On The Menu: Simple Guacamole

Hi, my name is Amanda, and I'm addicted to guacamole. I probably buy two avacados every other week and make fresh guac for myself. Luckily, Scott doesn't like avacado, so I don't have to share.  Here's what you'll need:

1 ripe avacado
minced fresh garlic
lime juice
garlic salt (or onion salt)

Here's the best way to cut your avacado: Slice a vertical line all the way around the avacado and twist the two halves in opposite directions to separate. To remove the pit, place the half with the pit skin side-down on a cutting board and hit the pit with the blade of a sharp knife. Wiggle back and forth to remove the pit cleanly from the avacado. If your brave, you can hold the avacado half in your hand like chefs on the food network do. However, if you have terrible hand-eye coordination like myself, I'd recommend placing the avacado on a flat surface that doesn't include your precious hand-flesh. Here's what the avacado will look like when cut and pitted:

Next, Score the flesh of the avacado in a checkerboard pattern, cutting to, but not through, the outer skin like so:

Flip the avacado half inside-out over a bowl to remove the flesh from the skin (that sounds super gross, but you know what I mean):

Here's all your ingredients thus far for the guac:

If your avacado is ripe, you should have no problem mashing the fruit to your desired consistency. You could use a food processor, but it's unnecessary most of the time. Plus, no need to dirty another utensil. Add a few drops of lime juice to your mixture. After you've mashed the avacado and added the lime juice, add in however much minced garlic you like. I put in about 1/2 tsp:

Next, add in garlic or onion salt to taste. Be sure and test as you go with your chips you plan on eating with the guacamole. If you have a very salty chip, don't add in too much garlic or onion salt. My favorite chips to eat with guacamole are blue corn tortilla chips. Tostitos makes a good organic blue corn chip but they're VERY salty. With this batch I used the Art's Blue Corn Chips which are much less salty:

It's all about adding and testing as you go. If you like more "stuff" in your dip, add in some fresh chopped tomatoes and or minced shallots. Enjoy your fresh guacamole, and don't feel bad if you don't want to share!