Guacamole

This my friends, is a dish I hold very dear to my heart. Mainly because it's so often abused! Guac should not ever be runny, gooey, or all one color. It should never be bland and the true flavors of the avocados should never be outshone by the other ingredients.

Let's begin!

First start with 4 nice sized avocados. Buy them when they are still green and firm, that way you can sort of plan out when they'll be the perfect ripeness. That would be when the outsides are super dark brown and when you squeeze them they are soft, but not mushy. Guac should never be mushy.

Then what you want to do is slice them in half, long ways. Work your knife all the way around and twist the two halves in opposite directions. Then set the halves down. Use you knife to either work the pit out, or you can make a quick slicing motion into the center of it to get it out the fancy way and waste less of the valuable avocado.

This next part is a trick I learned waiting tables a few years back. Take your knife and cut into the meat of the avocado making slices in it both vertically and horizontally. It should look like a grid when you're done. Then get out a tablespoon and scoop the little cubes out of the skin. How amazing is that?! Perfectly cubed pieces of avocados ready for mixing, NOT mashing.

After you have all of the avocados prepared, dice up an onion. Make the dicing pretty fine, you don't want a giant chunk of onion stealing the show. Toss that on top of the avocados. I use about a handful. Also, this time I used a white/goldish onion because I have a HUGE bag of them in my pantry and I need to use them before they go bad. However I think red onions really look a lot prettier if you have one just hanging around.

Next get out the cilantro. Guac is nothing without it! Even if you don't like it, or think you don't like it, put it in, even if it's a small amount. I like to use about a handful or more just because I'm in love with the stuff. Cut it off of the stems and chop it pretty finely. This sort of releases that flavor so it will infuse the whole dish with its freshness. Toss the handful on top of the

onions.

Get out 2 forks and begin to work the ingredients around, kind of pretending like your hands are a mixer. Remember, don't mash it!

Then get out the garlic powder, you'll want about a tablespoon of it and toss it onto your mixture. You'll also want the the juice of one lime and salt and pepper to taste. This is also a good time to get out the chips and do a taste test. Go with your gut. If you want more lime, use more lime! If you want chocolate sprinkles, go for it. Ok, just kidding, but you get the idea. Cooking is all about experimenting, and there's no one way to do it. Play with your food!

You can add jalapenos if you like. I feel they take away from the superstars, and tomatoes kind are the same way. If you love tomatoes in your guac I would suggest adding them right before serving as they speed up the browning process of the avocados. Brown guac=Yucksville.

Happy Guac-ing!!!