Basic Guacamole

Begin by splitting and pitting the avocados:
After cutting around the pit length-wise, twist the avocado and separate the two halves. Take a large knife and carefully, but with some oomph behind it, embed the knife into the pit. Now the pit can be twisted right out of the avocado. Insert a large spoon next to the peel and slide it next to the skin to separate the avocado.

Place the three peeled and pitted avocados in a food processor.

Chop the onion (or grate it, if you can’t stand the texture of an onion.) Add to the food processor.

Add the salt, 1 tablespoon lemon juice (which is equal to the juice of half of a lemon), chili powder, and mayonnaise.

If you don’t have a food processor, just mash the avocados with a fork before stirring in the other ingredients.

Pulse until the guacamole is at your desired texture. At this point, you could add in all sorts of extras—chopped tomatoes, a minced clove of garlic, large chunks of avocado, chopped fresh cilantro, jicama, Serrano chilies, diced shrimp, or even mango.