Wild Kitchen

Guacamole

We love avocados around here.  Usually I'll just split one in half, remove the pit, sprinkle it with salt and give the girls one half each, along with a tiny spoon.  When I could eat bread (*sigh*) I used to love toast with smashed avocado and salt on top for breakfast.  And, of course, I am passionate about guacamole. 

I picked up this little guacamole kit from Trader Joe's, and I have to say I ended up with the best homemade guacamole I've ever made.  (We'll pretend that my earliest attempts did NOT include mayo.  I know.  Shameful.)  The recipe is simple enough, and could certainly be modified, but it's nice to pick up all the ingredients in one little box -- and the three times I've bought the kit, the avocados have always been perfectly ripe. 

The kit has a shallot, garlic, jalepeno, tomato, lime, and two avocados.  We had more around so I added a third.  Check out the itty bitty avo that was in the bag with the others.  It's hard to tell in the picture just how little it is; smaller than an apricot. 

The kit directions call for dicing the avocado, but I like it mashed up.  I dice the shallot and garlic really fine, seed the pepper and tomato, squeeze every last bit out of the lime, and mix it all up.  Easy-peasy, and very, very good.

Chips with salsa and Tofutti cream cheese

I miss cheese.  Spanish Manchego, brie, bleu, Havarti, sharp cheddar,  Mascarpone, fresh mozzarella, smoked Monterey Jack, feta, Parmesan. . . okay -- this is torture and I'm going to stop. 

I've never found a good soy cheese, and most contain a little dairy anyhow.  BUT, the Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese is pretty good mixed up with my favorite salsa.  I dip corn chips in it, but you could find more creative uses, I'm sure. 

My former mother-in-law used to make a great chili and cream cheese dip which I'm hoping to try and recreate one of these days.  I'll even take photos.

Homemade Hummus, sans garlic

Hummus and chips.  It's a meal for me on far too many days, because it's quick and safe to eat and actually pretty healthy.  But, you know, sometimes I just don't want to deal with the tremendous garlic breath it leaves me with.  Especially if I'm going to yoga later.  Garlic breath makes it impossible to fully enjoy the sighing exhales after 90 minutes of ujjayi breathing.  I want my sighing exhale, so I decided to make hummus without garlic.  I know it's intrinsically wrong, since the real ingredients are chick peas, tahini, lemon juice. olive oil and garlic.  Lots of garlic.  And then, more garlic.

The result was, um, bland, even though I used cumin for seasoning and garnish.  That was fine with me at first, but then I decided that I could dress it up some with things that wouldn't leave me with bad breath.  Why do the sugar-free mini altoids have to contain WHEAT?  WHY?  I took out a couple of small bowls and experimented a little.  The basil hummus was good, but the cayenne and paprika was wrong.  The cayenne was right, but the paprika was too deviled-eggy, if that makes sense.   I found myself wishing for some sundried tomatoes or roasted eggplant to add instead. 

If you've never made hummus before, try it out.  It's easy and good and a quick thing to bring to parties. 

• 2 cups canned (drained) chick peas
• 1/2 cup tahini
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• as much or as little garlic as you like
• 1 tablespoon cumin (or to taste)
• s&p
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Puree everything in a food processor, except for the water and the 1 tbsp of olive oil.  With the processor on, add enough water to get the right consistency.  Serve the hummus in a bowl, sprinkled with cumin and the rest of the olive oil and a huge bag of corn chips.