I stumbled across this fabulous combo trying to make goddess dressing without nutritional yeast. I'm not sure what I was aiming for, actually, since I realize now, I have no idea what goddess dressing is. So. Out of the ether it came, I suppose. A freak miracle.

It looks just like many other dips, but there's so much more to the story than how it appears. Brightly lemony, garlic-ly pungent and decadently creamy, this is one of my heavy hitters at this point. Guaranteed to impress. Bringing this to a dinner party or potluck is not advised if you are hoping to avoid attention. Additionally, this recipe will make anyone fall in love with you; it will likely change the course of your career for the better; it will improve grocery checkout line decisions as well as bestow incredible results in Chinese cookie fortunes.

So why not? Aioli, ho!

Avocado Aioli (vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free)

The ratios of ingredients in this recipe are crucial in order to achieve a bursting, lemony, pungent, creamy dip. Too much avocado might be the easiest mistake to make. Correct for this by adding more garlic, lemon and salt. In life, I urge you to not be shy with garlic--here, parsley subdues what I call a garlic cologne effect. I've had great success with throwing in all of the juice from a Meyer lemon, but if you are going to sub any other kind of lemon, you might not need as much, and adding the juice slowly is a good idea.

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 head of garlic
1/2 medium sized ripe avocado
juice of one meyer lemon
1/2 bunch of parlsley, chopped coarsely

In a food processor, first blend together the sunflower seeds, salt, garlic and olive oil-- the things that you wouldn't want to chomp down on in a dip. If you need some more volume for the food processor to do its work, add a little of the avocado and some of the lemon juice. Once this is blended as smoothly as possible, add the rest of the avocado half and the lemon and combine. Lastly, add the parsley and blend until it is well-chopped but not pulverized. Makes enough for 3-4 people to devour in minutes with chips or carrots. Also, freezes well!

On a recent road trip my sweetie offered up a riddle to me and my best gal-friend, Jacqui. Wanna give it a shot? Here it is:

A man and his son were in a serious accident. The man and his son were rushed to two separate hospitals. As the boy was delivered into the operating room, the surgeon said, "I can't perform this surgery; this is my son." How is this possible?

Here, I'll let you think on it for a sec over a pretty picture.

Before I give you the answer, I have to mention, this riddle was maybe the dozenth that we'd heard that car trip, and Jacqui and I had kinda been killin' it. Maybe it was our assume-nothing medical training (we're in our 3rd year of naturopathic medical school), or maybe we're just a couple of smarty-pants, but we'd immediately gotten the correct answers to most of the riddles that day.

Our immediate response to this one (because we're so progressive and open-minded) was: the son had two dads. Not a bad answer. But the published answer was: the surgeon was the boy's mother.

Of course, the irony of sitting with two female medical students who hadn't considered the possibility that the surgeon could be a woman was not lost on my sweetie. Before he gave us the answer he urged us to try again, and watched in disbelief as we fumbled for an explanation as delightful as the great gay- or multiple-dads scenario.

So maybe despite being women who are studying to be doctors, we still aren't as open-minded and progressive as I thought. I just hope that actions do speak louder than words.