Looking for something special to serve on Father’s Day? Try this Bacon Guacamole Recipe, created by “Sam the Cooking Guy” for Avocado Central. The recipe is pretty simple; so if you prefer, you can just add crumbled bacon to your own guacamole recipe.

Large Hass avocados are recommended for this recipe, about 8 ounces each. If using smaller or larger size avocados, adjust the quantity accordingly.

The prep time is just 15 minutes.

BACON GUACAMOLE RECIPE

Ingredients

1. PLACE avocadoes in a bowl. Mash with the back of a fork.

2. ADD salsa, bacon and lime juice. Mix well and serve with chips or soft tortillas.
A Bloody Mary sounds great with bacon guacamole!

FIND MORE GUACAMOLE RECIPES AT AVOCADOCENTRAL.COM.

In one week, we’ve gone from sweater weather to heat wave. While the temptation is to cool down with ice cream and frozen yogurt, we’ve put together a list of healthy summer snacks that are both good for you and hydrating. The key is to prep everything in advance so that when you come indoors, hot and parched, you have immediate succor.

FRUITS

1. Fruit Salad

Cut up your favorite fruits—bananas, berries, grapefruit, melon, oranges, pineapple, whatever—and keep them in the fridge for cool snacking. Mix blueberries, blackberries, grapes, raspberries and strawberries for a salad packed with antioxidants. You can top it with a drizzle of honey, plain Greek yogurt, fruit or vanilla yogurt.
2. Frozen Grapes & Bananas

Just wash and dry ‘em (grapes), slice ’em (bananas), stick ‘em in the freezer and pop ‘em in your mouth. Frozen grapes and bananas take more time to eat, so the snack lasts longer. The frozen fruits are more lush and creamy than they are at room temperature.

Melon and berries are high in nutrition and fiber, low in calories, and hydrating. Photo courtesy CaliVirgin.com.

Low calorie, “no sugar added” ice pops are perhaps our favorite cool-off snack. Popsicle makes them in Sugar Free Orange, Cherry and Grape (15 calories); Sugar Free Tropicals (15 calories); Creamsicle Sugar Free Pops (40 calories) and Fudgsicle No Sugar Added (80 calories).

You can make your own lower-sugar ice pops by diluting your favorite juice with fruit tea or spice tea, unsweetened or with a noncaloric sweetener.
4. Melon

Don’t have time to cut up a fruit salad? Any melon, chilled in the fridge, hits the spot. Cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon are packed full of vitamins, fiber and water. While you can cut a quick slice whenever you need refreshment, we like to cut them up in advance and keep some in snack backs in the freezer for grab-and-go.

VEGGIES
5. Ants on a Log

This kiddie favorite can be made more sophisticated for grown-ups, filled with goat cheese, seasoned cottage cheese or seasoned Greek yogurt instead of peanut butter or other nut butter.

Cut celery in 3-inch long pieces, fill with the spread of your choice and top with a row of 3 raisins, dried cranberries or other dried berry, pistachios or peanuts.

There are so many different vegetables and so many different flavors of hummus, that this one never gets old.

 
7. Cucumbers With Dill-Yogurt Dip

The phrase “cool as a cucumber” comes from the fact that the inside of a cucumber is 20 degrees cooler than the outside. Slice them and serve with a nonfat Greek yogurt (lots of dill and garlic to taste, lemon zest, mint or basil if you have it, seasoned with salt and pepper). Look for different types of cucumbers and serve a fun assortment—you can find some real beauties in farmers markets (check out these heirloom cucumbers).

8. Barley Or Quinoa Salad

Chilled whole grain salads are great for summer snacking. Combine cooked barley or quinoa with chopped fresh or cooked vegetables (bell peppers, corn, edamame, onions/scallions, mushrooms, peas, zucchini, etc.), nuts, seeds, even berries or chopped fresh or dried fruits, including raisins. Dress with a light vinaigrette, or a citrus-olive oil dressing. Here’s a barley salad recipe; you can substitute quinoa for the barley. Eat with a spoon or in a lettuce leaf wrap or endive leaf.
DRINKS
9. Homemade Lemonade

While a cold jug of Crystal Lite lemonade can slake a thirst, homemade lemonade with zingy fresh lemon juice is a real treat. When you make your own, you not only spare the environment from bottle landfill; but you can use noncaloric sweetener including stevia or agave nectar instead of sugar. More about the different sweeteners.

