Soy Sake Guacamole
I’ve been away on retreat for 3 days, but came home for a couple hours Friday for Wyatt’s kindergarten graduation. When we got home from the sweet chaos, we were all starving. Remind me next year that June is Costco Cake Month, and remind me to pack a snack when I leave the house (I know, reader Momosis–bear with me on this). So Phyllis, Yancey and I came home with the kids, and I scrounged up a mango, cucumber, tomatoes, jalapeno, cilantro, and red onion. I haven’t gone grocery shopping in a week (an eternity around here), so I was happy to find some bits that had affinity with one another. With a squeeze of lime and a bit of salt and sugar, it made a beautiful bowl of salsa. We sat around it, reminiscing about Wyatt’s graduation and how fast childhood goes, and how it was okay for me to go back to my retreat and leave my children (thank you, Phyllis).
Dinner bell at Rainbow Lodge
Pleasures of reading and coloring
I love dips–salsa, yes, but especially white, high-fat kinds of dips. Whenever we go on vacation, I bring a tub of that horrible deli spinach dip or parmesan artichoke dip–the kind with soybean oil in it and a list of ingredients as long as my forearm. Another thing I love about dips is the propensity of people to gather around the bowl and linger there. I am (I’m told) a very divulgent person, and anything that encourages or normalizes divulgence is good in my book. You have to stay close to the Calorie Fest if you want your fair share, so you have to be together, and sometimes people divulge juicy bits about themselves that might not emerge otherwise. Now that I love even more than Top Foods spinach dip.
True to my divulging self, I want to share two things with you as I re-enter the world–a dip I’ve been dreaming about since I made it for my catering gig last week, and this little story.
During my massage at the retreat, the therapist nudged me and said, “Sarah, I want you to see something.” I raised my head to see a baby deer suckling from its mother outside our window. They stood there for about 3 minutes before the doe licked the wobbly fawn and they wandered back into the woods. It was the sweetest, most tender moment, just by itself with no meaning-making attached. But you know me. Here comes the meaning-making–this season of my life, nurturing small children, having them and all their crises in tow–is short and precious. It’s not always sweet, but I don’t want to miss it. I’ve been fighting this for awhile, and the deer family gave me permission to relax into my life and the people who need me now. There is time enough for travel, work, activism, all the things on my bucket list. My life now is the real thing, and I want to pay attention. And these moments have everything to do with all the things I want to do later.
These polka-dot Bermudas won't last forever
Okay. Enough philosophizing. This dip is my favorite new recipe in a year. I’m not kidding. Fusion food (combining elements from different cuisines) can sometimes go really wrong so I was a bit suspect of guacamole with sake, soy, and ginger. And I really didn’t know if my clients would like it. They agreed to it, but I was nervous they’d take a big old chipful and be disappointed. They weren’t, and I wasn’t. I came home that night exhausted, but had to stay up and work. I comforted myself with a bowl of this and things didn’t seem so bad anymore.
Soy Sake Guacamole
Serves 4 as an appetizer or 1 if you are me. From Sunset magazine, my favorite magazine. Yancey and I fight over it when it comes. I served this with sweet potato tortilla chips and jicama sticks. It would be fine with regular tortilla chips, but the sweet potato combo was really complimentary. And I happened to be using PERFECT buttery avocados, which is always a boon if you can find them (or wait long enough for them to ripen). I also really loved the shiso in here, which I got at Uwajimaya. If you are not lucky enough to have access to an Asian supermarket or don’t grow it yourself, just leave it out.
2 ripe medium avocados, pitted
1 serrano chile, seeded and finely chopped
2 Tbs. fresh lime juice (or more to taste)
11/2 Tb. soy sauce
11/2 Tb. finely grated ginger
1 Tb. sake
1 Tb. finely chopped green onion
2 Tb. minced shiso leaves (optional)
1 Tb. toasted sesame seeds (you can toast yourself or buy them toasted, which I do)
Scoop avocado flesh into a bowl and mash with a fork (leave slightly chunky). Stir in all other ingredients except sesame seeds. Sprinkle with the seeds.
Oh dear, does that look Sooooooooo good! Yummy!
Thanks for the reminders about life, about motherhood, about the important moments. I often feel that motherhood (particularly the “in the house” phase) is something I endure as opposed to appreciate. Yes, I’ve been doing it since my breasts came in (which leads to some resentment, it’s true), but that is no reason for me to put my head down and wait for it to be over.
Bring on the dip!
welcome back dear leftoverist. i checked in on a whim (as i have everyday since you said you were leaving) JUST in case you were back. i cannot wait to try this guacamole. it looks amazing.
thanks for the reminder to be present, whatever our current stage in life for it will pass, that is guarenteed. even when the passing is a blessing, there’s still something to leaning into our realities, no matter what they present. thank you.
j.
