My Mom just got internet access two days ago and since then, her and my little brother have been browsing through the blog and reading all my archives. My little brother is a bit sad that I haven't spoken about him much. Let me tell you about the little tyke. He is 11 years old, his short name is Edi and around this house the kids love to call him "Uncle Edi" which they think its quite funny as he is almost their size. When he comes to visit, my children love it, they have a playmate that can go outside with them all the time. Even the little neighbor kids come under his wing and he "is in charge" of all the kiddos--which is something my little brother loves. He is a smart kiddo too, he recently got a scholarship to attend a private school. But he is in a bit of trouble lately, it appears that he goes to the library to "study" and instead he plays with his friends, thus the reason of acquiring the internet at home--my Mom can supervise him there and make sure he does his homework. He is my little brother and I love him dearly--eventhough he arrived on my 18th birthday thus throwing out the window my big bash party, tsk, tsk, tsk. I am planning to celebrate his 18th birthday with him...maybe I should have a baby that day and make him spend the day at the hospital like I did when he came--that should be good payback.
Today is my Mommy's birthday and as always, I get a kick out of sending her flowers. Every year I send her a few bouquets for different occasions and each time she gets so excited. I order them from 1800Flowers and they are always so nice, although the balloon options are in English, they usually change them to Spanish just for her. She is at work today and I am hoping the florist waits til about 4pm EST to deliver them.
I would like to dedicate today's post to my Momma or as I usually call her Mami. She is a great Mom, a wonderful friend, and the bestest Abuelita. She is young enough to play hard with my kids and they love that...they love being able to go out and ride bikes, run, jump and dance. We love you Mom!
To celebrate her birthday, I would like to share her Guacamole recipe with you. We love to have guacamole with chips, or with tacos. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Ingredients:
- Avocado
- 1 medium size Roma tomato
- 1/4 of onion (or less if you would like)
- 1/4 of jalapeno or serrano pepper (optional)
- 3 or 4 little sprigs of Cilantro
- 1/4 of a juicy lime
- pinch of salt
- pinch of black pepper
- pinch of cayenne pepper powder (optional)--we use Pico de Gallo
Serves 2, in our house it will serve 1.
Step 1: Cut the Avocado in half, not lengthwise but widthwise. Cut all around so you have two halves. Once they are cut, insert a spoon between the skin and the inside of the avocado. Place your avocado above the bowl where you will stir the ingredients so the inside falls in it. Run the spoon around the skin of the avocado, kind of scraping the skin.
Before repeating with the other side, squeeze out the seed by simply squeezing the avocado, it should pop right off. If it is stubborn, take it off with the spoon. (If you are not going to eat the guacamole right away, save the seed to place in the guacomole dish--placing the seed in there supposedly helps in keeping the guacamole from turning black--I don't know if it is true, but I don't tempt fate, I just leave it there) Repeat the spoon procedure with the other half.
Step 2: Once the avocado is in the bowl, with your knife cut it into small pieces. Now get a smasher. I don't have anything for this purpose so I use a cup that has a flat bottom. Hold the cup and smash away. The avocado needs to be in a mooshy consistency.
Step 3: Chop all the other ingredients: tomato, 1/4 of onion, 1/4 of jalapeno pepper and cilantro sprigs. With a spoon, mix the chopped ingredients with the avocado.
Step 4: Add a pinch of salt (or to taste), pinch of cayenne pepper powder, and a pinch of black pepper (or to taste). Mix.
Step 5: Squeeze the lime into the mixture. Ta-dah! It is ready. Serve it with chips at Superbowl time--be sure to add lots of jalapenos for the guys. Chill in the refrigerator if you are not going to eat it right away and put that seed in the mixture--you never know, best not tempt the fates.
How to choose an avocado: One of the hardest things that I have had to learn is how to choose fruits and vegetables. I still don't know how to choose a good watermelon or canteloupe or pineapple. But, I can definitely point you to the right avocado. Choose one that feels soft and yet firm to the touch. You don't want to choose one that is overly soft--those are too ripe and may have lots of black spots inside. The black spots sometimes are due to bruising but when the black spots are by the core of the avocado then the black spots indicate over ripeness. Do not get avocadoes that are hard, those are not ready. Place the hard avocadoes in a brown paper bag, away from the sun and allow them to ripe.
What is the hardest part about cooking? For me, it is coming up with the idea of what to cook and then finding all the ingredients. Cooking in itself is not difficult, nor agonazing (despite what I tell hubby). This week, I was invited to a little "party" to go try out a new place in town called DreamDinners. 
plans and now I am set for a few days and my kiddos won't be having hot dogs for lunch and dinner. 
