And Now For Something Completely Different

I actually do other things besides sew all day. ;-)

The mister and I had a craving for guacamole, so on a recent trip to Costco, picked up a bag of avocados. And you know how that goes... it takes a few days for them to ripen and when they do - they are ripe and you'd better move fast! Well, they were definitely ripe yesterday.

Since my son works in our home office on Wednesdays I thought a little guac and chips would be a nice little "happy hour" treat at the end of the day. We even added a Scrabble game in for good measure. Of course he beat the pants off the old folks, but we had a good time anyway!

It's hard to make guacamole look attractive; it is what it is - yummy, but not too pretty! And when I bought the ingredients I misread the recipe so what you see in the photo is a yellow bell pepper, not a yellow onion. Duh. But I did have a yellow onion in the pantry, so saved the yellow pepper for salad tonight. We like our guac chunky so when you get a bite, you really get a bite; I'm sure if you like it smoother that's an option as well.

I have been using the same tired old guac recipe for years, so decided to Google a new one. This is Tyler Florence's version of guacamole and it was indeed yum! The only thing I added were tomatoes, because we like the punch of color and flavor that tomatoes add.

Tyler Florence's Guacamole
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 1 hour
Serves: About 4 cups

6 ripe avocados
3 limes, juiced
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, smashed then minced
2 serrano chiles
1 big handful fresh cilantro, with stems (about 1/2 cup finely chopped)
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper

Halve and pit the avocados; scoop out the flesh into bowl. Mash the avocados using either a fork or potato masher, leaving them a big chunky. Add remaining ingredients and fold everything together. Drizzle with olive oil, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and it one final mix.

Lay a piece of plastic wrap directly and tightly on the surface of the guacamole (a new trick - this keeps it from turning brown!) and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Like I said I added the tomatoes; forgot to drizzle with the olive oil and didn't add pepper because the mister is allergic to it. Of course we didn't refrigerate for an hour - are you kidding? We ate it immediately. Thumbs up from all three of us.

(Oh, and P.S. - the platters in the picture? Both are hand-crafted by artisans in British Columbia! I bought the green fish platter in the quaint little village of Coombs, BC while visiting Vancouver Island last summer. I so love it - and the memories it holds... And the purple one was a gift from my Canadian SIL ~ it was made by an artisan in Nanaimo, BC - also located on the island. They're both special to me.) :)