For fun flavored lemonade, add grated ginger, fresh mint, lavender (here’s a lavender lemonade recipe), muddled berries or savory fresh herbs (basil, rosemary or thyme—crush gently to release the oils before adding to the drink).

A pinch of cayenne creates chile-accented lemonade: Add it pinch by pinch to the glass until you get your desired level of heat; or start with 1/2 teaspoon in a pitcher. (We prefer the more flavorful heat of ginger.)

Or make an Arnold Palmer: half lemonade, half iced tea. If you haven’t tried this combination, you’ll be delighted with the taste.

10. Iced Tea & Iced Coffee

There’s nothing like an ice-cold glass of iced tea or iced coffee to help cool down. Brew up decaffeinated versions if you like to drink lots of it but prefer to limit your caffeine intake.

To keep your drink even tastier, make ice cubes from iced coffee or iced tea—just pour it into the ice cube tray and freeze. Then, you won’t dilute your drink while keeping it cool; and adding ice cubes to a refrigerator-cold drink makes it super cold and refreshing.

We repurpose 64-ounce empty drink bottles to hold our brewed teas, and fill some repurposed 16-ounce drink bottles for grab-and-go.
Keep cool!

Dessert lovers: This one’s for you. Today’s tip is adapted from an article by Ann Pietrangel on Care2.com. To get recipes attached to the tips, see the original article.

Pietrangel interviewed Chicago-based pastry chef and restauranteur Malika Ameen, a Top Chef Just Desserts contestant and proprietor of By M Desserts.

Ameen recommends five ingredients that she always has on hand to give her desserts that extra something special. They happen to be popular with us as well:
1. Candied Citrus Peel

Candied citrus peel—grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange—adds brightness, freshness and texture to cakes and cookies. The peel of the fruit is julienned and boiled in sugar syrup, which preserves it. Here’s a recipe (along with a delicious lemon chiffon cake).

Candied red grapefruit peel, served with a mascarpone dip. Photo courtesy Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

 
2. Dried Lavender

“Used sparingly, dried lavender enhances food with a mysterious and distinctive flavor,” says Ameen. She steeps it in cream to pair with berries, makes lavender-infused simple syrup syrup for lemonade and iced tea, and combines it with a crunchy sanding sugar to garnish cookies and pound cake. Here’s our recipe for lavender whipped cream.

If you’re buying lavender outside of a food store (at a farmers market or general merchandise store, for example), be sure that it is organic. Lavender that is grown for ornamental display or potpourri can be coated with chemical pesticides. You want culinary lavender.

This aromatic and slightly sweet spice, a relative of ginger, is one of Ameen’s favorites. While it is known for its use in Indian cooking, it is a popular addition to Scandinavian breads and breakfast pastries, as well as to Middle Eastern desserts.

Cardamom pairs beautifully with chocolate: Use it to accent anything from chocolate pudding to brownie batter; add a dash or two to a chocolate milkshake. You can use cardamom pods to brew a delicious cardamom tea.

Cardamom plants grow wild in the monsoon forests of southern India. They had been gathered and traded for 1,000 years until the British began to cultivate it in the 19th century. Cardamom was called the Queen of Spices. Black pepper, also Indian in origin, was the King of Spices.

Vanilla beans are expensive, but they have a second life. Used vanilla beans can (and should) be used to make vanilla sugar.

Use vanilla sugar instead of plain table sugar to add a lift of flavor as an ingredient or a topping. Try it with baked goods, berries, beverages, cereal and grapefruit, for example.

To repurpose vanilla beans, simply place one in a sealed pound canister of granulated sugar for at least week. It can remain there infinitely; just shake the jar occasionally. You can add more used pods and can give containers of your artisan vanilla sugar as gifts.

If you don’t use vanilla pods, you can buy ready-made vanilla sugar as a gift for your favorite baker.

