Something wonderful....

As always, I love an easy, breezy, yummy recipe and I found one!  I spotted it last week and decided to make it when we invited friends over for one of their birthday dinners.  It was a big success.

I have to admit that the leftovers aren't looking very good, so I won't show a photo.  Have a look at this link for avocado mousse.  Taste of Beirut is one of my favorite websites and I get a lot of wonderful ideas, recipes and new blogs to follow from Joumana's site.   (Since my traveling days are mostly behind me, I find myself pulled to blogs that teach me about other cultures.  I love to see photographs and read stories and try their recipes.  It really is the next best thing to being there!)

But I digress........ avocado, lemon juice, goat cheese, tomato, thyme, salt, pepper, cumin , garlic
I used a bit of mild goat cheese but had more feta cheese on hand.  So my ratio of what I added was probably 1/3rd the mild goat cheese and 2/3rds feta.   I recently had some wonderful goat cheese that was pungent that would have worked beautifully, but I was using what I had on hand.   Also, I know that some people don't like goat cheese but still like feta, so you know that you can substitute.   Or maybe another type of stronger cheese could work as well.  I think that the goat cheese helps to make it Lebanese and, of course, plays very well with the avocado.  But if you'd like to experiment, I don't see why you couldn't.  Let me know how successful you are.

Here's what I changed along than the cheese:
* I added cayenne powder....oh, about a tsp worth.

* I also had forgotten to grab some tomatoes from the grocery so I pulled out some roasted tomatoes and garlic that I had in the freezer.  I'm not sure how much was in there. Maybe 1/2 cup worth of tomatoes?  I blended the extra garlic in and drained and diced the tomatoes to go on top of the mousse.   Combined with the fresh garlic already in the recipe, the extra garlic gave the dish a bit of zip.   Maybe we wouldn't have needed this had we used stronger goat cheese?  Either way, our friends, who don't like a lot of heat, said that they liked the extra zip from the garlic and it didn't impede them from enjoying it.  (of course, the vampires were kept at bay last night!)

 * We also used a flat bread that was lightly toasted and cut with a pizza cutter into pie shapes instead of the pita bread.  I don't think that really affected the outcome at all, but just letting you know that you can be flexible with what you serve it with.

* I also added about 4-5 tsp of lemon juice.  I have a plethora of fresh squeezed and it really kept the dish nice and green along with adding a subtle flavor.

* I used my small, older, basic model food processor.   It worked perfectly for this dish.   My bigger processor would have done fine but I probably didn't make enough with 2 avocados to make that the best option.  Elbow grease would work as well, but I know that I'm wimpy and would have been sore today.  (but it would have been so worth it!)

Here's what I didn't try but will the next time that I make this:
* Add some cilantro or parsley.   Maybe just chopped and sprinkled on top with the tomatoes or maybe chop it in with the processor.  Maybe this would make it more Mexican than Lebanese, I'm not sure.  I'm also wondering if you put some fresh, home made pico de gallo on top.   You basically want the acid from the tomatoes to balance the avocado, but the extra flavors could be nice.  Then you definitely will be Mexican in your approach.

* Make it the day before to let the flavors meld even more.   I say this because it almost seemed better when I had some for lunch today.

Bon Appetit!


H and I have decided that while we love to 'stock up', we seem to horde our efforts.  Well, the month of February is going to be "Use it Up Month".   Whatever in the house is fair game, even if it came from the grocery store.  We are figuring that we will have to supplement milk, eggs and coffee and maybe some fresh berries for which I am addicted to!   I'll keep you posted on our successes.     Of course, I need to begin by figuring out what to make this evening.....HELP~!