Guacamole salad and a BBQ sauce

You know how when sometimes you read a book and the character cooks or eats something special?  Like in  the Stephanie Plumb book series, Pot Roast or meat loaf is always on the table?  And you get hungry for pot roast or meat loaf all of the sudden?  And you MUST HAVE pot roast or meat loaf right now (or at least in the next few days)?  Because you read about it and you can't get it out of your mind?

Well this  Guacamole salad is kind of like that.  I was reading  "Dying For Chocolate" by Diane Mott Davidson, #2 in the Culinary Mystery Series, a few weeks ago and a character at a dinner party made this salad.  I had to have it.

I assume that Davidson likes to cook, since she writes a 'culinary' mystery series. Not only does she write about food tho, she puts actual recipes in the back of her chapters and this is where I got the recipe for this salad.

It's a very simple salad...so what intrigued me you ask?  The Chili Cheese Frito's.  Yep.  Chili-Cheese Corn Chips.  Junk food on top of healthy food.  It intrigued me.

And you know what? It is a simple salad, but it's a good salad.  Kind of like a simple taco salad without the meat.  It tasted all taco-ee because of the Chili Cheese Frito's Corn Chips, I'm sure.

We all liked it very much.

At the same time I  had the Handyman bbq'd  up some chicken with a new sauce.

My goal this summer was to  test new and different  BBQ sauces, but at first, we had no summer (weather wise) and now, it's going faster than I can blink my eye.  I'll never get thru all the bbq sauces I wanted to try!

Motor Oil Chicken was my 2nd sauce this summer  My first was  Palm Beach Honey Glazed Chicken.  

When I first saw the name,  "Motor Oil Chicken"  I was not enthusiastic about it.  Neither was the Handyman.  The name sounded funny (kind of gross) and there is nothing remotely BBQ sauce sounding about it.

Let me remind you tho, that we up north and in the west are kind of dumb when it comes to BBQ sauce.  We think  'grilling' is BBQing (and it's not) and that bottled sauce all tomatoey and mesquite flavored is what it's all about.

I understand tho that there is a region in the south which is all about vinegar based bbq sauces, and let me tell you....I can't wait to go to that region and do some tasting myself, because this vinegar based bbq sauce was SO GOOD.

Who would have thought?  Not any westerner, let me tell ya.  But you know, our palettes are not as sophisticated in the BBQ realm.

It was really good.  Don't let the name fool you.  I would definitely make this bbq sauce again.

Schulz's Guacamole Salad

from

Dying for Chocolate

by

Diane Mott Davidson

1 head iceberg lettuce

1/4  cup grated cheddar cheese

1/4 cup grated Monterrey Jack cheese

1/2 cup chopped scallions

8 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 cup crushed chili cheese Frito's Corn Chips

Dressing

1 avocado, peeled, pitted and mashed

1 Tbls fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup sour cream

1/3 cup oil

1 Tbls picante sauce

Tear lettuce into small pieces and combine with cheeses, scallions and tomatoes.  Cover and refrigerate in salad bowl until serving time. 

Combine all ingredients for dressing and mix well.

Toss salad with dressing and sprinkle the top with crushed chips.

This is BBQ Sauce/marinade #2

Motor Oil Chicken

from

Razzledazzlerecipes.com

3/4 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup water

4 cloves garlic--crushed

3 Tbsp packed brown sugar

2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp hot sauce

1/2 tsp ground mustard seed

salt to taste

1-2 lbs chicken

Combine all ingredients, except chicken.  Mix well and set aside.

Grill chicken until juices run clear when pierced with a fork.

Remove chicken from grill and coat each piece with prepared sauce.

Return to grill and cook for an additional 3 minutes on each side.

Serve chicken with remaining sauce on the side for dipping.

A year ago, I blogged about chicken too!  But a casserole, King Ranch Chicken--Southern Style.

It's funny, because while it was very good, I haven't made it since.  As food  bloggers, I think we do that a lot;  make dishes and then never return to them again.   We have other recipes to try...new ingredients to find--new tastes to experience.

As book bloggers, making something from a book doesn't always work out....remember my Baltimore Style Sour Beef experience from  Laura Lippman's  Tess Monaghan series?

Not good.  Not good at all. (my experience, that is.  I'm sure there is a good sour beef out there somewhere)

With this book it did work out...I was lucky.

We really liked this salad and this bbq sauce.

Enjoy!