Pico de Gallo and Guacamole

Homemade pico de gallo and guacamole graced our tv trays during the great eat fest of 2010 otherwise known as the Superbowl. Yes, I know that the Superbowl happened over a month ago and I am just now getting around to posting one of the appetizers that I made that day. So, I'm a little slow.

Anyway, I received the Pioneer Woman's cookbook as a Christmas gift this year and if you've never heard of the Pioneer Woman you'll have to go check out her website because she has some fantastic stuff on there. I had never before made guacamole, and let me tell you, there are a bazillion different recipes out there for variations on guacamole. Since I am such a visual learner I chose to follow the step by step instructions in her cookbook. Yes, I even bought, peeled, and chopped up an onion. If you know me you know that is about the third time in all my 15 years of being married that I have purchased and cut up raw onion to use in a recipe. It was also my first time using cilantro and I can tell you that if I chop it up again I will have a wooden clothespin over my nostrils. For some reason the smell of that herb got to me good.

You can find the recipe online, or you can also purchase her fabulous cookbook which has both recipes in it as well. You can also make pico de gallo and guacamole separate of each other if you would like to. Enjoy!


Pico de Gallo
Source: The Pioneer Woman

5 whole roma tomatoes
1/2 whole large (or 1 small) onion
3 whole jalapeno peppers
cilantro
lime juice
salt

Chop jalapenos, tomatoes and onions into a very small dice. (Leave seeds in your jalapenos for a hotter pico). Adjust amount of jalapenos to your preferred temperature. Next, chop up a nice-sized bunch of cilantro. Just remove and discard the long leafless stems before chopping. No need to remove the leaves from the stems completely. Place all of these ingredients together in a bowl and give it a good stir.
Squeeze the juice of half of one lime into the bowl. Add salt to taste and stir again.


Guacamole
3 whole avocados
pico de gallo
lime juice
salt

Start with buttery-soft avocados. Halve them lengthwise and remove the pits. Next, with a spoon scrape the �meat� out onto a large plate. Next, with the bottom of a clean cup (or with a fork) mash the avocados, making sure to leave it relatively chunky. Add just a couple of shakes of salt to taste. Next, add a generous helping of Pico de Gallo. Fold together. Lastly squeeze the juice of half of a lime over the top. Give it one last stir.