Avocados and Halloween- Ghoulishly Green

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Avocados from Mexico for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Halloween and avocados from Mexico are a great combination for parties and get togethers. Tomorrow is Halloween and "Spookamole" recipes are fast and wonderful to serve to adult guests while children go out trick or treating.
At the end of this feature are some free printable Zombie Apocalypse recipe cards for your own favorite Halloween recipes. 
Halloween recipes are available at Avocados from Mexico. My personal favorite is the

Lump Crab Guacamole:

2 avocados from Mexico, halved, pitted, peeled and coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons finely chopped white onion

1 Serrano chile, seeded and minced

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, divided

1-1/4 teaspoons salt, divided

8 ounces lump crabmeat

1/2 teaspoon grated lime zest

2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Lump Crab Guacamole: 

In a medium bowl, coarsely mash avocados. Add onion, chile, 3 tablespoons of the lime juice and 1 teaspoon of the salt; mix well. In a separate bowl, combine crabmeat, lime zest, chives, remaining 2 tablespoons of lime juice and 1/4 teaspoon of salt; toss gently. Mix crab mixture into the guacamole. Serve with tortilla chips. 

I use Alaskan Snow Crab of course, it's fairly inexpensive here, and it's my favorite. While I could weigh it out, generally I just buy a pound of clusters, and whatever doesn't get snacked on while getting it out of the shell winds up in the recipe! Snow crab clusters, like King crab are already cooked. Just thaw and go. 

2 of my favorite things in the world makes for a very rich dip that's just amazing.

Follow Mexican Avocados on Pinterest,  

Right click the image below and choose save target as or click on the image then hit the back button. The link will take you to a high quality 300 dpi layout that will print 4 cards on one page. I recommend using a black pen to fill them in!


Looking for more fun ways to Green your Halloween? Green Halloween has some EEK!-o-friendly ideas. (Green Halloween is a registered trademark of Green America.)

Star Mandala to color

I hope you enjoy this starry celestial 70s inspired mandala to color!

Click on the images for larger versions, print and color!

Small JPG version:

Large transparent PNG version:

Spoonflower 2 for 1 Fat Quarter Sale, spoons and other things

There are only 2 days left of Spoonflower's 2 for 1 fat quarter sale, and my dishtowel calender IS available now. I ordered my sample calendar in linen-cotton canvas and a fat quarter of that is 18x27 inches. It's opaque and heavy, and because of their printing methods has enough of an edge to just turn that over and hem it. The top will have a couple repeats of the border strip and can be turned into a casing for a dowel hanger. I'm deciding if I just want to turn and hem the edges or use a black bias tape to bind the edges.  I'll get a photo later of the fabric to post. We ordered a fat quarter of a Doctor Who print for TG and fat quarters of some of my designs which I plan to use for jewelry projects.


We watched a video together last night on spoon carving. I'll be reviewing it soon, it was fun watching it with my husband and son, and talking to them about spoon designs. They are of course more enthused about working with axes, adzes and knives than about spoons. I'm pretty happy to think that they will be making me spoons for my kitchen soon.

Yesterday was also my eye exam and the medication is working. My optic nerves are getting back to normal now. Yay!

It's really cold here! We went out this weekend for some local Halloween events. TG was a fantastic Sherlock Holmes. I forgot my camera, but Michael brought his so there will be pictures later. One of the things about her costume that was just great is that she couldn't find a double breasted overcoat at a thrift store she liked, so she used the military surplus one from her Wygie costume a few years ago and converted the mock double breast into a double breast by adding hand stitched button holes in red and shifting buttons. Her scarf was knitted by her, and we ordered a deerstalker hat from England as the purchased item to go with her costume. Dad of course trick or treated at the events we went to. 64 year old man or not, the man is not giving up a chance for candy! It was lots of fun.

Book Review- The Nepal Cookbook

The Nepal Cookbook by the Association of Nepalis in the Americas is a wonderful collection of Nepali recipes contributed by various people to help the Association of Nepalis in the Americas with their goal of being an information resource to continuing tradition.

The introduction includes the table of contents, the purpose of the Association of Nepalis in the Americas, a preface explains a bit of the food traditions and history of the region and a good special ingredients section to help you find those region specific ingredients. The special ingredients section also has a recipe to make your own garam masala from scratch.

The recipes are wonderful. There aren't any full color photos, instead the focus is on the recipes. They are separated by food types; snacks and appetizers, soups and lentils, vegetables, meat dishes, chutney and pickles, rice and breads, and desserts.

The recipes are mostly quick and easy to prepare, and a lot of them are very low cost. There are also a lot of very healthy recipes in here which make it a good choice for families like mine that are constantly busy but also really enjoy good food. The seasoning is what makes the food taste amazing and unique, there are a lot of spices and herbs used in the various recipes.

Curry lovers will enjoy the range of curry recipes which include all the seasoning ingredients. If you've never made your own curry from scratch, you're in for a treat. These are in both the vegetables chapter and the meat chapters. So if your a vegan, or choose to eat vegetarian meals occasionally, you'll enjoy the seasoning of the cauliflower and potato curry. There is also a super easy egg curry in the meat section which makes a great fast lunch.

My favorite chapter right now is the lentils chapter. I love soup anyway, and lately have really been loving lentils. The spicy spinach lentils are becoming a new favorite with all the flavors in them.

The pickles are cooked, and best kept cold and fresh. The breads are unleavened and quick to make.

My daughter of course went straight to desserts, then stunned all of us by deciding the recipe she wanted to make was for carrot fudge. We expected it would doughnuts or mango ice cream cones. She liked how that turned out, and wants to try almond fudge next.

Published by Snow Lion Publications, a part of Shambhala Publications.
Find out more about the Association of Nepalis in the Americas

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.