Mexican Memories

Tonight as I was cooking up some flautas, making guacamole, and chopping up lettuce, different memories connected with Mexican food came to mind. Mexican food would probably be the closest thing I have to "comfort food", though I don't consider myself an emotional eater.

My most vivid memory of cooking with my mom was when I was somewhere around 8-10 years old. We were making tacos and I wanted to help. My mom handed me the lettuce and showed me how to core it by banging the end on the counter and popping it out. She then told me to shred the lettuce thinly. I distinctly remember cutting the lettuce very carefully, wanting to make the thinest most perfect lettuce possible for Mexican food. I think I succeeded.

When I lived in the Riviera apt. 90 some of my roommates combined food budgets and traded off making meals. I didn't always participate because I was still fairly vegetarian and I was quite afraid of having to eat (or not eat and offend my friends) meaty dishes. However, I have to admit that I could not resist their double decker tacos with homemade flour tortillas. Mmmmm...I still make tortillas with that recipe when I have a little extra cooking time. A conversation centered around the spicy salsa we had one meal still makes me chuckle.

One of us: "J@#$, I didn't know you liked spicy food."
J@#$: "My dad's from AZ." (in a tone that was very conclusive, as though that explained it all.)

And the final Mexican memory tonight was when I was making guacamole with one of my other roommates to garnish our dinner. It was customary practice at my house growing up to make guacamole by smashing up an avocado with salsa. I was just about ready to pour salsa into the bowl with the avocado. "NO! Don't put that in the guacamole! It'll ruin it." "What should I put in it then?" I asked. "You just need to smash the avocado with a little salt." I don't remember who won out on that one, but I remember thinking (and maybe saying), "That's not guacamole. That's just smashed up avocado with salt."

And now I make guacamole my own way. Avocados smashed up with fresh garlic, finely diced onion, lime juice, jalapeño salt, cumin and sometimes red pepper flakes and cilantro.

I'd never heard of jalapeño salt until moving here, but it is one of my most used spices.

Now I will remind you all that you do not have to let left over guacamole go to waste. Freeze it in a plastic zip bag or Tupperware. It keeps its color and thaws out marvelously.