Real Guacamole

Recently, I wrote a blog post about fake guacamole dip. As a response this, my friend Terry from Toronto emailed me her real guacamole recipe. The secret, she says, is lime juice. I took her recipe and decided give it a shot. One ingredient that Terry's recipe didn't list that I added was fresh chopped cilantro. I made a point to get real tomatoes from a roadside stand instead of the the bland ones you get from the grocery store.

The resulting guacamole was delicious! I highly recommend this! Here's Terry's recipe: My recipe for guacamole contains only ingredients. But I think you just mash them all together and - VOILA* - guacamole. *a little linguistic inconsistency Unless you have a food processor (I don't... still), use avocados that are black - super-ripe and mushy and therefore easy to mash. The page from my recipe binder (which goes back to about 1980): For each avocado used: juice of 1/2 lime 1/2 tsp salt (approximately) 1/2 garlic bud (pressed) Tabasco 1 tbsp onion grated 1/2 tomato chopped Then, I have very helpfully written: For 6 avocados: juice of 3 limes 3 tsp salt 2 garlic buds pressed Tabasco 6 tbsp grated onion 2 tomatoes chopped

Mission Guacamole Revisited

As I understand the story, Dad was hosting a Mexican themed Superbowl party a number of years ago. Along with other standard Mexican fare, he picked up a jar of Mission Brand Guacamole. As he was serving his guests, he looked at the ingredients of this "guacamole", and noticed that it contained only traces of avocado. Dad was so offended by this that he wrote a letter to the Mission Company explaining how the product was fraudulent and that they were destroying the Mission Company's reputation. Mission responded by sending Dad some coupons. These years later, I thought I'd check to see if Dad's letter did any good. Does Mission still peddle avocado-free guac? I found a display of the product at my local grocery store to see for myself.

One look at the color of Mission Guacamole tells you there's a problem. The label confirms it. It contains 2% or less of avocado powder. Mission also adds insult to injury by writing the words "with GARDEN VEGETABLES" on the product cap. Mission must have a very liberal definition of garden vegetables, because other than "concentrated crushed tomatoes", everything I recognize as a vegetable is only present in powdered form. Looks like Dad needs to write these boys another nasty letter!

The success of Tech's season will be determined in the month of September this year..... three conference games out of the gate...all to teams they lost to last year.

First Day of Kindergarten!

Jack officially started Kindergarten this week! Compared to my first day back at University Heights with Mrs. Turman it was nothing. One benefit of all the pre-school perhaps...

Football Season!

College football season is fast approaching! Erin and I are heading down to Lawrence to help usher in the Charlie Weis era. We got some nice seats and we're looking forward to a fun night game. Hopefully the Jayhawks will start the season well.

Bad Guacamole

Dad gets credit for being the first in the family for noticing the horrible practices of the food industry and guacamole products. As I discovered on a trip to Walmart today, the horrors continue. Ask any person in the world, and they will tell you the central ingredient to guacamole is avocado. Ask the "chefs" from the food industry, however, and the answer to that question is apparently whipped vegetable oil and green food coloring.



Two clues for the wary stand out. First, the price is too cheap for real guacamole, because avocados aren't that cheap. Second, the term "flavored" is never a good sign. It always means that whatever ingredient preceding it isn't actually in the product. Chocolate flavored candy means there is no chocolate in the candy. Maple flavored syrup means you're eating corn syrup, not maple syrup. Be careful out there grocery shoppers! The industry wants to trick you into eating pure crap in order to make higher profits!

Call Me, Maybe - Song of The Summer

Like it, or not, Call Me, Maybe has emerged as the song of the summer.... here are the 2012 swimming olympians singing to it!

Swagger Wagon

Regarded as one of the better ad campaigns to land recently.... and it is indeed good.

Jack's Drawings

Jack's drawings continuing to evolve.  One regular theme is our family.  He likes to draw pictures of the four of us.  His most recent interpretation of our family is the first time he has given us all arms! 

