Five Minute Guacamole

I never thought I'd get my favorite guacamole recipe from an elementary school recipe book, but lo and behold I did. Many years back, my brother came home and taught me this recipe. To this day, I have never tasted better guacamole. The only thing that came even remotely close was Chipotle's recipe, but that is still miles away.





Five Minute Guacamole: (Serves 2, Adjust ingredients as necessary.)
1 avocado
A liberal sprinkling of chili powder
Salsa (a ratio of about 1/5th the amount of avocado:salsa)

-Scoop out avocado and mash it into a pulp.
-Add a liberal amount of chili powder. I generally make the center of the bowl a red circle before I stop.
-Stir in salsa. I like to use chunky salsa as it gives the guacamole a different kind of texture, but most kinds work really well.
-Enjoy! That's it!


This dish is best served with chips and in a non-neon orange bowl that was made in the 50's.

A few of my favorite things

Recipes I've made in the past that were HUGE hits with people:

Chinese Lemon Chicken
Review: Out of curiousity, I ordered the dish from a good Chinese food place nearby. This recipe RUINED this as a takeout dish for me. It was absolutely delicious. My gauge was that my S.O. (who is generally a picky eater) asked to take the leftovers in for lunch the next day. 5/5!

Chicken Milano
Review: This one has become a default for dinner. It's insanely easy to make. I use pre-minced garlic (the stuff that comes in a huge jar) so it is just a matter of defrosting the chicken and spicing it. Almost no prep time whatsover. This goes really well with a side of garlic bread. Another 5/5

Chicken Piccata
Review: For some reason this recipe initially scared me. It was almost offensively easy to make. I recommend doubling the sauce and serving it over rice (I actually boiled the sauce and then cooked the rice in only that). If you like lemon, this dish is phenomenal. 4/5.

Churros!
Review: This was a huge mess to make and back before I had a dishwasher. I STILL don't have a deep fryer, so this was done in a big frying pan with me wearing glasses and a sweater to avoid splattering. The result was absolutely delicious and everyone I shared them with agreed they tasted amazing, but I don't intend to do this again unless/until I get a deep fryer. Oh, if you lack a pastry bag, you can do what I did. I cut a hole at the bottom of a plastic bag and it worked almost as well. 3/5

Cheddar Baked Chicken
Review: I don't make this often as this is one of those dishes that tastes fantastic but leaves you feeling kind of oily for eating this. Once the cheese gets crispy, this is one of the most delicious things ever. I was hesitant to make this as rice crispies seems like such an odd addition to a dinner food. However I've made this for multiple people and all of them love the crispy taste of this meal. If you ever make this, try using different kinds of cheeses. I found that a nice taco blend or something spicy makes this dish into something new! 3.5/5 (points lost for health factor)

Grilled Shrimp Scampi
Review: I discovered after making this that my S.O. doesn't like scampi too much. Oops. It came out well though, and he ate it and enjoyed it, which does say a lot. This recipe makes a TON of food. Either invite a lot of people over or be prepared to eat this for leftovers for the next few days. Which isn't an entirely unpleasant situation to be honest. 4/5

Breaking the blog's cherry with my favorite treat!

Ah, the scent of new blog. Smells like cheesecake currently. That may have something to do with the fact I took it upon myself to complete an old challenge from the Daring Bakers that I found while using stumble upon. Pictures to come when they are complete.

This was a blast to make. Over the past year, I've become a pro at making cheesecake in 20 minutes or less. Were my electric mixer a person, I would potentially consider running away with it for a hot passionate fling. Making the balls was a bit harder as after one or two they would stick to my hands. I solved this by using an ice cream scoop to get an adequate amount of cake each time, and having a bowl of warm water to wash my hands every so often. Getting the parchment paper into the freezer was also a bit of a challenge which I solved by putting a baking sheet under the paper, moving it to the freezer and taking the sheet away.

This post will be updated with pictures and the rest of the account once I get back from work and get to dip them in chocolate!

Recipe info:
Makes 30–40 pops
5 8-oz pkgs cream cheese room temperature
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream
boiling water (as needed)
thirty-forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 lb chocolate, finely chopped
2 tbsp vegetable shortening
assorted decorations: chopped nuts, colored sprinkles, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees (optional)

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil. In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream. Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes. Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight. When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety. Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.


Update: Aaaand fail. After going through two bags of chocolate, I finally managed to get the chocolate to melt properly (I really need to get a real double boiler)...and by that point the effects of the freezer had undone themselves. Room temperature cheesecake on a stick =/= successful cheesecake pops. Alas.