It’s been a little while since I shared a recipe with y’all…I missed the month of February and I apologize. While I have been cooking, it has taken me awhile to really want to follow some complex recipes again…you know with the whole taking care of a baby, working, and keeping the house together. But that being said, this recipe I want to share with you all today is far from complex…which got me thinking I really have no excuse for why I haven’t tried to share more “easy” recipes with you, other than my pure laziness in the kitchen. So I hereby vow to be better over the next few months with staying on track and trying to share a new recipe with you each month.
Ok that being said, let’s dive into this month’s discovery. I will be the first to admit, I LOVE ME some guacamole, but while I love it I am pretty picky about it as well. I don’t love it too chunky, I really don’t enjoy it if it has cilantro (I know I’m weird), and if it’s spicy, forget about it. So yeah that often doesn’t leave me too many recipes…side bar…why or why do chefs always insist on adding the cilantro and jalapeños, why? Ok I’m done complaining, but I needed a easy appetizer to bring with me to a girl’s night, so when I came across this recipe I was intrigued, first and foremost because it called for lemon instead of lime, which boded well for me, since I had a random lemon in the crisper I was looking to use. And while I have featured plenty of recipes from this woman before, with a Barefoot Contessa creation, I knew I was in good hands.
Guacamole
Copyright 1999, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, All Rights Reserved
- Prep Time:
- 10 min
- Inactive Prep Time:
- —
- Cook Time:
- —
- Level:
- Easy
- Serves:
- 3 cups
Ingredients
- 4 ripe Hass avocados
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon)
- 8 dashes hot sauce (recommended: Tabasco)
- 1/2 cup small-diced red onion (1 small onion)
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 medium tomato, seeded, and small-diced
Directions
Cut the avocados in half, remove the pits, and scoop the flesh out of their shells into a large bowl. (I use my hands.) Immediately add the lemon juice, hot sauce, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper and toss well. Using a sharp knife, slice through the avocados in the bowl until they are finely diced. Add the tomatoes. Mix well and taste for salt and pepper.
TASTE: I took a few test bites when I first assembled the dish, I thought it was good, but I knew the real test would be if other people liked it. I will admit this was totally up my alley as far as guac goes…nice and creamy, not overly chunky, just a hint of spice (for flavor), and no cilantro in sight! I also really like that addition of the lemon, while I thought it a bit odd at first, it really helped keep the guacamole looking fresh and green for hours,. I also liked having a little of that hot sauce, while I don’t like spicy, this added just enough for flavor without it being hot to heats sake. So while I LOVED it, I was also really excited that it got rave reviews from all the girls and I even left with hardly any left, a great success dish if you ask me!
EASE OF PREPARATION: This dish was so easy to make that I will be repeating it many a time over the summer I’m sure. It really was as simple as chopping a few ingredient and stirring together and to have a great guacamole recipe at my fingertips that I can whip up right before friends come over or just on a night where I am craving something fresh is really a great asset.
COST: Now in this instance I happened to have all of the main ingredients on hand and only had to pick up a couple of more avocados and a red onion. But in the summer all of these things are items I am known to purchase quite frequently, so I can see myself having a great go to app, without costing us a lot extra for weird or unusual ingredients we never buy.
COMPLEXITY: Like I said above, if you can chop and you can mix, well this recipe is for you. It is really no harder than that and it tastes like you truly made a complex work of art!
PORTION SIZE: It is hard to tell how many it serves, it did indeed make about 3 cups and easily fed us 6 girls some hefty servings and then some.
Overall I was quite happy with how this recipe turned out and happy to report that I have a go to guacamole recipe that will be used many times in the future I’m sure. So I am happy to report that the Barefoot Contessa’s Guacamole 5 Little Piggies!
Can you believe how warm it has been lately? I know the weather hasn’t been amazing for all of you, but if you live in the Midwest it has been downright awesome! We have had the mildest winter I can remember in a LONG time and now in the last two weeks it has been just like summer…, I mean 80 degrees in March…, it’s crazy!
