Sick Husband & The Great Guacamole Disaster

I've been out of town for a while with no opportunities to cook, thus no blogging. But, now I am home setting forth on more cooking adventures. Since returning home, my husband has been feeling sickly. So, yesterday I cooked up a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup. It's a recipe I adapted from Rachael Ray to make my own. It is especially delicious in the winter or when you're just not feeling up to par. The vegetables I included are: carrots, celery, and spring onions. You can really use a yellow onion, but I decided to change things up a little. Then, its just 1-2 diced chicken breasts, 64oz (4lb) of chicken stock, salt, pepper, egg noodles, and herbs. I wanted to use some herbs out of my herb garden so yesterday I included chopped parsley, oregano, and thyme. It makes a huge pot, so we are continuing to enjoy it.


Tonight we are having tacos for dinner. We're making them the old-fashioned American way tonight with just ground beef. My favorite meat to use in tacos is Chorizo, a Mexican sausage. But- ground beef is what we had in the freezer to use, so ground beef it is. Since I was feeling in the Mexican food mood, I decided that I was going to make guacamole. I thought it'd be a breeze. The recipe was simple enough (Barefoot Contessa, Food Network), and I'd even watched Ina do it on TV before. No problem. Wrong. Clearly, my definition of a ripe avocado and what a ripe avocado is were two very different things. The under-ripened avocados that I bought kicked my butt. I cut into one and it was incredibly difficult to get the actual avocado-ness out. So, I tried to ripen the others in the microwave since I'd already cut the one open and I'd already prepared the other ingredients. Now, please note that I would have never gone to such measures under normal circumstances. Well, the microwaving softened the avocados enough to where I could use them. However, getting the actual flesh out was painful to the flesh on my hands which got burned in the process. Anyway, I smashed them up, sprinkled with fresh lemon juice, added garlic, tomatoes, and a red onion, and called it a day. It is certainly the worst guacamole I have ever had, but alas, it is edible (although I have no plans on serving it to anyone else, ever). The mess of the whole fiasco is still sitting in my kitchen. Pictures below.