September 16: Guacamole Day
Food of the Day: One-Year Goal
Day: #72

Emily made Lazy Guacamole — thank God! Weren’t you all beginning to wonder about a mom with five kids, managing hearth and home, the school year, and babysitting jobs, who still had time to serve up the food of the day, every day? Now you know for sure that Emily is real and not my make-believe friend.

Guacamole is one of my favorite foods. I made the real thing because I don’t have five kids, and I can make Cole chop the onion and slash the avocados.

Let’s muse, shall we?

Once upon a time we grew our own magic guacamole plant. I called him Señor.

From the time Cole was about three, he loved guacamole and helping Joe make it, which they did most weekends.

One weekend, Joe and Cole decided they should stick toothpicks in the avocado seed, put it over a glass of water, and place it on the sunny kitchen window sill. Joe told Cole he would soon be picking avocados off our window sill. Well, naturally, to a dumb little kid, “soon” meant the next day.

This is not Señor but it sure looks a lot like Señor

Joe explained that growing avocados would take time, but miraculously, the very next day, he called Cole into the kitchen and pointed out the tiny roots that were already growing out of the avocado seed into the glass of water. Cole matched Joe’s excitement and immediately insisted that I come into the kitchen so he could proudly show me the progress his avocado plant had made. Naturally, I clapped and applauded, and told Señor he was amazing. AMAZING!

Next week, Joe became excited over the sprouts springing from the seed. Yes indeed, those were some mighty special sprouts Señor was sprouting.

While Cole was patiently waiting for the first avocado, he would sit in his dad’s lap, and they would look up avocado recipes while talking about how big their avocado was growing.

Soon it was time to plant Señor in some dirt. Keep in mind that I just watched this whole process, applauded and encouraged, but did not ask questions. Imagine my amazement, and Cole’s amazement, when, by the end of the next week, a large bean pole-like avocado stalk had shot right out of that pot. Cole was beside himself with excitement.

This is not Señor but it looks like Señor

Joe now guessed we would have avocados by the next weekend. Each night that week, when Joe came home from work, he would check on Señor with his best buddy and tell him  it would be just a few more days before we had avocado’s.  Cole could even see the avacado “noses” peaking up from under the dirt. Joe guessed right, and when Cole woke up from his nap on Saturday, Señor had three (one for each of us) magnificent avocados to show off. Cole picked the avocados with excitement, and we all agreed that they were the most beautiful avocados ever grown.

I was concerned that our sweet boy would not want to slice open his beautiful avocado, but not only did he want to turn them into guacamole immediately, he also wanted to “slash open all the avocados all by myself with the big knife.” Kids are so violent.

It was the best guacamole we had ever eaten.

Cole does not remember much about growing Señor, but these days, when we dip our chips into our homemade guacamole, he will often remember how good his dad’s guacamole always was and wonder why ours is never quite as good . . .

. . . I always tell him his dad had the magic touch.

♥
Kb