Pickled Avocado

A great condiment for burgers, sandwiches, salads, or simple snacking.

Pickled Avocado

From the January/February 2020 issue of Cook's Illustrated magazine

Ingredients:

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

1/2 cup water

1 Tbsp granulated sugar

2 tsp table salt

1 ripe but firm avocado, halved, pitted, and sliced 1/4 inch thick (you can also cut in 2" cubes for salads)

Combine vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in medium bowl and whisk until sugar and salt are dissolved, about 30 seconds. Add avocado (avocado should be submerged) and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours. Drain and pat dry before using.

Avocado Toast

One of my favorite breakfasts starts with the simplest ingredients.  This is so filling and gratifying.

Select a good sized Haas avocado.  I prefer to pick mine that are quite firm, not yet ripe.  I find they haven't been squeezed to death by every Tom, Dick and Harry at the market.  I bring them home and place them in a brown paper lunch bag for a day or two; checking each day to see how they are progressing.  When they give to a light squeeze I put them in the refrigerator.

 The next star of the show is a good egg.

 Toast whatever kind of bread floats your boat.  I like to make sure it is brown and crispy.

Mash up 1/2 of the avocado.  Depending on the size of your toast you can use up the half.  Slather as much of it or as little of it on your toast as you want.  It's your breakfast.


 

Then top with your egg.  I prefer an over easy, runny yolk or a poached egg.  But I made my second toast of the morning with some scrambled eggs and they were just as heavenly.

Sprinkle with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and go out on the front porch and enjoy your breakfast.
 

Yes, You Can Eat Well at the Sea Shore

This past weekend I spent about four and a half days with my bestest friend down in Corpus.  She and her husband have retired there and have re-built his family home into a very nice house that fits them to a tee.  But we didn't stick around her house all the time.

Sunday, PR let us take his four wheel drive Ford King Ranch Edition Crew Cab pick-up out on the Padre Island National Seashore.  That is one nice and B-I-G truck!

If you drive about 10 more miles down the road once you've gotten on the island you reach the gate for the National Seashore.  It's quiet, people are few and far between and if you have the time you can drive 60 miles down the island on the beach; but at 15 miles per hour it would take you about 4 hours.  You pay $10 per car or $20 for an annual pass.  Being the mathematical geniuses Karen and I are we purchased the annual pass for Karen since she can visit every day if she wants to.

We drove the truck down the beach until we found an isolated spot.  We set up camp, so to speak.  We laid a blanket down on the sand, folded out our comfy chairs and set the ice chest in between them as a 'coffee table'.  We also had some really nice roll-out pads with pillows that Karen's friend Brenda bought to use when we wanted to lie down and stretch out; thanks Brenda!  They worked out really nice!

After a nice long walk down the beach, looking for the nesting turtles (of which we found none) we relaxed at our campsite with an adult beverage and a book to read. 

Alas, we did get a bit hungry and this is what we brought to make for our lunch.  A sandwich; but not any old sandwich. 

 

 This sandwhich started with a very nice whole wheat bun sliced in half

The night before we made a batch of pesto with Karen's overflowing basil plant that grows in her potager.  We used that pesto as our base for the sandwich.

Topped that with some sliced avocado and seasoned with a little sea salt

 Laced it with slices of Brie

 Roma tomato with an additional sprinkling of salt

 And topped it off with some Romaine lettuce.



Proof that you can eat well at the beach when you aren't in the mood for hamburgers and hotdogs.