Avocado Pit Heads

I believe in love at first sight. That's exactly how it was when I saw these Avocado Pit Faces of Doom on ThatsNerdalicious.com. It's so simple, maximum creepiness for minimal effort. Peel off the brown skin, carve away and let the magic begin. I used a small paring knife for most of the cuts and a vegetable peeler to gouge out the eyes.  The peeler has a serrated side and that's fun for making dotted lines by pressing just the points in. Before he got overly brown, the one above to the right, with the cross on his face, looked more like a stitched rag doll. 

I didn't want just a few, I wanted an army, but I didn't want a battalion's worth of guacamole all at once. So how long will these guys keep while slowly amassing your troops? I kept mine for a few months and I'm sure they would've lasted many more as long as I kept them in fresh water. 

So let us look at the aging process.  The guy on the left had his picture taken shorty after carving, all his cuts and gouges have turned a lovely red-orange. The guy on the right had his picture taken the next day, you can see where he's starting to brown outside the cuts and gouges. 
 

Below is a sad picture. The guy on the left was put in water after a few days, you can see how much the brown coloring has spread.  The guy on the right was not put in water and shriveled up into a hard dark pit. 

Lets look at the very first picture again.  You can see the first guy, lower middle, isn't looking too well.  I don't know if you can tell, but he almost looks bruised or starting to rot.  He's actually not, he's discolored quite a bit, but still firm, no decay.  He's also about 2 months old in this picture, which isn't too shabby in pit years, but he's definitely showing his age. He's not that much older than some of the others, the difference is they were put in water soon after the cuts changed to that lovely orange hue and were kept there most of the time. The others vary from a week to about 6 weeks old, except for the one at the bottom far left.  He was carved minutes before this picture was taken. 

They can be displayed like this on dry land, but soak them often enough to keep them from drying out. These guys spent most of the time in water, that I periodically changed out. If you don't have time to carve them or want to carve them all at once, keep the pits in water until you are ready to use them.  Soaking also makes peeling the brown skin off a breeze.

Here's a couple more guys. Sometimes letting them dry out a bit adds character.  In the picture on the left, the far left pit has just been carved and the one next to him has been drying out for two days.  The right-hand picture shows them a day later. I drilled a hole through the guy on the right. Maybe when he's completely dry I'll make something out of him.    

 And here are some of the lads performing as a potion jar.  To get them all to face outward was tricky. I used pieces of toothpicks to hold two or three together and that made placing them in the right direction a lot easier.

Now I can't let an avocado pit go without carving it, it's too much fun.  An added bonus is that even bad avocados aren't a total waste, you can still make one of these.

The best thing I've ever made with an avocado is Granny Vrany's Guacamole.  This recipe was given to me by a co-worker many lifetimes ago, and it's my favorite guac.  I think I recall the first four ingredients being muddled together. Sorry Granny Vrany if somewhere along the line I got lazy and took liberties with your recipe.  I've also made it with a little fresh garlic and that is quite tasty too. 

Granny Vrany’s Guacamole

2 Serrano peppers, minced

1/2 Poblano pepper, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 Tablespoon cilantro

2 tablespoons onion, minced

1 vine ripened tomato, diced

2 avocados, diced

1/2 lime

 

Mix together all ingredients except avocado and lime. Fold in avocado and sprinkle with lime juice. Serve immediately.