Auntie, Elmo, and Guacamole

Four days later and I am still trying to get the smoke smell out of my house. Needless to say I have not been too excited about cooking anything since the Pecan Squares debacle.

I needed some inspiration, or just a kick in the ass. Who would have thought that it would be Elmo that did it?

Yes, THAT Elmo. Little, furry red monster Elmo.

Let's go back a few weeks....

On my son's birthday we had a great visit with a friend that works for Henson/Sesame Street. We got to see all kinds of cool and creative things at their workshop in Queens. The most exciting being some old friends....

We also got to see some props that our friend created. One of the items that caught my son's eye was a bowl of fake guacamole. I'm not sure what the attraction was, but he thought it was pretty cool.

Fast forward to a few days later when he asks if I could tape an episode of Sesame Street for him. Strictly for research purposes, now that he's been to the workshop. He wants to compare and contrast. Personally, I think it was for business AND pleasure. Who doesn't like to go back and watch Sesame Street?

To our surprise, the episode that I had taped included this:

The famous bowl of guacamole! Who knew?

There was a whole segment about Elmo making some guacamole. I wasn't paying much attention to it until the kiddo asked me if we could make some guacamole. Ummm, WHAT? I had to have him repeat himself because I could not believe what I was hearing. This is a child who is not a big fan of trying new foods and has a long history of hating avocado. 

Observe:

Yes, this was the reaction we got to trying avocado for the first time. It has been avoided like the plague ever since. So when he asked to try it again, I jumped at the chance!

I remembered that Auntie had a recipe for guacamole in the Barefoot Contessa book, and I was completely amenable to the fact that it did not involve anything that could potentially burn or catch fire. The kiddo wanted to use the recipe he heard on Sesame Street, but I needed to knock another Ina off my list. Auntie won out this time.

I assume it was a pretty basic guacamole recipe. Avocado, lemon, red onion, hot sauce, tomato. No cilantro in this one. It came together pretty quickly. I appreciate the fact that Ina calls for sprinkling the chopped tomato on top of the guac, because if there is one thing that skeeves me out it is raw tomato. I have no problem with sauce, ketchup, or sun-dried. But raw? Yuck! Fortunately I was able to flick them off of my portion. And for those keeping count, 173 calories a serving.

Amazingly, the kid tried it out and seemed to like it. He didn't have more than a few bites, but considering his initial reaction to avocado, we were really pleased! A few days later we went to a Cuban restaurant and ordered some guacamole with plantain chips. He went to town with that, and I must admit it was much better than Auntie's recipe!

So there you have it. Guacamole. It doesn't burn. Elmo likes it. Kids who previously hate avocado can change their mind, and even Auntie loves Sesame Street...