my world. I think lemon and basil are such a marriage of flavor that I can’t ever get enough, so I tend to mix them as much as is humanly possible in cooking.

My dip was as delicious in the flesh as it looked in the magazine photo. I served it on warm, pillowy pita bread topped with grape tomato slices — the perfect bite to close out summer.

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