‘Guacamole’ Articles at Sweetnicks

Recipe: Avocado Cream

August 13, 2015 · Narrative

A creamy twist on your usual guacamole recipe, this winner from Bon Appetit is worth having in your repertoire.

When it comes to guacamole, I’m a bit of a purist.

Avocado.

Cilantro.

Kosher salt.

Lemon juice.

THAT’S IT.

I’m all like naked chef about it, and really want the true flavors of the avocado to really come through.

No mucking around.

Which means it surprises no one more than me when I found myself trying a new recipe for guacamole.

With a significant bit of mucking around.

Nick is on a SERIOUS chips and salsa kick lately.

And chips and guacamole kick.

Thirteen year old growing boys and all that.

So this was a good one to get into rotation.

Bon Appetit calls it “lighter,” and I’m not exactly sure why, because adding sour cream to avocado doesn’t exactly make for a “light” guacamole, but whatevs.

I think the addition of the vinegar might make it last just a touch longer than usual, and adding in sour cream and olive oil definitely made for a super creamy rendition of guacamole.

And I pretty much want to spend the rest of my summer days diving into this bowl.

And you will too.

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Old El Paso Chicken Quesadillas with Homemade Guacamole and Salsa

October 14, 2013 · Ad-Free

So here’s the thing.

When I’m pressed for time and just can’t think my way through making an entire meal from scratch, I sometimes shove the guilt to the side, grab a main item from the freezer and make a handful of side dishes.

Kind of like Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade.

But kind of not.

As in way better.

Over the summer, through some of the lunches that Nick was having at one of his summer camps, he discovered he actually likes Mexican food. Especially quesadillas and burritos.

Go figure.

And likewise, I recently discovered that Old El Paso makes quesadillas. With an occasional heat-and-eat quick main course taken care of, it frees up more time to really up the ante with the most delicious sides that ever were.

Namely tons of fresh guacamole and salsa.

Which, next to a con queso, are pretty much the biggest reasons we love Mexican night.

No matter the meal, I am a big fan of dips and toppings and condiments and sauces. My kids? Totally not.

But when it comes to guacamole and salsa, we agree.

Homemade guacamole, the very best kind, takes just a few simple ingredients and only a few minutes to whip up. There is pretty much no reason to buy it pre-made from the store, because the taste just doesn’t compare (unless, of course, you are completely stuck and can’t find ripe avocados).

And salsa? Handful of ingredients chopped and/or whirred around in the food processor.

I personally like my quesadillas smeared with a bit of guacamole, sour cream, and salsa, so you get a flavor explosion with every bite.

Nick dunks his in the guacamole and then the sour cream, and uses the salsa for dipping with his chips.

And Madeline is a purist and pans all the dips and accompaniments that she can.

We’re working on her.

Tomorrow? The belated Weekend Photos in Review. Exhaustion and several hundred photos later meant that I needed no arm twisting to head straight to bed last night after a very full weekend.

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Recipe: Carnitas Salad

March 4, 2011 · Narrative

I have been to Chipotle exactly three times. Each time, I’ve ordered the exact same thing. Rut much? But when it’s so very good, why deviate, right? After the last time that my friend Beth and I went, I decided to get to work on recreating my favorite dish at home. After all, it really was just a combination of a few different components, packed with fresh ingredients and clean eating to the very last bite. Why shouldn’t I enjoy it at home?

When you order the salad at Chipotle, you start with the base of lettuce and build from there, deciding on your meat option, which salsa you want, whether you want red beans or black, rice or not, corn or not, guacamole, sour cream and so on down the line. When I’m ordering, I go with carnitas (pork), black beans, fresh salsa, cilantro lime rice and guacamole. Although it comes with dressing, I swear you don’t need it. All the other flavors mingle together to do a happy little dance in your mouth without it. The salad is filling, utterly satisfying and guilt-free.

As far as a recipe goes, the most important one you need is for the carnitas. It’s super simple since it just hangs out in your crockpot. The pork is insanely tender, coming apart with just the touch of your fork after it’s done.

