google taunt: "albert heijn" and "guacamole".

Just to jot down a couple of things I keep meaning to write about, kind of in the vein of last week's vegetable soup horse meatballs:

Albert Heijn is now selling their own "guacamole". If I hadn't already thrown away the container of it I bought, I'd do a review with photos here. Why did I purchase it at all? Mmm, yes. Let's call it curiosity.

And hope. The first ingredient was avocado, and there weren't too too many other ingredients on the list. This made my dangling tentacle of optimism tingle with hope (please refer to the Pandora's Box entry from last month for the backstory on hope). But taste-wise...yeah. Not anything like guacamole.

But...not really quite like anything else, either. Most European guacamoles at least taste like creamy salad dressings or green-tinted creme fraiche, something you've seen before. This was alien and completely inorganic-seeming, like something you might use somewhere in your automobile. Or spaceship. AH, please reconsider.

Here's a good guac recipe.

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Also on the list of "items to be processed": the inconsistency or evolution of Marqt; Dulce de Leche from De Avondmarkt and how perfectly it combines with peanut butter and bananas (similarly, why do white chocolate and salted hazelnuts combine so complementarily?); how easy it is to lose your picnicking chops over the winter and completely botch your first outing of the season (no knife, no mayonnaise, no salt, no plates); what to make this coming Tuesday for a hungry band of musicians...we're doing focaccias but I would love to have some other warm options, something like lasagna or baked eggplant, but lighter....need to borrow Andy's Marcella Hazan book...

Um...let's see: why the amateur big band that practices in our basement every Thursday NEVER EVER GETS ANY BETTER. They are still playing the same songs they were when we moved in, and Holy God Up Above, they are no closer to being in tune or rhythm or in touch with any of the base characteristics of music in general. Have you ever heard the Thai Elephant Orchestra? They're way better than these guys.

ALSO: Secret notation for Mara. Squeak By Scim vs. Good Luck Pumper. IHLOFWYT. WLAL. GMAB. Remember!

PHOTO: This is focaccia dough with one half prune, onion, and pine nut confit and the other half romesco sauce and manchego cheese.

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