My youngest sister started college a few weeks ago, fah fah away. The last night we all had dinner together, I went a little wild. She had requested chicken enchiladas and I decided to go all out and add appetizers, ramp up the enchiladas and do dessert. She and I have been known to devour guacamole at really unhealthy speeds, so homemade guac seemed the way to go.

I hit up our local farmers market fairly often and got this gorgeous heirloom tomato the week before. It’s a German Stripe and this picture does not do its size justice. This thing was huge. I took half, removed the seeds and diced.



Roasted some garlic



Roughly diced half a red onion



Juiced some beautiful limes. These are not all for the guac, I also used limes in the chicken for the enchiladas.



Juiced 3 of them for the guac with the best juicer ever.



A note: this juicer, which I adore, is a Williams-Sonoma product. I’ve added a disclaimer to my about page and included it here as well:

I work part-time at my local Williams-Sonoma store and as such, you will see a number of WS products that I use in my daily cooking within my photography. While my colleagues at the store are aware of my blog, there is no sponsorship or relationship of any kind between me, my blog and Williams-Sonoma Inc. The products shown are items I use regularly and are included because I genuinely like them and because they are relevant to the production of whatever food I am showing. If at any time a product outside of these parameters appears, I will make specific note of it within any post it appears.

Anyway, by this time the garlic was done roasting.



Chopped a handful of cilantro



Split the avocados and removed the nut. All together now with seasonings!



What you do next depends on your preference for chunky versus smooth guacamole. I prefer a smoother consistency, so I processed most of the avocado pretty thoroughly. Add the tomato and lime juice at the end and stir in, no need to process everything to a pulp.



You can download this recipe here!

Tags: appetizer, mexican, summer, seasonal, vegetables

I woke up this morning to 60° temperatures, beautiful blue skies and the realization that summer may just be over. And what a summer it has been.

We’ve had natural disasters -

A flood! (Thanks Tropical Storm Lee!)



A tornado!



An earthquake!



A hurricane!




No joke, it’s been a little ridiculous.

But it wasn’t all disaster.






It’s been a beautiful summer. And that’s the summer I’m clutching onto with this recipe.



It’s almost not fair to call this a recipe. It’s basically two steps. One ingredient: chunks of juicy, delicious watermelon. Put them in a blender. Blend. Add straw. Drink.



I’m also hard at work overhauling the navigation on this here blog. My months away have given me new eyes on some clunky tools and missing features. Currently up, but pretty bare: my recipe page! Every recipe I post will be available on this page, sorted by dish type, seasonality, special diet...but I need you to tell me what would make it easiest for you: What categories do you look for? Is dinner versus side specific enough? You tell me.

Tags: fresh, fruit, seasonal, summer, easy

Sometimes the very hardest words are the easiest to come.

(source)

I was 17 and a junior in high school. We had just wrapped up an all-school conflict resolution assembly and were arriving a few minutes late to 3rd period Physics. As class was just getting going, a senior who I never knew socially but to this day remember his full name ran in and yelled to turn on the TV. Our teacher, shocked at the outburst, surprisingly listened to him and turned it on. There, above the streaming oblivious crawl, stood the World Trade Center, billowing smoke. He muted the TV and tried to continue the day’s lesson. I have no idea what the topic was, because we were all transfixed by the screen. He was still teaching when the whole class screamed and we saw the second plane hit. Three of my close friends were in that class with me and I remember all looking at each other with mirrored shell-shocked expressions.

They kept us in school that day and the schedule pressed on, but what I really remember are small things. The utter silence in the hallways, everyone focused on simply getting there; the news getting around that two of our teachers had children who worked in the WTC; the classmates who had parents and relatives who worked nearby; skipping lunch to huddle in the orchestra room and watch the news and seeing that first al-Qaeda video, claiming responsibility.

I am back and tomorrow I’ll be here with a delicious end of summer recipe. But today, take a moment to remember where you were, who you were with, and how that day may have changed your life and our country forever. Remember the men and women whose lives were cruelly ripped away and remember the men and women who ran into unspeakable chaos and danger to offer aid.

Never forget.