NOTE: Vanilla powder is not the same as vanilla sugar. Vanilla powder is a combination of sugar and ground vanilla that is used in recipes where a dry ingredient is preferred, instead of vanilla extract. More about the different types of vanilla.

5. Fleur De Sel

Sweet and salty has emerged as a flavor hit (although everything old is new again). Salt helps to lift the flavor of other ingredients. That’s why cookies, cakes and other sweets all have a pinch of salt in the recipe.

Fleur de sel (“flower of the sea”), a fine French sea salt is simply delicious with chocolate. That’s why there are so many artisan brownies, chocolate bars and chocolate chip cookies garnished with it.

Sprinkle a few crystals of fleur de sel sprinkled over any chocolate dessert to add a burst of flavor and crunchy texture.

Here’s more about fleur de sel in our Artisan Salts Glossary. Who knew there were so many wonderful salts?

Dad may have a favorite pie, cake or cookie that he really wants to enjoy on Father’s Day. If not, let Father’s Day cupcakes be the hit of the party.

At Crumbs Bakery, Father’s Day cupcakes are garnished with chocolate moustaches. If you want to do the same at home, anchor the chocolate with a toothpick.

Seeking additional inspiration, we looked at different themes for Father’s Day cupcakes and found cupcakes:

 
You can bake from scratch or buy cupcakes and decorate them. A stroll through a candy store will give you more ideas; or head to your browser and type in “Father’s Day Cupcakes.”
  

The prettiest recipe we’ve seen with ramps:
a ramp-stuffed torta from chef Catie Baumer
Schwalb of PitchforkDiaries.com. Here‘s the
recipe.

An early spring vegetable, ramps are so delicious—a combination of garlic and onion flavors—that they are worth seeking out and enjoying, simply sautéed.

Ramps are wild leeks, also known as spring onion, ramson, wild garlic and wood leek. In French, they are called ail des bois, garlic of the woods.

Ramps grow wild and are found in clusters. The entire plant is edible, from the long, smooth, green leaves to the scallion-like bulb.

Since ramps grow wild, they can easily end up in a yard where, alas, they are typically pulled out and thrown away—not only because they appear to be weeds, but for their strong garlic aroma. Should you come across something smelling of garlic, bring it to the kitchen instead of the trash.

While ramps can be enjoyed in any recipe that uses a member of the onion family, the easiest preparation is simply sautéed as a side or in combination with other spring vegetables. Combine ramps with asparagus and morels for a heavenly spring feast. There are more serving suggestions and a delicious recipe for eggs, potatoes, bacon and ramps, below.
 
 
RAMPS VS. SCAPES: THE DIFFERENCE

Don’t confuse ramps with their equally delicious cousins, garlic scapes. Scapes are the curling shoots of young garlic plants. For decades they were cut off in the fields and thrown away (to allow the garlic bulbs to grow larger), before growers realized that chefs and foodies were eager to buy them.

Many people refer to the vegetable as the wild leek, the name ramp is popular in the East. It comes from England. One version of the name source attributes a folk name, œramsen, the plural form of hramsa, an Old English word for wild garlic. Early English settlers of Appalachian a prime ramp regional used the term, which later was shortened to ramp.

Search for local ramps festivals and mark your calendar so you don’t miss next year’s.
 
 
WAYS TO SERVE RAMPS

 
 
EASY RAMPS RECIPE: FRIED RAMPS WITH POTATOES, EGGS & BACON

Ingredients

In the South, this dish is served with sides of Pass pinto beans and cornbread. The recipe is adapted from ChickensInTheRoad.com.

 
Preparation

1, COOK bacon in a large frying pan; remove, chop and set aside, reserving the bacon fat.

2. FRY the ramps and potatoes in the bacon fat over low heat, covered, until the potatoes are tender.

3. CRACK eggs over the ramp/potato mixture and fry, covered, until eggs cooked. Sprinkle on the optional shredded cheese. Season with salt, pepper, and chives to taste.

4. REMOVE eggs with their ramp/potato beds onto serving plates; top with chopped bacon. Makes five single-egg portions.