Guac.

I love Guacamole more than anything - mostly because of my extreme affair with avocados. It must be an affair because Matt doesn't like them at all! Such as life, more for me!

When I make the Guac it is a little different every time. But the basic recipe doesn't change.

Cut the avocado in half. I have two methods for getting the meat out. Either I slice the avocado into pieces in the skin (tricky because if you push on the knife too hard you will slice your hand) or I spoon the meat directly from the skin. If I want all the meat, I normally slice it in the skin and then remove because I lose meat on a cutting board when I slice. In the long run, it doesn't matter at all.

I use the following seasonings in various quantities but they are all there for it to taste right.
onion powder
garlic powder
lemon juice - not very much
sometimes I throw in parsley
a pinch of chili powder

and CUMIN - Cumin has a smokey flavor that I LOVE!!! Friends will tell you that when I am changing recipes for flavor I always add cumin. We go through it almost as fast as garlic or onion powder in fact.

Play with the spices until you find a flavor you like. Make a note. Add any spice you are a fan of, but do it one at a time. You don't want to ruin the flavors by adding too much at once. Take your time, it's not going anywhere!

Consistency is a personal thing. I like avocado so I like my Guac chunky. Therefore I use a knife and slice through the avocados in the bowl and then use an awful potato masher so that the chunks survive. If I wanted creamy Guac I would use the food processor. It is easier than any manual labor.

Here is the only secret to making Guac - add salsa. Guacamole turns a nasty shade of brown as it oxidizes. If you want to avoid thinking that your Guac is going bad really fast, add salsa. It will change the color and then you won't know when it is oxidizing. You can do that, or if you are saving it to serve later, push saran wrap down onto it. If you cover it, then there is still air under the cover; you don't want any air in the Guac. The less air, the better.

Enjoy!