To assemble your dish? When serving, I put out lettuce leaves in a big bowl, and then separate bowls for the pork, black beans, fresh salsa, guacamole (avocado, cilantro, sea salt and lemon juice, that’s it people), and cilantro lime rice (last weekend, I used my own made up version, but I have since found this copycat version, which I’ll be trying tomorrow night). This way, everyone could build their Carnitas Salad the way they see fit. And now with the recipe below, you can too, so hop to it. It’s so very good, especially when all put together … your only regret will be not having had it sooner.

Project 365
March 4, 2011, Photo #62
Went to a fundraiser tonight at a new (to me) gym, which is, by all accounts, more like a spa resort than a place to go sweat. Loved this poster on the way out.

Bonus picture from Thursday night. Jamie taught the kids the art of eating whipped cream from a can. As you can tell by the look of pure joy on Madeline’s face, she was fighting every second of it….

Emeril’s Chicken Patty Pockets with Pico de Gallo and Guacamole

April 15, 2010 · Narrative

My Facebook status tonight said something like, “Tonight I cooked with jalapeno peppers for the first and last time. omfg.” Every time I make a recipe that calls for jalapeno peppers, I automatically skip them. Spicy things just usually aren’t my thing, and even more so when it’s a meal I’m sharing with the kids. Today I decided to throw caution to the window and not skip over the jalapeno peppers. Trust me, that won’t happen again. And honestly, I didn’t even COOK with them. I just chopped them up. I carefully scooped out all the seeds, since that’s where most of the heat lies. The problem is that I, of course, rubbed my eyes shortly thereafter. I’m the kind of person that takes a pan out of the oven, and then not a mere 10 minutes later, I forget that it came out of the oven and grab it with my hands. Clearly short-term memory deficits are not my friend in the kitchen, so to protect me from future jalapeno pepper incidents, I’m going to just go back to skipping them. Moving on…

Usually on gym nights, I like to keep dinner simple and it’s a fend-for-yourself night or leftovers, but I feel like I haven’t cooked much this week (um, because I haven’t), so when I saw this recipe for Emeril’s Chicken Patty Pockets, I threw the set bedtime out the window and made a full dinner when we got back home. The recipe comes from a recent issue of Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine, and is crazy simple to make. The recipe calls for putting the patties into a pita pocket and then filling it with lettuce, tomato and cucumber, along with a Minted Yogurt Sauce. But then I saw a recipe for Pico de Gallo and Guacamole from The Pioneer Woman and decided to change things up a bit. I served the patties on the plate, topped with the Pico de Gallo and the Minted Yogurt Sauce on the side. The Pico de Gallo was where I got into trouble with the jalapeno peppers.

The chicken patties were a nice diversion from a red meat patty, and with the abundance of fresh vegetables, it was a meal I could feel good about serving, make quickly and one that would be kid-friendly to boot. Madeline is particularly crazy for tomatoes, and as soon as she saw me slicing and chopping them up, she clamored for a few pieces. She actually ended up eating a whole tomato before I even got dinner on the table. Nick was a little suspicious of a chicken burger, but actually ended up going back for a second. We were both a little suspicious about the Minted Yogurt Sauce. I ended up liking it (and I’m usually not a fan of mint in savory recipes) and he didn’t.

So when time is short, but you still want to deliver a homemade meal full of flavor and vegetable goodness, this meal is a great place to start. But if you’re like me, nix the jalapeno peppers. Just sayin’.

Project 365
April 15, 2010, Photo #78

I have this photo collage in the kitchen that I’ve been working on for the past two months or so. Originally I wanted to make it in the shape of a heart, and while I could get the heart shape of it right (and it is not as easy as it sounds), I couldn’t get it to fit the space I had picked out for it. So it slowly evolved and now takes up residence on our two pantry doors. I catch the kids going over and looking at the pictures often, pointing out different ones to friends, or just looking up smiling. That’s definitely one reason that I put it up. It’s fun to look back at the different pictures and remember the memories associated with each shot. Instead of getting put into a photo album (and believe me, we have many), it’s nice to have a daily visual of what’s important. I know people quickly scan and look to see if The Ex is up there, two have actually mentioned it. Of course he is. I think it’s important for the kids to see happy pictures from when we were all together. And that’s what these doors are all about. Happy pictures. Happy times. Happy memories.

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