a recipe

Now that I have gotten the family meal memories out of my system I've got a recipe for you. This one is an original by me, inspired by a couple different dip/dishes that I have had at other's homes on bunco nights. (bunco is a dice game played by 12 people at 3 tables). I combined a few ingredients of different dishes and added one of my own. As with all my recipes you get a rambling explanation of why I use the ingredients I do, variations that I have tried and only vague proportions to work with. But I hope if you do give it a try, you like it. This is a variation on 7 layer dip, it's meant to be served with tortilla chips along side the guacamole & salsa, but I'll admit right now I have served with a spinach salad and called it dinner.

1 pound of ground beef or a bit more.
1 or 2 avocados, depends on how much you like avocados. I really like them so I use 2. The little dark green ones, not the big light green ones. One of those would probably be sufficient. You want them to be just a tiny bit past ripe, not too soft but with a nice 'give' if you squeeze them gently.
1 or 2 tomatoes for the same reason as the avocados. I'm not big on tomatoes so I use one small one. DH claims this is a skimpy amount of tomatoes & has me put 2 in if its for a party.
Sour cream, the 16oz container size, though I generally use only about 12ozs of it.
One bag of shredded 'Mexican mix' cheese or you can shred up some cheddar, pepper jack & monteray jack cheese as a nice blend as well.
Packet of taco seasoning. I like Ortega mild but choose per your personal preference. Manwich sauce works well also. I'd originally intended to use Manwich when I thought up this dish but the Wal-Mart was remodeling & had moved the cans of Manwich to who knows where (not that I knew where they were before this. I'd never bought Manwich sauce before but it was used in one of the inspiration dishes) and I decided on taco seasoning instead. I found the Manwich stuff at safeway & tried that version. It's more liquidy than taco seasoning but works well.
Lettuce, if not serving with a separate salad. Iceberg is best with this, or really crisp romaine. I use about half a head of Iceberg

Cook the ground beef according to the taco seasoning/Manwich instructions. Let it cool a bit. While it is doing that, chop up the avocados & tomatoes, shred the cheese if needed and chop up the lettuce if using. You want a small dice on the avocados & tomatoes & bite sized on the lettuce.

Get one 9x13 non-metal pan. Layer in the beef on the bottom, then spread a layer of sour cream on that. I think the whole 16ozs is a bit too much sour cream, so I only use about 12ozs now. Then sprinkle the avocados & then the tomatoes over the sour cream. Top them with the lettuce, if using, and finish with the whole bag of shredded cheese. Serve with big sturdy tortilla chips.