I really love Mexican food. I figure that's a result of having grown up in California. When I spent my junior year of college in Italy, I was
almost 100% content to eat pizza and pasta and gelato for months on end... except that I
really missed Mexican food. To this day, every time I travel overseas, the first thing I want to eat upon arriving home is some good ol' Mexi chow. Sometimes I even stop for tacos with my luggage still in the car!
Still, as much as I love and appreciate Mexican food, I've got nothing on my brother Jeremy. He is a true
Mexican Food Appreciator. Some sizable percentage of his Facebook updates are foursquare check-ins from various taquerias around town. I think his main interest is burritos, but he has always loved all foods Mexi, for as long as I can remember.
Sometime when he was in high school, he became our
family guacamole pro. If my mom was making enchiladas or tostadas (etc) for dinner, she would always ask Jeremy to whip up a batch of guacamole. He made a super tasty guacamole that we all loved. I don't remember his recipe, but I think it included sour cream and salsa? I have a special feeling about Jeremy's guacamole because at my parents' house, my mom did all the cooking (and still does!)... so it felt really neat that there was this one special dish that Jeremy needed to be called in to make. In hindsight, I'm sure my mom could have made some sort of guacamole herself, but she probably appreciated the help, and she also probably liked including Jeremy in the kitchen.
Those early years of guacamole-making were a sign of something to come, because my brother still likes to cook. I don't think he does very often (his girlfriend is a super good cook!), but he likes grilling and barbequeing, and I'm sure he still makes a mean bowl of guacamole!
in my family, we call it "guac"
I have two favorite guacamole recipes that I usually use these days: there's a super tasty Guacamole with Sprouted Quinoa recipe from "The Artful Vegan" that I love, but it takes two days to sprout the quinoa, so I don't usually make it. I guess I am a more spur-of-the-moment guac eater, and not such a premeditated guac eater. So, in the end, I usually go for "The Only Guacamole I Ever Make," from Viva Vegan. It's super quick, super easy, and super tasty. My kinda recipe!
By the way, in case you don't about The Texas Tornados,
here is a great song about making guacamole:
I love Mexican food, too! Getting Viva Vegan! really sealed the deal for me, I would be happy to eat any of those meals all day, every day!
ReplyDeleteI love that your bro was the Guac Maker in your house - no Mexi meal is complete without a side of avo!
I love the drawing about taking pictures of your food before eating it! Before I went vegan I never took photos of my food, and now it feels like I do it all the time :)
ReplyDeleteha ha, and GUESS WHAT? It turns out that my brother DOES take pictures of his burritos! He emailed to tell me so! ha ha.
DeleteI'm new to reading your blog and I don't see links to the recipes you're talking about. What am I missing?
ReplyDeleteHi Pattykim, thanks for reading! I post recipes sometimes (if they are my own recipes), but if the recipes are from cookbooks that are still out on the market, I usually just say the name of the recipe and the name of the book it's from. This helps support all my friends who are cookbook authors! :)
DeleteHa! We call it "guac" as well. When I first met Josh, he said he didn't like it and that he thought avocados were gross... he has certainly changed his tune over the years and we've become a Californian "avocado on everything" kind of household.
ReplyDeleteThe Viva Vegan guac is really good!
yeah, california is truly the Land of Avocados. They are so good and so plentiful. Enough to convert an Oregonian! ha!
DeleteMy daughter is in charge of making the guac in our house - we eat Mexican or Peruvian probably every third night! What makes her guac skills such a big deal is that she claims to hate the stuff - yet she taste tests it as she makes it, and always gets it right. Either she secretly likes it and doesn't want to let on, or she likes dirtying about five or six spoons from all of her taste testing. Either way, I'm glad it's already family tradition (she's only 6 1/2) that she's in charge of the guac!
ReplyDeleteI love this story! How sweet that she is already the designated guac maker at such a young age!! and how funny that she professes not to like it. I wonder if she'll change her mind someday?
DeleteI love Mexican food, too, though I can see I don't love it as much as you. ;) But I especially love guacamole. I have a favorite recipe that I got from my friend Claire. The problem here is that I don't always have avocados on hand and it's almost impossible to find them ripe when I need the guac. I used to have avocados around all the time but I think I may have eaten too many, and then I couldn't even look at them without feeling queasy. I may be just about ready to start having them in the house again.
ReplyDeletesigh. nothing like food overload to really burn you out. I've done that too... and sometimes it never really comes back. Honestly, I don't eat avocados all that often, though I do like them. I am not in danger of OD'ing on them!! :)
DeleteI don't know your brother but I already love him! I mean, if he's your family, he's probably amazing. I love that he had a special job. My brother's special job was to melt the maple syrup with the butter for pancakes and waffles (seriously, it makes all the difference. Melt them together first!).
ReplyDeleteooooh, what a great idea! And I love that your brother had a special job too! <3 hee hee.
DeleteThere is nothing better than fresh guacamole!
ReplyDeleteI know!! It's such a dinner-enhancer!!
DeleteTry it, Mihl! It's a really interesting recipe, and the little sprouted quinoas give a great texture. I am sorry for your lack of good mexican food. I think this may be a Europe-wide problem!
ReplyDeleteGuacamole = life.
ReplyDeletemmmm i loooove guac! when i think of the best guac i have ever had it would have to by my dad's. I don't know how he makes it, but when I see he bought avocados I get so happy!
ReplyDelete