The Guacamole Obsession Continues...

...all summer long.

We've made it oh, I'd say about 10 times this summer? No big deal. Well, the taste is. It's really easy, just kind of messy. Making your own guacamole is so much tastier and healtheir than the store bought "guacamole dips." Yeah, watch out for that word dip--that's just a nice way of saying they added a crap ton of sour cream or, even worse, mayonnaise. Ew. It hurt to type that. Soybean oil, I despise you. We usually make guacamole with mangoes butsince it's always a huge juicy mess, we tried fresh pineapple chunks this time...El guacamol fue fantástico! For all you non-bilingual losers, that means the guacamole was fantastic.

Guacamole essentials:

Ingredients:
2 ripe avocados
1 medium tomato, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped pineapple, plus 1 tbsp juice
juice of 1 lime, plus a 1 tbsp lime zest
2-3 tbsps fresh cilantro, chopped
salt, pepper, cumin to taste

Directions:
1. Using a big spoon, scrape out the inside of the avocado from the casing & pit.
2. Mash with the back of a large fork or a sturdy whisk.
3. Add tomatoes, garlic, pineapple & juice, lime zest & juice, and cilantro.
4. Gently combine ingredients.
5. Season to taste.

Using leftover corn tortillas from when I made Enchiladas Verdes last week, I made baked tortilla chips. I no longer want packaged tortilla chips in my mouth. These were awesome.
All I did was stack 3 tortillas at a time and cut them into triangles using a pizza slicer. They're soft, so I didn't need Brandon's bulging biceps to cut them, like I do with everything else.

Then I liiiiiightly brushed them with olive oil and sprinkled them with a bit of salt, pepper, and cumin. There's a few to the right I added flax seeds to, just for experimental purposes...I say that as if every single recipe isn't an experiment...The flax seeds didn't stick to the chips very well. Whoops. I baked them at 450* for 10-15 minutes, or until I was starving and tired of eating guacamole on a spoon. Yeah, I did that. It was sitting there looking beautiful, I couldn't resist.

Before going in the oven:

Out of the oven, nice and crunchy:

The beautiful guac:

Just slightly excited:

For dinner, we picked up two steaks so I could make Steak Madeira. It is in my blood to make Chicken Marsala, which I do quite often, so this was a nice change. Madeira wine is similar to Marsala wine, just not as sweet. While Brandon grilled the steaks, I made the sauce.

Madeira Wine Sauce:
Ingredients:
Olive oil
2-3 cloves of garlic
8oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 cup Madeira wine
1 cup Low-Sodium Beef Broth

Directions:
1. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil to a large saute pan over medium-high heat.
2. Add garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes until softened and slightly brown.
3. Add mushrooms and cook for a few minutes until tender.
4. Add Madeira and beef broth.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat just a little.
6. Reduce the sauce in half or until it has thickened.

I sliced the steak into thin strips, then added them to the broth to soak up the flavor while it continued to thicken.Giving Brett a sample:

To go with the steaks, Brandon whipped up some sweet potatoes with milk, a little butter, and maple syrup.