Notice how he's made himself proportionally larger than the rest of us!

Happy 35th Anniversary to the TRS-80

Here's a nice article about our family's first computer.

An Innocent Man... the story

When listening to Billy Joel the other day I recalled a Summer day back in '83 shortly after his Innocent Man album was release when Dad took Bill and I to Memphis.

Back in the day, one of the highlights of going to Memphis was visiting the Mall of Memphis and a couple of record stores.

Bill bought the Innocent Man tape and on the way back we wanted to listen to it.  Sadly, our car (probably the '77 Ford Granada) didn't feature a tape player so we used his Walkman to listen to it.  The rule was we had to alternate songs.

I remember Bill detailing the listening order to make sure he got to listen to "Tell Her About It" - the first single from the album.  Which wasn't a bad deal because I got "An Innocent Man"

Arkansas State Beats out Nebraska, Mizzou, Purdue and Oregon State for QB???!

Believe it!

Summer!

Bubbles Last! (if they don't break)

New Range/Microwave

Our oven finally died. Since it was 18 years old and pretty beat up we decided to go ahead and upgrade instead of trying to get the thing fixed. We're loving the look of the new unit!

OLD UNIT

NEW UNIT

Crows are Coming! not to Omaha...

The Counting Crows Summmer tour brings them to Lincoln! (which, like Omaha, is somewhere in middle America)

Omaha Start tearing the old man down Run past the heather and down to the old road Start turning the grain into the ground Roll a new leaf over In the middle of the night, there's an old man treading around in the gathered rain Well mister, if you're going to walk on water Could you drop a line my way? Omaha Somewhere in middle America Get right to the heart of matters It's the heart that matters more I think you better turn your ticket in And get your money back at the door Start threading a needle Brush past the shuttle that slides through the cold room Start turning the wool across the wire Roll a new life over In the middle of the night, there's an old man threading his toes through a bucket of rain Hey mister, you don't want to walk on water you're only going to walk all over me Omaha Somewhere in middle America Get right to the heart of the matters It's the heart that matters more I think you better turn your ticket in And get your money back at the door Start running the banner down Drop past the color come up through the summer rain Start turning the girl into the ground Roll a new love over In the middle of the day, there's a young man rolling around in the earth and rain Hey Mister, if you're going to walk on water You know you're only going to walk all over me. Omaha Somewhere in middle America Get right to the heart of matters It's the heart that matters more I think you better turn your ticket in And get your money back at the door

2012-2013 Bowl Projections! Yes Already!

Over a month to go until college football kicks off but we've got bowl projections already. The good news is all the teams we root for are projected to be included:

Fair Time

We surprised the kids with a trip to the State Fair this morning.  Jack kept guessing we were going to the Jelly Belly factory which was the last travel surprise.   We did a lot of stuff in our 3 hours at the fair.  Jack and Elle both scored bandanas for completing their Smokey Bear / Forest Fire prevention passport - which is more work than you'd think!  Jack also learned about the Bernoulli Principle.   We rode the monorail and even so a real Monster Truck!

Kite Flying with Jack

We had a gusty Saturday a few weeks back... so gusty in fact that Jack and I decided to fly our kite!

Shandy Paydirt in Cali!

We finally get to partake in the official beer of the 2012 Tangeman Family Blog out in California!

UFO Over Nebraska?

I saw this thing whizzing around the skies today over some of the most desolate country in the world. I snapped a few pictures with my phone and couldn't believe the images. What in the heck is this thing?

New Furby Coming

Fourteen years after the original Furby launch, a new one is on the way. There are several notable differences between the new version and the original. The new one has LED eyes that can display more emotion than the mechanical eyes of the original. There is an iPhone/iPad app that allows you to interact with new Furby in various ways. It also has more motors inside than the old one for a broader range of motion. Also new Furby is $60.00! One thing the new and old versions have in common; neither has an off switch. CNET ARTICLE LINK

Yogurt Drops...or Ravioli?

