Chunky Garden Guacamole

Chris and I spent last week in Aruba, a week that can be summed up in a few short words. Get up, go to gym, go to breakfast, go to beach, go to lunch, start drinking, go back to beach, continue drinking, go to happy hour....more drinking, go to dinner, sleep, wake, repeat. 

It was awesome. If you followed the previous blog you may remember that all of our vacations were vacations in the sense that we were not at work, but not vacations in the sense that we were relaxing, we always seemed to be "on the go". This vacation was meant to stop that, to just slow down, relax, not make plans. And that is exactly what we did. See below.

It was 90 degrees with a breeze, and the beach at our feet everyday. It's a mere 4 hours from Boston, I'm not sure why it took us 7 years to go back after our honeymoon, we were probably busy not relaxing on another vacation.

Being there in the warmth made me miss summer so much, spending hours in the garden, bent over with the sun on my back, tending to my herbs and vegetables. In the summer one of my favorite things to make is guacamole, I knew I had to make it as soon as I got back - it's not the same without picking the red onion, jalapeno, tomato and cilantro from your own garden, but this is a good standby until I can do so. 

I don't use a recipe when I make guacamole, so this one I added a few different things to mix it up. Here is how it went down.

Chunky Garden Guacamole

2 ripe avocados - pitted and scored to release from skin

1/2 medium red onion minced

1/2 jalapeno minced

1/2 carrot minced

1/2 green pepper minced

10 grape tomatoes, quartered and seeded

1 lime (juice and zest)

1/2 bunch cilantro chopped

coarse sea salt/ground pepper

I combined all the ingredients except for the lime, cilantro and avocado and set aside. In a large glass bowl I put the zest and juice of the lime and the cilantro, to that I added the avocado. I coated the avocado in the lime juice well to stave off the oxidation process so the guacamole wouldn't turn brown so fast. When this was all combined I added all of the other ingredients and mixed well. 

I know this isn't a true guacamole, but honestly it was awesome. We had it as an appetizer and then had vegetarian chili paired with a Malbec from Argentina - it was the perfect night in with friends, friends jealous of our tans - which will most likely be gone in no time.