Do not fear the avocado!

Recently I've realized that some of my friends are actually afraid to use avocados... because they don't know how to prepare them. So here's how ya do it!

The most important thing is eating it when it's ripe. These are very time sensitive fruits. I usually buy 2 at a time from the grocery store: one that's pretty firm when you try to squeeze & another that has a little give, but not toooo much. Too much give will probably result in a lot of brown spots.

You can eat the one with a little give that day or up to about 2 days after. The other can last longer. Enter the avocado with some give (Note: I waited a little too long to eat this fellow... you'll see the brown spots later!)

Cut the avocado vertically, hitting the pit and just going around in a circle. This shouldn't be hard to cut. If it is, it's probably not ripe enough yet.

Now that you have 2 halves, you're going to want to take the pit out of it. Hack your knife into the pit, twist & it should pop right out. NOTE! If you only plan on eating half, SAVE the half with the pit. I've found that it saves better when the pit is still in it!

This next part depends on how you plan on using the avocado. If you want it in slices to put on a sandwich, slice vertically & then scoop out by putting the spoon against the skin. If you are just planning on mashing it, don't bother cutting it up. Just scoop it out!

The skin leftover should be pretty clean...

And you're done! Now wasn't that easy?

P.S. - If you do plan on saving half, I suggest putting a layer of lemon juice over the exposed part. This helps keep it fresh.