This is a common snack for me.
When we have avocados. We went on vacation and emptied our house of all fresh produce before we left, so nothing would go to waste. And then we didn't go grocery shopping for like a week after we got back.
Torture.
But alas, I got some avocados on Monday evening (today is Wednesday) and all of them at the store were hard and bright green. A few days yet until they would be ripe. No matter- they were a good price so I loaded up. Me and baby boy love them.
I put about 5 in a lunch bag so they'd ripen faster, and the other 5 I set on top the bananas in the fruit hammock. I had heard that you should put a banana in the brown bag with the avocados to get them to ripen up, but I was afraid the banana would turn brown and be wasted, so usually it's just avocados alone in the brown bag. This normally works fine. When I'm a normal-amount of patient, and not avocado deprived, and starving.
I kept testing them, off and on throughout the day whenever I'd get hungry. I would even squeeze them through the bag so as not to let any of the precious ethylene gas slip out. We need all of it so those avocados would hurry up already. They're still hard. Still another day or two at least.
On a whim, however, I tested one from the bananas.
This one was ripe!
Happy dance!
So. All that to say they ripen even faster outside the brown bag and sitting friendly with the bananas. So I will be ripening them in the fruit hammock from now on. Good thing too, because my brown bag has really seen better days. An avocado a day since the boy was born (14 months ago) and me in and out of the bag... you can just imagine what kind of shape it's in.
And just because I had a friend ask me hows the best way to get the pit out of the avocado, and I'd spent the first 6 months or better of my daily avocado-eating just eating around it til it popped out until I learned this trick, I'll share it with you as I did him.
Slice around the avocado. Hold each side and twist them in opposite directions. If your avocado is ripe, it should just pop right apart, with pit attached to one side.
Then gently but firmly press the knife into the pit. I have tried firmly smacking it, but have often ended up with an unsightly slice where I missed. I'm too OCD for that, so I just press it in.
Then rotate the knife, mimicking the motion you made when you opened the avocado. The pit should pop right out.
There you go! Grab a spoon and the salt-shaker and enjoy.
Or top your salad or sandwich or whatever with it.
Or feed it to your baby.
Or whatever.
Key word: enjoy.
