tradition & cheating

For a long time, I didn't like tomatoes because of their texture. I've since come around, but I'm still not ready to cook with them, I think. So my offering for the last week of SummerFest 09 is a little bit of a cheat. I know, I know, again. The recipe calls for salsa, but I think a less chunky version goes best and without some sort of food processor it seems hard to accomplish. Excuses, excuses, yeah. But enough of my cheating - here are salsa recipes from epicurious, or check out the other SummerFest entries - and let's move on to my own recipe.

When I was younger, my mother would make a dip for New Year's Eve every year, eaten somewhere between dinner time and the ball dropping. It was the only time of year she made it, and so we - or at least I - looked forward to it every year. Somewhere along the line, though, that changed - I think it was when I went off to college, and when my mom asked what sorts of foods I might want on my return visits, I started requesting taco dip.


And then I moved off-campus and finally had a kitchen of my own. So I asked my mom to send the recipe and got that index card shown above in the mail. I made it and probably foisted it upon my friends a few times. At my old job, I brought it for lunch a few times and one especially colorful coworker insisted on trying it. I told her it was my momma's recipe and she said, "Well, tell your momma you did a fantastic job! It's delicious!"



Taco Dip

This recipe started off - as far as my history with it goes, I'm not sure where my mom got it - as something my mom would make for office parties, always a smash hit. It also halves wonderfully for a smaller serving (which is great when you're cooking for one).

8 oz. cream cheese
16 oz. sour cream
1 pkt. taco seasoning (or about 4 tsp. Mexican seasoning)

Combine all of the ingredients, making sure to mix thoroughly. Place in the refrigerator overnight to set. Using the dip as the first layer, add as many layers as desired of salsa, lettuce, and/or cheese! Serve with tortilla chips.

Summertime laziness

This cooking thing has sunk its claws deep in me.

Don't get me wrong - I'm still pretty lazy about making my dinners, especially in the summer heat when all I want to do is sit around in air conditioning and watch Arrested Development on DVD for the umpteenth time. It's just that walking through Bethesda the other night, longingly looking through the Le Creuset window, I realized that I've wholly submersed myself in this. I just finished Julia Child's My Life In France, and most of the other books on my reading list are food memoirs. I am even undertaking a top-secret baking project.

I think part of why I was always so hesitant to step foot in the kitchen was because I gendered the experience traditionally feminine, and that was the last thing I wanted to be (even before I discovered feminism proper). It still weirds me out a little bit, I'm not going to lie, but there is no mistaking the sheer thrill I get when I see scones rising in the oven, or sauce coming together, etc. Clearly this is good for me, in so many ways.

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Most of my food discoveries have come from not wanting to be rude and just eating the food put in front of me. I used to be a very picky eater and some of those cautious tendencies remain, though I'm much better. So I probably would have come around to guacamole (and avocados) eventually, but the process was hastened by Andy. When we dated our junior year of college, he was certainly the cook in our relationship. Early on, he made guacamole for some function or another, and - again, not wanting to be rude - I tried it. I haven't looked back since.

It took moving here to get me to make guacamole for myself, because once we got to be friends again I could usually pester Andy to make it whenever I wanted. It was because he made it in my kitchen so many times - notably after my thesis defense, after I confessed I hadn't really eaten anything the whole day out of nerves - that I was able to recreate it at all. See, guacamole is ridiculously simple to make, but it isn't just avocado. So this is less a recipe and more a suggestion of ingredients, for those days when the act of making dinner is just too much. As Julia would say, bon appétit!

Quesadillas with Guacamole

Lazy dinners, ones that don't really need recipes, are kind of my forte. After I get home from work, the last thing I want to do is make a fancy dinner for one. So, yeah, there tends to be a bit of Amy's frozen pizza or Annie's macaroni and cheese. With the onset of summer, though, I've been craving avocados.

As it turns out, quesadillas are a fantastic vehicle for this. My preferred combination is plain cheese quesadillas with guacamole, but avocado quesadillas are also delicious. Before I became a vegetarian, I also quite enjoyed chicken quesdadillas. (It should be obvious at this point that I am a big fan of cheese. I am the sort of girl who has at least three different types of cheese in her refrigerator at any given point.)

Let's get serious, though: guacamole. Here are the necessary things: avocado, salsa, garlic, salt. I like to leave the avocado pit in, as it prevents oxidation(!), but I know some people don't like this. And this is really all to taste. I usually only put in a splash of salsa, but a clove of garlic per avocado and probably too much salt for most people. If I have them around, onions and lime juice are good to put in, but are certainly not as key as any of the other ingredients.