Avocado Disaster

Yes, Max, I was a Girl Scout, and a Brownie, and an award-winning camper every summer at Camp Sleep Hollow. I had a sash crammed full of badges and that included all the Outdoors’ ones like Camping, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Bicycling, Campfire Cooking. I really was quite a tomboy. The badge that got a lot of laughs was when I earned the regular Cooking Badge. Everybody wondered how I had paused long enough in the kitchen to earn anything but an Eating Badge. My aversion to all things domestic was known to all.

Remember, when I first met you, and we were such earnest young brides, I really couldn’t cook. I left college with a kitchen repertoire consisting solely of Spaghetti and Meatballs, Deviled Steak, Grandmother H’s Turkey Dressing, and the ability to throw some lettuce into a bowl with bottled dressing that I called a Tossed Salad. Honestly, that was ALL I could cook. Everything I cooked for the first couple of years was done with a cookbook in one hand, and there were plenty of disasters.

Then I met you, sturdy Iowa farm girl, who was born in a kitchen. There was a very good reason you were always assigned the food details for those luncheons and I was made the greeter. Someone obviously had tasted my Greek Lemon Chicken Casserole that neither lemon lovers or Greeks would eat. My dishes would be sitting there, almost untouched, while yours were scraped clean and everyone would be begging for your recipes. Did I ever envy you!

How naive was I in the kitchen? The first time I tasted an avocado was in Guacamole Dip, which I thought was very fashionably Californian. A friend shared her recipe, and the next time we had a potluck at work, I decided to bring this treat. I bought my first avocados in the grocery and followed her recipe to the nth degree. Next morning when I went to the fridge to take out the Guacamole, it was this nasty, blackened mess. No one told me that you have to leave the pit in to prevent browning. Erma’s potluck contribution that day was a bag of chips. The Avocado Disaster ended up scraped into the garbage can.

I can’t imagine what I would have done with this recipe back then.

Avocado Salad with Celery Seed Dressing:

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup vinegar
1 cup oil
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fresh grated onion
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
1 avocado
Romaine or Boston lettuce

Place sugar, vinegar, mustard, salt, and onion in a bowl and let set for 10 to 15 minutes. Then with a heavy duty whisk add the celery seeds and sloooowly add the oil while whisking vigorously. If using a food processor like the KitchenAid 3-Cup Chef’s Chopper, add the celery seeds after processing.

This will keep in the refrigerator for at least a week or more, so consider making a double making as it is good on all kinds of lettuce salads, and even potato and macaroni salads. The very same recipe makes Poppy Seed Dressing–simply substitute poppy seeds for the celery seeds.

For this salad, just before serving peel the avocado and slice it. Make a bed of lettuce on a plate, decoratively lay out the avocado, and drizzle on the dressing.

Use your food processor to make the grated onion without tears. In the old days before we all had food processors, grating onions was not a pleasant chore. If you have them, use green onions with the tops as the tops give a nice green color to the dressing.

GREEN ONION TIP: When green onions are plentiful in the spring, and you are not using all of the green tops, simply chop the unused green tops into a normal chop size and place in a container in the freezer. When you need some green onion–which are mostly for color anyways–just dip out the amount you need. They don’t stick together and will remain useful for months. My husband came up with this idea as he is always needing green onions for Stir Fried Rice and Chinese soups.