tortilla chips, guacamole

This is one cup plus 1/2 cup of masa harina mixed with an equal amount of hot water. 

The dough ball feels light and airy, almost bouncy. It does not feel like bread dough. 

This time I formed the balls a little bit too small so the disks formed from them are smaller than usual. 

The dough balls are smashed between layers of plastic (I use a cut plastic grocery bag) sprayed once with spray oil. 

The tortillas are fried incompletely so that they hold together when shallow-fried in oil.

This time they're cut into thirds rather than fourths because the discs are small.

Salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne.

They're fried at 350℉ for about 3 minutes until the bubbling stops indicating dehydration. 

If the chips are brought out before bubbling stops then the chips will not be crunchy.

The guacamole is from Torchy's next door. They spaced out my chips so I made them at home. 

Turns out, my chips are better than their chips because my chips are flavored generously and authentically, and my guacamole is better than their guacamole because my guacamole is 50% diced tomato and it's also flavored similarly. That right there makes a gigantic difference.

The next time I buy their guacamole to bring home I should also buy a few large tomatoes to fix it.

Face it. I'm a better cook. Plain simple fact. And these guys are all just beginning to learn things. They can't even be trusted to include chips with their order, when they make the chips. You must check every little thing.

As if speaking separate languages. 

But all that aside we still love them so. More so than Arby's before them. Because they're still good at their business, and still reasonably priced, and still fun to visit. They attract a very large crowd.

The package of guacamole weighs 11 and 1/4 ounces. 

A whole avocado with seed weighs 7.5 ounces.

So right there you get nearly two avocados worth of lumpy green sludge with cheese and lime and whatever.  A good deal as avocados are so iffy. All those previous shoppers pressing them all over, bruising them up. Sometimes only a portion is useable. 

This is dinner. Is that weird?