On the rare occasion that I *allow* Damon to accompany me to the grocery store, one of the ways he makes it tolerable is to buy all of the ingredients to make his mango salsa. It really is some tasty stuff, and he usually tries to do most of the chopping himself, so I tend to cave in to the pressure/cravings. Tonight was definitely one such occasion. He collected all of the ingredients, and sure enough, as soon as we were done with dinner, he began chopping away. It’s quite funny though because every time he makes the mango salsa, I always have to show him how to chop each vegetable. He was about a quarter of the way through one of the red onions when he decided he could tolerate the burning eyes no more and went out the back door for what I had presumed was to get some fresh air. I finished chopping the onions (I’m going to try to post the technique for chopping onions at another time) only to look up and find Damon standing there wearing goggles from the swimming pool to protect his eyes.
I was laughing so hard that I had to let him take back over the onion chopping (and in the meantime I snuck away to grab my camera and take a couple pics). 
So after he finished chopping the onion and I recovered from my laughing spell, we moved on to the avocado. People often comment on my avocado chopping technique, so I thought that I would take some pics and blog about it. I can’t quite remember when/where I learned to do this, but it’s really quite handy. I most likely learned from my brother-in-law, Lucas, who is a chef (graduate of the Culinary Institute of America).
First, you cut the avocado in half by running your knife around the pit that is in the center. Twist the knife slightly and the two halves will pull apart. The pit will remain in one half. Hold that half in the palm of your hand and hit the pit with the sharp edge of your knife so it gets lodged in the pit. Now twist your knife and the pit will pop right out. Don’t throw away the pit – hold onto it so you can put it in with the avocado. This keeps it from turning brown. After I’ve halved my avocado, I take a really small paring knife and slice parallel lines vertically along the whole half.
Now do the same thing, but run your slices horizontally so they are perpendicular to the first set of lines.
This is what it should look like after you’re done slicing through both directions:
Next, use the edge of a large spoon to slice out layers of the avocado so you are pulling out approximate 1/4″ cubes.
You will have to use the spoon to cut out multiple layers of the avocado, with each layer being approximately 1/4″ thick. This is what mine looked like as I started cutting into the second layer:
At the end you can use the edge of your spoon to make sure you have all of the avocado that you want out of the peel:
Now remember to put the avocado pits in with the chopped avocado because they keep it from turning brown.
The very last thing is to stir up all of the ingredients, making sure to leave in the pits. Now you have some tasty mango salsa – ENJOY!!!
MANGO SALSA RECIPE:
1 ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and diced (about 1 1/2 cup)
1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
1 Jalapeño chile, minced (include ribs and seeds for a hotter taste if desired)
1 small cucumber, peeled and diced (about 1 cup)
3 Tbsp fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 Avacado, diced
Salt and pepper to taste