Nice to log on here at work today and read this sweet posting. Loving that mama deer and young one outside the window. I love your divulgent self and those fat ass dips.
xo.
P.S. That green guac/salsa picture looks AWESOME with your new banner. Very complimentary!
What a cool twist on guac! I’ll have to try it since we always have avocados around. Love the sesame seeds on top!
Yay! I was going to write down the peanut butter cookie recipe you posted last week and found a new post! Anyway, just skimmed quickly and looks like a must to try this new twist on guacamole! I love SHISO! My grandmother used to grow it in our backyard when she moved here from Japan. It’s the BEST with ika and maguro nigiri sushi! Shiso reminds me a little of basil. I’ll have to come back andn read the rest! Hope you had a wonderful time on your retreat!
except i’ll be trying the cookies with sunflower seed butter!
Let us know how they turn out!
Welcome back! As far as the snacks go, I just want to encourage the thought in your head that it’s okay to take a few minutes to feed yourself when you’re hungry. I’m into promoting these radical acts of self-care these days, hope YOU can bear with me.
Your post makes me think… this is one the flipside blessings to my rigorously demanding version of motherhood. I tend to be a dreamer, planner, and plotter as well. This can be good in it’s place, but it does prevent living and cherishing the moment I have right in front of me, which is a shame. But right now, my only hope is to live in the moment I’m in. I have no energy in this season for doing much plotting and planning at all. If I try, it quickly becomes a frustration. I am a person who never sits still, and God has given me the job of sitting in the dark and quiet with my sons for hours each day, while I’m awake. It’s my biggest burden and my biggest gift. And it won’t last forever…
Are you trying to make me cry?
I know what you mean about your heart being torn or that feeling as if it would be better to be somewhere else, especially in the motherhood sphere of life. I feel as though I am feeling more peace and even happiness to be a mama first as my job, to enjoy these precious moments, to change ask God to change my heart to be willing to be truly selfless in this journey. Thanks for not only the recipe, but for the stories.
Oh, my! Thankfully, my own darling mother encouraged me to think thusly: “Twenty five years from now, I will be glad that I……………”, and it led me toward being more intentionally present with my dear and spontaneous and energetic four children, reading or singing or adventuring, rather than rushing to mop up the sticky places YET AGAIN. THOSE YEARS FLEW! Those decades flew!
But you’ve caught me with these familiar thoughts in a totally different place in my life—-I’m dealing with a dear going-on 71 year old husband who’s had Parkinsons Disease for 20 years, and my current efforts have to do with being VERY present, building traditions and memories that celebrate the fine, fortunate life we have with grown children and grandchildren and a wonderful church community, and not being wistful or resentful about the things we can no longer do. We have everything, and it has nothing to do with THINGS; you’ve helped me to focus yet again on that, and feel so blessed. Sarah, you are such a warm gatherer, teller of stories, and fine person, and you reflect a lot of light on those around you! Thanks. Love, Lynn
Lynn, I get to see you be present to Gary and to the rest of us every week at church, and you are one of the people that model this best to me. Lots of love to you.
Can’t tell you how much I enjoy visiting your site. Strange how things in life can stop us in our tracks and cause us to see the moment, the very moment we are living. Thanks for sharing your heart, for your words about living in the present and fatherhood.
Sarah
This is so much fun! Will love passing your blog along to friends and reading it on a regular basis.
Aurora
Yeah! Welcome, Aurora. So wonderful to be with you last weekend.
Your post just encouraged me to close the computer and sit in the living room with my baby while I drank my coffee this morning. Even though it only lasted 10 minutes, it was good. Then I couldn’t handle the wait any longer…a new post! Two new posts!! Your site is very addictive and delicious.
I’m so glad you came home with the nugget of wisdom you did. I can’t tell you how many times your papa and I have reflected on how the child rearing time flew, I mean flew by, and the sad part is you can NEVER go back. Once it’s gone it’s gone. You’re wise about life Sarah, and in the end,I quarentee you will have NO regrets.All of a sudden one day,it will seem like they’re all grown up and don’t need you and you will be wishing they did. So savor all those walks to the park. Enjoy this season,and everything it offers,and move foreward when the leaves begin to change color.
I know. You are so right, Mom. xoxo
I LOVE this picture of Loretta’s cute ass feet in her Puma’s…and of course the recipe looks so yum. I am a huge quac fan.
hope you enjoyed your retreat. glad u are back and posting!!
Those are the cutest legs in Rainer Valley by far!
[...] Here was my comment one of her recent entries. [...]
seriously, are you trying to make ME cry? it worked. why do i ALWAYS need to be reminded of the importance of this job, mothering, and how fleeting it is and how grateful we will be that we savoured it? i have had the joy of contemplating many deep and necessary things over bowls of your “fat ass” dip. how true, emily! i printed this guac recipe out from the sunset site after we talked about it on the phone last week. now, i just need to find that shiso for my garden…