One thing this weather is doing for our family (well Adam in particular) is helping to set the mood for the season…the baseball season that is. With the start of the season less than 2 weeks away, Adam is giddy with excitement, and it is taking me back to last summer when we shared a baseball themed trip to Detroit, which is where this week’s post is from.
To me, nothing is more synonymous with summer AND baseball than hotdogs. Well, if you’re from Detroit, those dogs come in the form of a Coney Dog. That’s right…these things are everywhere in the Detroit metro area and everyone has their favorite; and perhaps the most famous of them all are two that share everything in common from family to a location and have been in competition with one another for the best Coney for generations. I’m referring to Lafayette Coney Island and American Coney Island.
These 2 Coney Island landmarks got their start by the Keros brothers in the early 1900’s and officially began their rivalry when one brother decided he’d strike out on his own and open his very own Coney sport right next door to their current location….and I mean RIGHT NEXT DOOR! He named the new Coney spot Lafayette Coney Island.
Lafayette’s (or American for that matter) wasn’t really on our radar screen until we saw both the The Food Network and The Travel Channel visit them for their “Food Feuds” and “Food Wars” shows respectively; and since then they’ve also shown up on an episode of “Man vs. Food.” Needless to say, they’ve both gotten a lot of publicity through the years…major PCC cred; and while these 2 aren’t the only Coney restaurants in the D-Town area, they are the most famous and creators of the original “Coney Style Hotdog,” a hot dog with chili, diced yellow onion, and yellow mustard.
Others around the state and country have duplicated the un-trademarked dog, but none seem to be as popular or widely known. So on last summer’s “babymoon” weekend getaway to Detroit for a baseball game, I knew a Coney taste test was in our future.
Our first stop/taste test was at Lafayette’s (for no real reason other than it was the one to the left 
). It is quite comical when you pull up and see these two restaurants literally smack dab right next to one another. When we walked in, one thing we immediately noticed was how nostalgically “old” it was. I don’t want to say dingy, but it was clear that not much had changed in the décor since 1917 (a vast difference from its counterpart, but we’ll get to that next week). It is very much a “no frills” kinda atmosphere. Since it was just the two of us and we knew this wasn’t going to be a lengthy meal, we thought it would be easy enough to just sit at the bar and see the process first hand, a very quick process I might add. The guy at the counter came and took our order, but it was pretty clear we should be ready when he came over and that he wasn’t up for a lot of conversation. It wasn’t that he was mean, just pretty no nonsense. The order was pretty simple…a couple of Coney’s the way Lafayette’s intended, diced onions & yellow mustard; and, no joke, they were in front of us within two minutes, and five minutes later our plates were empty!
I knew I wouldn’t dislike this dish, since I love Cincinnati style chili Coney dogs. But the big question would be which of these two famed Coney dogs I would like best; and although I don’t want to ruin the surprise, I will say I found the Lafayette’s Coney pretty tasty. Still, you will have to wait until next week for the comparison and big reveal on which is best. In the meantime I will give you a basic review below…
SIGNATURE DISH: Coney Dogs all day long…since 1917.
TASTE: While I won’t say if this was my favorite, I will tell you it was for sure tasty and definitely hit the spot. While different in flavor than Coney style dogs I have had in the past, if this is how Detroit does it, than they have found a fan in me!
AMBIANCE: I mentioned above that the feeling you get when you walk into Lafayette’s is pretty unique…, unique in the sense that it feels like you are stepping back in time a little bit. It is clear that not much has changed in the décor over the last 80 plus years and people like it that way. Hoping I’m not offending anyone, I’d say Lafayette’s very much reflects Detroit blue collar feel. It’s a no-frills no-fuss place…all about the Coney.
PRICE: While I can’t remember specifically, I know each of our dogs was not much more than a couple of dollars…, a deal any day in my book!
SERVICE: While I would not say we received bad service, I will definitely say they weren’t as welcoming or friendly as I would have hoped. This is not to say I didn’t expect it, especially with their D-Town demeanor. I’d almost say this is part of what makes Lafayette’s so popular…it’s Detroit to the core, like it or not.
