Greg's Guacamole

When Greg asked me if I'd make a run for guacamole ingredients last night, I happily said yes. First, because he  had a stress-y, crappy, headache kind of day, and I wanted to help him feel better. And second, because I've been meaning to type up the recipe for it for my friend, Des. I thought it'd be fun to snap a few pictures as we went about making it, so I could do a proper post for her. Two cravings in one grocery trip...WIN! Too bad we were working at night in our neon-lit cave of a kitchen.  Some exposures were better executed than others. Oh well, it was still good practice for shooting with my camera in manual mode.

Guac is happy food around our house. We're big, BIG fans. It's oh so good, easy, and very adaptable to your own tastes and ingredients on hand.

The basic players in a good guac are avocados (duh), onion, tomato, cilantro, jalapeño, and lime juice.

We start out with about six small avocados or three jumbo ones.  Whichever are ripe or on sale at the grocery store. Spoon the flesh into a large bowl, and mash them up a bit. (Mmmm...I have a hard core addiction to avocados.) Then dice up two or three tomatoes, and throw them in the mix. (We usually use romas, because they're less juicy.)

We use a small food processor to quickly dice up the onion, cilantro and jalapeño. (I say "we", but really I just handle the avocados then sit back and eat Oreos while Greg does the rest.)

I really like white onions, but red onions are very delicious too. Of coarse, yellow is fine, but beware of the stronger flavor. Use a half to a whole depending on your taste. Please don't forget the jalapeños! They will not make is spicy. I promise. Greg has thrown in as many as three before without telling me until I declared it delicious. Throwing in the cilantro with the onions and jalapeños will help it chop up nicely.

Season your green goodness with a little salt and a squeeze of lime juice.

Oh BILLY! Guacamole rocks. I hope you enjoy it, Des!!!

Greg's Guacamole

6 avocados
2-3 roma tomatoes
1/2 to whole white onion
cilantro (about half a bunch)
juice from about one lime
1-3 jalapeños
salt to taste (honestly I don't think this is necessary, but Greg firmly disagrees.)

Smash, dice, chop, and mix it in a bowl. Eat on everything. Seriously....chips, sandwiches, wraps, hamburgers, plain on a spoon....everything.

Black Eyed Salsa

I made this for a church function last night. It turned out so good. Good enough to eat like a salad, but excellent with chips. Tostitos Hint of Lime chips are the bomb with it.

Black Eyed Salsa

3 cans Black Eyed Peas, rinsed and drained
1 can shoepeg corn, drained (white sweet corn)
tomato, chopped (2 or 3)
green onions, chopped (like 3)
avocado (I used two huge ones)
fresh garlic, peeled and sliced
lime
kosher salt

Firmly rub the sliced side of your fresh garlic on the sides of a large mixing bowl, coating it with garlicy goodness. In same bowl, combine black eyed peas, shoepeg corn, tomato, green onions, and *avocado chunks. Season with fresh squeezed lime juice and kosher salt.

* This makes a ton, so I split the batch, and added the avocado, lime and salt to the half we used that night. I reserved the rest in the fridge, and added those three ingredients when we were ready to eat it. Next time I think I'll add some cilantro. YUM.