Guacamole by Mortar & Pestle

Last weekend Dennis and I met my parents for dinner at this Mexican restaurant called El Dorado. My dad ordered some guacamole and the waitress actually wheeled out a cart and made it for us at the table. It was pretty awesome, and Dennis was very taken with it. I deduced it after he asked me to get us a mortar & pestle while I was at Marshalls this week. I have mad deduction skills!

I got us some stuff to make guacamole and so tonight we made it. I learned from the recipe that guacamole comes from two Aztec Nahuatl words - ahuacatl & molli, or "avocado sauce." Interesting stuff!

Ingredients
2 avocados
1/3 red onion
1-2 hot peppers (I used 1 jalapeno and 1 purple coffee pepper)
2 tbsp cilantro leaves, finely chopped
1 tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
1/2 tomato (about 1/4 cup)

This is pretty basic. Just put all of the ingredients in the bowl and mash them up! If you don't have a mortar & pestle then you can use a fork to smash up the avocado. My dad told me to watch the waitress cut up the avocado, which was great because she did it way more quickly and efficiently than I used to. Well, never again!

She sliced it in half, longways around the seed. Then to remove the seed, she just whacked it with the knife so it got stuck, then pulled it out with the knife.

Neato!

Once the seed was out, Dennis just scooped the avocado out with a spoon and dumped it into the mortar. Then he started pestling.

Action shot!

Close up

 Then we added all the other ingredients and pestled some more. Annnnd scene!

This guacamole was pretty awesome and very easy to make. One quick tip - the recipe said don't add the tomatoes until right before they are being served. I'm guessing the tomatoes go bad more quickly than the rest of the ingredients. We put half of the recipe in a tupperware in the fridge, then added the tomato to the rest and pestled that as well.

Here is the link to the original recipe.

Prepping for Some Guacamole!

So I didn't actually make anything new for this post, but I wanted to talk about some stuff so I made up a post for it. First of all, look at my peppers.

The green ones are jalapenos, and the orange & red are... wait for it... PURPLE Trinidad coffee peppers. Say what? I read on some forums that they mature and turn red, but they have been turning orange also. This is insane. Note - they are still hot as all hellfire.

I said I didn't make anything new, but I did make something... more pineapple salsa. I had some on top of salmon last week and I was licking the freakin plate afterward (that is a slight exaggeration). However, I only used purple peppers in it, and I added more than last time. I was seriously coughing while I was cutting these peppers because they were so hot they invaded my face. I had to step back from the counter... that is actually NOT an exaggeration. I'm a little scared to eat this salsa, but I will be brave and keep some milk and bread nearby.

Don't look directly into the orange flecks!

For some reason, stores only sell cilantro in boat-loads so I have a ton of it left over. Dennis & I are going to make guacamole on Friday, so we'll use some more for that, but I still feel like I need to find more recipes that use it so it doesn't go to waste. I looked up how to preserve cilantro online and I found this: put it in a glass of water and stick it in the fridge. Easy peezy.

My cilantro bouquet

The last time I made mango avocado salsa, I saved the avocado seed and cared for it and loved it and stuff, and now it's a big avocado tree! Ok not really, but I did stick 3 toothpicks in it and suspend it in some water.

That was over a month ago, maybe 2 months ago, and since then the bottom has cracked open and roots are coming out! OMG! I even had to move it to a bigger glass so the roots could expand. I just have to wait for a stalk to come out of the top and then maybe I can put it in a pot with soil or something. Yay.

Wouldja look at that? Awesome. It's a bummer though, because I have read and heard from people that they rarely bear fruit. Sad. Well maybe MINE will be the one exception. :) That's all for now, ta-ta!

Garden on June 29

The garden is off the hook, simply put. It is insane. Every morning when I take the dogs out, I take a look at it, feeling like a kid on Christmas excited to see what's there. As you can see from the last several posts, we have harvested a bunch of fruits/veggies and have used them in a couple of different ways. I've made zucchini bread and salsa, and yesterday Dennis asked me to make him a veggie sandwich, using cucumber, banana peppers, red onion, and spinach. The onion and spinach were store-bought, but hopefully my spinach seedlings will be edible soon!!

Spinach. I can kinda make out the leaves!

We got the cucumber from AJ's garden. Last night Dennis went out to fix out tomato stake-funnel thingy and as he was wandering around with his trusty Maglite, he spotted a monster cucumber. AJ said we could have it, so Dennis picked it and took a picture of it next to his arm to show how big it was.

 Huge cuke, plus a close-up of the bionic arm! I used that cucumber in his veggie sandwich.

Speaking of cucumbers, here's one of ours. It's probably about 4 inches. I found a recipe that uses cucumber in salsa - yum! Also, as Dennis remembers from The Other Guys, cucumber water is extremely refreshing. :)

Here's my next big zuke. I had 2 that got to this stage and then crapped out, so I harvested them and saved the bulb part in the hopes that it would be salvageable for my next batch of zucchini bread.

These carrots are crazy, but it looks like they are all growing in a big clump. Every one I have harvested looks like a gnarled finger. Sorry for the visual.

Here's my lettuce. It's probably about an inch off the ground, which means I need to start thinning it out soon. That makes me sad. I don't want to waste any!

My cilantro. Looks kind of weird, I know. But it has been doing better since I picked the flowers off of it. I won't let it go the way of my first spinach plant. *cry*

This is my strawberry plant. We had some strawberries, then some birds ate them. Ever since then, the tendrils have been crawling everywhere but no more strawberries yet. The main plant is at the bottom and you can see all the vines crawling every which way. Dennis took my cage off because he thought it was holding the plant back. Well we'll see... now that the birds aren't intimidated by the scary cage, I don't know what's going to happen.

