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guacamole

How to Cut an Avocado

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I love guacamole!

Well, I love chips!  If you have followed along on instagram or my face book page you know how much I love chips . . . potato, sweet potato, corn chips. I love crunch, salt and you know what else?  Watch the video below for perfect guacamole.classicguac

I’m a dipper!

I love cookies dipped into my coffee.

Sea Salt and Lime chips with my guacamole.

Buttered toast dipped into perfectly cooked eggs . . . ok, that was my pre-vegan days.

Hard crunchy artisan bread dipped into soup.

You get the idea.  

[Tweet “Are you a dipper or a dunker? “]

How to Cut an Avocado

Since I use avocados in my cooking so often, people will ask me “how do I pick a good one”.  That’s a tough question to answer because you really need to feel the avocado and see it BUT here are some of my best tips:

  • make sure the stem part is still on the avocado.  When the stem comes off it should be green.   
  • I buy Hass avocado because they grow year round–so you won’t need to worry about growing seasons
  • avoid fruit with blemishes
  • hold the avocado in the palm of your hand–if it’s hard=unripe, mushy=mushy and gross, firm with a slight ability to be indented=perfect
  • shake it–yes, shake that avocado!  Look crazy!  But if you hear a rattle, that means the pit inside has pulled away from the flesh and it will be over ripe.
  • I over buy avocados just in case one is bad–it takes a while to get the hang of picking out a perfect avocado.

The Video

How to eat Avocados?

We love guacamole and chips.bestafterschoolsnackever

I use it as a spread instead of vegan mayo.

I put it on my rice and beans with salsa.

I add avocado to my green smoothies.

I love salad with avocado and cucumber–that variation is posted on my instagram page often!

Tell Me

How do you eat avocados?

or are you from the school of thought that they are bad for you?  

Let’s chat about that, shall we?  Comment below or on the FB page!

How-to cut a Watermelon in 1 minute

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Super Easy Watermelon Prep

When I was pregnant with my oldest son–I ate a watermelon each day!  Yup!  One entire watermelon a day.  It was the hottest summer in California . . . I was big as a barn.  I cut way more watermelons that I care to count.  I decided to make this How-to cut a watermelon video. 

Restaurant Days

watermeloninfo

I spent over a decade in restaurants–the only job that I didn’t have was owner!  At times I would work in a deli in the morning and spend my evenings as a culinary artist in the fancy restaurants–it was a crazy non-stop life of food.  I’ve taken all I have learned over those years and use it in my home to feed my family healthy, interesting, and simple breakfast, lunches and dinners each day.  

One particular job that I had in the deli was fruit trays–especially during graduation season.  Think University of Michigan graduation with 100’s of 1000’s of people–and I cooked for a small percentage of them.  When I think about it now–the amount of food that I have cooked, boggles my mind!  

I would easily cut upwards of 20-50 watermelons on those weekends.  I was really, really good at it.  

Like Water for Chocolate

My sweet sister-in-law gave me the book Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies.
 The book is about a woman who cooks for her family and all of her emotions go INTO the food.  Then her person who eats her cooking has those same emotions!  (No wonder my family is a little bit crazy!)  I also think about all those graduates!

How-To Videowatermelonsummerlove

This is a super short video on how I cut my watermelons.  I use a filet knife for this project.  

[Tweet “This is the best video on how to cut a watermelon! I learned something new @ Renee’s Kitchen.”]

I’m curious–how often do you buy watermelon?  I buy 2 a week–that feeds my family as a side dish for four nights.  

Eat with L.O.V.E.,

Renee