Southwest Dip!

I mentioned in an earlier post that I love to read.  And I do!  I also love to bake.  It may seem random to mention these two things together, but they are connected.  I not only love to read, but I can and love to read the same books over and over.  There are books that I have turned to again and again…so much so that they are more like old friends now.  They are uplifting, comforting, and can be counted on.  It is the same with some of my recipes.  Growing up I did a lot of baking.  My brothers loved homemade cookies and there was usually a crew of kids outside playing basketball with my brothers and they were willing to eat homemade cookies too! Since I hadn’t done much baking at that point, many of the basic recipes were an experiment for me, so I tried a lot of different cookie, brownie, and other cookie bar recipes to see what I liked.  Now, after a lot of years of baking, I have some recipes that are like my books – they can be counted on.  I have made them so often they are a part of my family and they never fail to make me look good.  This is one of those recipes.

Southwest Dip

2 tomatoes, chopped

½ small onion, finely chopped

1 15 oz. can of corn

1 bunch of cilantro, finely chopped

2 ripe avocadoes

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. Lemon juice

1 Tbsp. Brown and spicy mustard

Lemon Pepper, salt and garlic powder to taste

Combine everything in a bowl and serve with tortilla chips.

This is a never-fail party hit.  Leftovers taste wonderful with scrambled eggs in the morning or you can serve it as a salad with hamburgers.  But it is also very adaptable.  You can omit the corn and use black beans.  You can add chopped jicama, zucchini or summer squash, and for a tropical flair, chopped mango.  The only thing you need to do is to make sure that as you increase the vegetables you use, you use more chopped cilantro.  The cilantro is what makes the dip special.  

Enjoy!