Elle is generally a good eater but she's learning to let us know what she wants in a multitude of ways.

 

Happy Fourth of July from Jack and Elle!

Elle made a card for everyone..

And Jack learned the Pledge of Allegiance!

Nothing says welcome to Summer better than Splash Dogs!

Lost Dog In Albert Lea

ASU to Big 12??? as ASU Dominates Sun Belt

Football season isn't far away.  Here's an article that appeared earlier in the year on ASU's prognosis for 2012 along with a very random projection that they will be joining the Big 12 eventually!

A Simple and Zesty Chicken Rub

We went to a bbq over Memorial Day week-end and the grilled chicken was extra good as a result of this spunky yet simple spice rub.   Here's how it's done.

1 tablespoon of garlic salt
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon of freshly ground pepper

Mix and rub!

Lost Cats!

Help find George and Tinkerbell!

Breaking Dawn 2 - Trailer

The Twilight junkies who frequent this blog will appreciate this!

What McDonald's Actually Pays For Food

I saw this posted on the internet. Seems legit.

Will's Car Stereo Shop Gets Customer

Father's Day Lunch

Here's a pretty good snap they took of Jack and I at his Father's Day lunch at school last week. The company was better than the food with one Dad commenting, "how did they manage to burn it and then serve it cold!" We had fun though and even got to sneak Elle out of her class before her nap!

Cool Ad / Video

OK, here's a cool campaign run by TNT as they introduced a new channel in Belgium... bet you watch it twice!

Dinner Time!

With good weather and our shady back-yard in the evening we tend to eat outside quite a bit!

Summer Shandy

In honor of Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy being named the official beer of the summer by this blog, I drank a couple of them at the horse races this past weekend.

Budweiser Lime-A-Rita

Tasty margarita flavor. It is carbonated which I wasn't expecting. I like it.









Also our friend Frauke enjoyed this product.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Jack Graduates!

Here's live footage from Jack's pre-school graduation. Think he loves his teachers?

Jack's Pre-school Graduation

Jack graduates from pre-school today and begin kindergarten in his new class next week!

Part of our homework was to write a note for his secret bottle to help him remember who he is today.

Dear Jack, Here’s a short note to help capture your personality at age 4. Of course the first thing you’d point out is that you are almost 5! You are a very loving boy. You like “putting love in peoples’ hearts” and you proudly proclaim your sister is your best friend and that you love her very much. You’ll often get yourself in trouble when you think she needs help.

You have a wonderful imagination that we hope you’ll keep forever. You like to invent names for things like super-rissens (fancy rocks) and do-dos (berries) and then collect them for fun. You’ve asked Santa Claus for garbage trucks two years in a row and have about ten of them that you like to play with. You are just learning how to ride a bike without training wheels. You love to read and we are currently reading Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. Another thing you like doing is dancing in the rain and walking through puddles.

You are both an independent and a sensitive boy. You proudly proclaim you want to go to Georgia Tech even though Mom tries to unsuccessfully convince you that you’d rather go to Michigan. As long as you continue to be happy in your life we’ll be happy, regardless of what you do.

We love you,

Mom, Dad and Elle

The Official Beer of the Summer! Summer Shandy by Leinenkugel

Among other things, on our recent trip to Nebraska we established what the official beer of the summer would be: Leinenkugel’s: Summer Shandy. Some would argue it is NOT a beer because it is really mixed with lemonaide...but those folks aren't our blog authors! I've struggled to find the shandy in California so far though there are coupons for it available...

Swimming, swimming, water here we come...

Today was water day out school so the kids donned their suits and were slathered in sunscreen.   Jack's pre-school graduation is only days away!

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

Jack and I are currently reading Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. Here's a real life 2 minute version! Let's go team mongoose!