This is just a shot of how many freakin purple peppers there are. I'm waiting to see if some of them turn red. So far I have used the purple peppers in salsa and Jamaican jerk pork chops.

FINALLY! A jalapeno! This has been the last plant to bear fruit (other than the peanuts, which grow underground, so who knows what the hell is happening with them). I can't wait to make something fun with these, like jalapeno poppers.

My bell pepper! Look how big it is. Now I just have to wait for it to turn red.

This is the insane watermelon plant. It crawls everywhere, and it has little tendrils that reach out and curl around anything within reach.

But it's gonna give me watermelons!! This is the biggest one I've found so far. Notice I used the word found, because you really have to search around the vine to find these. I'm sure once they get bigger I'll be spotting them left and right.

And one last beautiful picture to end on. This is the flower that has bloomed the most on either one of the black-eyed susans.

Pineapple Salsa, with 1/3 ingredients homegrown!

Ok so it only has 6 ingredients, but whatever, just let me have this.

I already posted this recipe here but I just wanted to add a new post bragging about being able to add ingredients from my garden. The old recipe calls for serrano pepper, but I just used cayenne and purple Trinidad peppers because, does it really matter? I don't think so.

I went out to my garden and clipped 2 purple peppers and a ton of cilantro. I knew I was going to have to pick through it because some of the leaves looked a little... meh.

This is what I had to work with.

It wasn't that difficult to find some good usable leaves, but I saw some creepy crawlies in there so I had to wash them thoroughly.

This detailed process consisted of me stirring the leaves around in some water with my finger. Then I strained them and did it again several times. I'm sure I got them nice and clean...and if not, this salsa has more protein in it than I bargained for.

I washed and pitted the cayenne and purple peppers, but I only ended up using 2 cayenne and half of one purple pepper because it was soooo hot. I thought if I used more it might be unbearably hot, and if not, I can always add more later.

Here's my finished product.

I'll be eating it on top of some salmon tomorrow. Nomnomnom!

Garden on June 20

I know I am updating ridiculously frequently, but the garden has gone insane in the past few weeks.

Exhibit A: Banana peppers.

 Above are 5 that are pretty much ready...

And there are more on the way!

These purple coffee peppers are so out of control. I counted 16 today, and I may have missed a few. Last week there were only 7. Say whaaaaaat?! I think I need to start picking some.

My green peppers are starting to grow too! The second pic is my biggest one so far, about 2.5 inches!

Little cucumbers are really coming back to life. Hallelujah! It looks spiky.

Look how crazy this zucchini is. It grows like a light bulb! Or a balloon animal.

This is the biggest zucchini. I think it might be ready to harvest.

I planted lettuce seeds a few days ago and they are sprouting...

As are my spinach seeds! Hopefully I will have better luck with the seeds than with my first plant. I let it flower, which you are not supposed to do, and my spinach was ruined. We threw it out and I planted the seeds in its place.

Pulled some carrots out today and shared them with the doggies.

Black-eyed Susans starting to come in nicely.

And finally, today's harvest. I don't know if the purple pepper is ready, but I am going to try it and see what it tastes like. 2 green cayenne peppers on the left, and a 4 inch banana pepper on the right. Ta-da!

Garden Pics from June 12

So I took some more pictures today, because... why not. Also, the plants are exploding and I can't believe how insane their progress is. Also, Dennis got us an old school sprinkler and it is doing a fantastic job. Plus it is fun to take pictures of it. Maybe my definition of fun is a little different than yours...

Prettttyyyy

Little water drops

Once the plants were thoroughly watered, they made great subjects for my camera. The water droplets look pretty sweet. My camera is a little old but it gets the job done and I am happy with the results.

Baby cayenne pepper

Another new cayenne pepper

First bell pepper!

Little bell pepper starting to grow

Carrots coming right out of the ground

I am loving these purple Trinidad coffee peppers. I have no idea what they are going to taste like, or how big they will get, but for the time being I can't get enough of just taking their pictures! In one shot there are 7 peppers!!

7... count em, 7 peppers

We bought this trellis today for our cucumbers. It's supposed to be for tomatoes, but the cucumbers won't know the difference, hopefully. We are hoping they will regain their strength & start climbing soon

Trellis to support the cucumbers

Cucumber is officially flowering!

Our zucchini plants are starting to bust right out of their pots. We were seeing some little zucchinis starting to sprout up before we moved the plants into their new pots, but probably no bigger than a golf pencil. Dennis moved both the zucchini & cucumber plants on Memorial Day, which if you recall was HOT AS HELL. Apparently, moving them in that kind of heat can shock the plant and kill it, which is why we thought they had kicked the bucket. We were totally bummed. But in a shocking twist ending, they both started to regrow. Yay! Now the zucchini plant has produced a zucchini almost overnight that is bigger than any of the other ones that took weeks to grow.

Zucchini, featuring my hand for size comparison

Last but not least, our first harvest:

Banana pepper!! I thought this pepper looked ready to pick, and when I grabbed hold of it to snip the stem, it just fell off of the plant. So I assumed that was the pepper telling me it was ready. I washed it, chopped it up, and put it in our salads for dinner. This was my first banana pepper EVER and I must say it really kicked the salad up a notch.The salad consisted of mixed greens, goat cheese, craisins, sunflower seeds, banana peppers, and Maple Grove Farms Asiago & Garlic dressing. Magnifique!

This garden has been such a fun and rewarding experience and I can't wait to see what crops up tomorrow!