There is nothing that says to me "life is good" like a bowl of fresh, homemade guacamole. *DISCLAIMER* for those of you who are "guacamole purists" who believe guacamole should be nothing more than avocado, lime, salt and pepper, please turn back now. What I'm about to say WILL offend you.

Ok, now that we’ve got that out of the way, we can talk guac. My parents have an avocado tree in their backyard in California. While I was home a few weeks ago, I grabbed a few under ripe ones and hid them in my carry on. I don’t know if that’s illegal. I hope I don’t get arrested. Please don’t tell the police, or customs, or the avocado patrol. Thanks.

I put said avocados in a brown bag on top of my refrigerator to ripen and totally forgot about them. Yesterday, on a rainy run, dreaming about sunny Zuma Beach, I remembered my brown bag of avocados. High tailing it home I dreaded they would be rotten when I got to them. To my surprise, I came upon beautifully ripened, guacamole ready avocados. I rushed to the store; got the few ingredients I didn’t have on hand and made… ta-da… guacamole.

This is the way I’ve made guacamole for I don’t know how long. I don’t know where I learned it, probably my cousin’s Nana. While I know she is not blood related, I like to believe it’s where I get my love for Latin food… and I know it’s where I get my love for tequila!

Ingredients (Folks, this is all “too taste”, there are no measurements, I’m sorry… I’ll give you my best estimate on how much I put in)

¼ of a red onion

1 ripe roma tomato (seeds removed. I’m convinced the reason people don’t like tomatoes are the slimy seeds, take them out!)

2 ripe avocados

One handful of fresh cilantro

1 clove of garlic

Crushed red pepper flakes (or a jalepeno, the jalepenos at the store looked funny, red pepper flakes were plan B)

Salt

Pepper

The juice of one lime

Directions

• Mince the red onion very small, not everyone is into taking bites of raw onion, think of your friends, unless you don’t plan on sharing (I hate sharing guacamole). Place onion into medium sized bowl
• Finely chop cilantro. Put that into the bowl with the onion.
• Mince the garlic, add to the bowl.
• Slice the avocado in half, and scoop out the meat, put that in the bowl too.
• Mush everything together, I like using a fork. Sometimes I use my hand, which freaks people out. I don’t really care though.  I’m sure a potato masher would work too.
• Dice tomato; don’t forget to take out the seeds, seriously people! Put that in the bowl with the mashed avocado, cilantro, garlic, onion mix.
• Add spices to taste. If you like things spicy, put a LOT of red pepper flakes. If you’re not so into spicy, add less. Or none. Totally up to you. Same thing with the salt and pepper. Guacamole should make you happy, not crying because of spice.
• Mix everything together. Taste it, add more salt, pepper if you think it needs it. (The red pepper flakes will get spicier with time, careful with that one. Remember the thing about spicy tears. We don’t want that)
• Add lime juice. Stir one more time. If you’re patient, let it hang out a bit and get the flavors to make friends. If you’re anything like me, grab a spoon and dig in. Yeah, that’s right I said spoon. Who needs chips?