guacamole

thank goodness i live with someone or i think these days i would just neglect to eat at all. the workload is at once decreasing and multiplying exponentially. i know it is against the laws of physics; but there it is. i am approaching the end of the semester and yes there is less to do, and yet it seems like more because the days in which to get it all done are decreasing and there is less time in which to do it. i know one of the reasons John is hating school is not just because all he ever gets to see of me is my back as i am facing the computer whenever i am home; but also because i cook less and less, which i actually love to do. tonite, as he is in the kitchen making home-made stock and preparing salmon for dinner he "whipped up" some homemade guacamole. nothin' says lovin' like a mash of avocados, with onions, and tomatoes. yes folks it is as easy as that and yet as difficult to do well. you cannot just pulverize the avocados, there must be lumps, the onions and tomatoes must not be finely minced but roughly chopped. the spices are few and simple, salt, pepper, some lemon or lime juice, and some fresh cilantro if you have it. nothing more and nothing less, and yet it turns into heaven in a molcajete (which is one of those funky mortar and pestles you sometimes see quac served in). and of course, it always reminds me of those beautiful days in puerto vallarta, watching the sunset, eating guacamole with chips and drinking excessively. one of my favorite memories of PV is being there with Shirley (who is now persona non grata) on the 12th floor above the Bay of Banderas drinking margaritas and playing canasta until we were both too drunk to know if we were cheating or not. Shirl was a fun friend who fell out of favor for reasons too sordid to name here and who's christmas card last year spent a month taped to the underside of my toilet bowl lid. what!? you never heard of santeria?! the lesson is "don't fuck with a cuban!" anyway, oh yes, guacamole. another thing we have to thank the mexicans for.