…Stay tuned for my review of American Coney Island next week and I’ll fill you in on which was our favorite!
We have reviewed a fair amount of burger joints in the past 2 years, but something never gets old in trying new ones. Still, it’s often hard to compare burgers to one another; whereas a good burger is simply good…it’s hard for one to go above and beyond into greatness. Now, we do have a standout winner in the great category, one which we will likely continue to stack all the others against. It’s not to say we still won’t come across good burgers, but to win out as the best it has to beat that particular experience.
All that being said…, we will always try another and that is why we happily added this next joint into the lineup; and I was especially excited because at the time I was almost 8 months pregnant and burgers were one of those things that always sounded good to me! Lucky for me, we happened to plan a trip to Detroit towards the end of my pregnancy and figured that would be as good a time as any to stop through Ann Arbor and pay a visit to Krazy Jim’s Blimpy Burger, a very popular burger joint for over 50 years among locals, especially University of Michigan students (You may recognize it from Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-In’s, and Dives” and/or The Travel Channel’s “Man vs. Food”).
We were glad that we happened to visit during the summer months, because this joint is known to have quite a wait on most days due to its popularity among students. So when we arrived we were happy to be able to walk right in, which I especially appreciated as a hungry pregnant lady. 
Plus, due to all their ordering rules, it helped us newbies not hold up other hungry patrons with our ignorance.
What makes Blimpy Burger so unique is how many patties people put down at a time. Their patties are quite small so their standard double is only about a 1/4 pound, so many people go in and order quite a few patties. I went with their smallest burger (the double) with cheddar and grilled onions, while Adam ordered the quint, or 5 patties…, still only about a 1/2 a pound. It is clear now how although a crazy amount, I can see how some people order 20 patties at a time (for a competitions sake of course). We also decided on both an order of onion rings and their fries…you know…for the reviews sake! 
Because they were not busy at all, our food was ready by about the time we got to the cash to pay from the on-site ATM and we dug in. Although neither of us were too excited about either the fries or rings, we were both pleasantly surprised with just how juicy and tasty those tiny pattied burgers were. As Jules Winnfield would say, (Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Pulp Fiction) “Mmm-mmmm…that is a tasty burger!
Neither of us had a problem finishing off our burgers, which is always a good indicator that we enjoyed it; and while I would say we have still yet to surpass the best burger experience we have had, Krazy Jim’s did not disappoint.
SIGNATURE DISH: It’s called ‘Krazy Jim’s Blimpy BURGER!’ While they do have a few other sandwich options on their menu, burgers are the main attraction for sure and with some people ordering as many as 10-15 patties at a time, it’s the smaller patties in large quantities that make them so unique.
TASTE: Not the best burger I’ve ever had, but still very tasty and certainly did the job. Also, while their patties are small, they are still plenty juicy and the cheese gets super melty and yummy. Add some grilled onions into the mix and you have a winner in my book!
AMBIANCE: It has a wonderful old school campus joint feel to it, something I am always nostalgic for; and while I figured this joint was small, television made it look MUCH bigger than reality. We were sort of shocked with just how small this place is and it is hard to imagine how they cram so many students and locals alike in here on a day to day basis. I’m just glad we visited at a down time and weren’t crammed.
PRICE: The burgers range in price from $2.65 to $5.70. Add a couple of more bucks on for french fries or rings and you have a pretty good deal for a meal.
SERVICE: We were expecting a bit of “rush” when it came to service since the television spots we had seen seemed to showcase the fact that you better know what you want when you step to the counter. Luckily we didn’t encounter too much of a hassle since at that moment we were the only ones in line. I appreciated the chef walking us through the process and asking us what we wanted, since it was pretty clear we weren’t from around those parts. Still, make sure you know what you want and how to order. Adam accidently ordered out of order and he was quickly corrected!
Overall, we had a really fun lunch experience with a tasty burger bonus. I can definitely see why U of M students and alumni swear by it. I could for sure go for a double or triple (heck even a quint!) from time to time. So while not a ‘Quint’ on the Piggies…I still award them 3 ½ ‘Little Piggies’
