Equal-Parts Foods (No algebra required) 🍴

This week’s equinox reminded us that balance is possible—in astronomy, definitely not in your work-life ratio. Equal day, equal night. Let’s bring that balance into your messy kitchen with equal-parts recipes. Stop into Ava's to pick up all the ingredients (or pre-made versions, if you're overwhelmed by even the idea of "math".

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• 🍰 Pound Cake — Equal weights butter, sugar, flour, and eggs. That’s it. Old-school recipes didn’t f- around. Fun fact: the pound cake’s equal-ratio design was actually a teaching tool for people who couldn’t read. So with a little practice, even you might be able to pull this one off!
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• 🥗 Coleslaw Dressing — Equal parts mayo, sour cream, vinegar. This is the laziest dressing in history, and yet somehow people act like it’s gourmet. Equal parts smugness and cabbage.
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• 🥔 Mashed Potatoes — Equal parts potatoes and cream. Mashed potatoes are proof that equality works—when cream and potato are united, humanity wins. Nerd note: potatoes were once illegal in France because people thought they caused leprosy. If they did, The Martian movie would have been a bit more… surreal.
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• 🔥 BBQ Glaze — Equal parts ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar. It’s like America in a bowl: sweet, sour, and sticky. (Plus, no need for ice). Ava’s also has a huge variety of bottles ready-to-go, for the culinarily useless challenged.
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• 💪 Energy Balls — Equal parts oats, peanut butter, honey. Equal-parts recipe, unequal-parts self-control. Bonus science: oats contain beta-glucan, which actually lowers cholesterol… until you smother them in peanut butter and honey.

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🧠 Fun astronomy fact: The equinox doesn’t guarantee equal day and night everywhere. Because of refraction (aka light bending), your “equal” day actually cheats by a few minutes. Even the universe bends the rules sometimes!

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Equal-Parts Drinks (for when balance = buzzed) 🍹

The equinox means day and night are equal. Do you know what else deserves equality? Cocktails. A proper drink is 1:1:1, no spreadsheets required. Ava's has a huge selection of ingredients, but sometimes you need a little inspiration. We gotcha:
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• 🍸 Negroni — Equal parts gin, vermouth, Campari. It’s a drink that tastes like “bitterness, but make it fashion.” Fun nerd note: Count Camillo Negroni supposedly invented it in 1919 because his Americano cocktail was “too weak.” Mad Respect.
  (P.S. Did you know it's actually Negroni Week? Like you needed an excuse to drink like you did in Australia.)
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• 🥃 Black Russian — Equal parts vodka and coffee liqueur. Invented in Brussels in 1949. That’s right: Belgium is not only fries and waffles—it also gave us this two-ingredient hangover in a glass.
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• 🍸 Gin & It — Equal parts gin and vermouth. “It” refers to Italian Vermouth, not the Stephen King clown. But honestly, the idea of a drunk killer clown has legs. (P.S. Anyone know a good publicist?)

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🧠 Fun math fact: Equal ratios like these form what’s called a “harmonic mean,” surprisingly a math term and not just a euphemism for Bob Dylan after one too many.

Equal-Parts Desserts (for people who like sugar AND more sugar) 🍭

Equal-parts recipes aren’t just for food and drinks—they’re for desserts too. Sweet, simple, and guaranteed to make your dentist shake their head disapprovingly while scheduling yet another root canal.
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• 🍪 Shortbread — Equal parts butter, flour, sugar. Three ingredients. Scottish monks invented shortbread centuries ago, probably to bribe God. (They know why.)
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• 🥜 Peanut Butter Cookies — Equal parts peanut butter, sugar, egg. They’re so easy you can bake them mid-mental breakdown.
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• 🥜 Candied Nuts — Equal parts nuts, sugar, water. Warning: molten sugar is basically napalm. Handle carefully unless you’re looking for equal parts snack and burn cream.
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• 🍯 Caramel Sauce — Equal parts sugar, butter, cream. The recipe is easy, but somehow always results in a crime scene of sticky spoons.
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• 💧 Simple Syrup — Equal parts sugar & water. Easiest recipe ever. If you’re proud of yourself for making it, you probably also clap when the plane lands.

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🧠 Nerd closer: The word equation comes from the same root as equinox—both from the Latin aequus, meaning “equal.” So yes, every time you balance an equation, you’re basically doing equinox cosplay.

Upcoming Events​
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• Every Wednesday, 5-7pm — 🎵 Music on Castro​
  ​Enjoy live performances right in Downtown Mountain View! Come for the tunes, stay for the vibes, and don’t forget to swing by Ava’s to grab dinner from Poké Bowl or Simply Sabor, or just pick up a box of cookies to munch on while you vibe to the music like a very classy raccoon. 🎶🍪🦝
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• Friday, 6-7:30pm — 🎵 Concerts on the Plaza​
  ​Didn’t get your full music fix on Wednesday? Perfect—because Friday night, Concerts on the Plaza is bringing the beats that make lawn chairs bounce and dads attempt the moonwalk. 💃🕺 Stop by Ava’s first for a snack, a chilled drink, or a quick wine tasting to fuel your feet and unlock those secret dance moves.
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• Sat & Sun, Oct 11-12 — 🍺 MV Oktoberfest​
  Downtown MV goes 🇩🇪 for the weekend! Join your neighbors in silly songs, stein-holding contests, and tons of hangover breakfast items when you stop by Ava's afterwards to finally make a good decision for the first time that day.
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• Sat, Oct 25, 10am-2pm — 👺 Monster Bash​
  ​Rengstorff Park fills up with screaming ghouls hopped up on sugar. And YOU are going to need a healthy snack (and a strong alcoholic beverage) to survive it. Stop by Ava's to pick up the essentials. (P.S. We also sell hand wipes.)