Because, seriously? It seems like all I ever post about is food, between bread, diners, and assorted weird things. Oh, also movies. And cats.

This post is really for Rob, who has been following this saga.

So, I may have mentioned somewhere before on this site that I have some kind of inherited kitchen skills memory from my mother, even though I really didn't cook much as a kid. Well, the opposite of that holds true as well; if my mother never made it, then I have no idea what to do with it. And one thing my mother never used was avocados.

Avocados were not especially popular in upstate New York when I was growing up - I don't know if my mom didn't like them or didn't know what to do with them. I was not really anxious to try avocados myself, until I learned that I like guacamole. I wasn't sure because the first guacamole I had was full of cilantro, which I don't really like. But a nice, basic guacamole - some garlic, onions, tomatoes, and the all-important avocado - every now and then I get a craving for that.

But some of you may not know that the avocado is a finicky ingredient, and guacamole is a finicky dish. Avocados need to be bought unripe, and ripened at home in order to guarantee good flavor, and it is hard to tell when they are ripe, if you are completely inexperienced, such as myself. And guacamole doesn't keep - you have to make it right before you eat it, and I am pretty sure it will not be good the next day. Well, it is supposed to turn brown, but still not kill you, but I'm not sure how appetizing brown guacamole would be.

So a week or two ago, I bought myself a small avocado to test on. I think I bought it too ripe, since it was soft at the store. Then when I ripened it according to Rob's instructions, and waited too long to use it, by the time I opened it up, it was brown and nasty inside. Attempt Number One: Not a success.

So this weekend, I tried for Number Two. I got an avocado that was still pretty firm. I put it in a paper bag. And tonight, even though I was not in the mood to eat much at all since I had a big lunch, I took it out and cut it open. There were no brown spots - so far, so good. There was a little more green around the skin than in the photo above, and I thought that was the unripe part, but the yellowish part near the pit was actually harder to mash. But I think the ripening this week was a success.

So I mashed it up, and only added three things for this first experiment: lime juice (which Rob says will keep it fresh longer), some roasted garlic cloves (that was last week's experiment, and my new favorite thing in the world), and a little tomato. And it looked like this:

and it tasted pretty good, too, so I think this version can be called a success. Mike didn't have any, because he claims he doesn't like it, but he did helpfully say, "Try the guacamole" in Zapf Brannigan's voice several times.