Under. Rated.

Guys, I’m addicted to sardines.

It’s kind of a weird thing to be addicted to since I’m pretty sure most people are just lukewarm about them.

But they are so good. Sardines are salty and rich and good on a ton of different foods.

They get a really bad rap though and a lot of people find them “gross.” Some of those same people have no issue eating a deep fried piece of strange fish product from a fast food place.

At least this fish looks like fish!

If you think you don’t like sardines, I implore you to give them a second shot. This sandwich is one of my new favorite lunches and I hope it doesn’t scare you away.

Sardine and Avocado Sandwich

Yield: 2 open-faced sandwiches

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 (4 ounce) can sardines in olive oil (about 4 large sardines)
1 avocado, mashed
Red onion, sliced thin
Capers
2 slices thick bread
Olive oil
Black pepper

Directions:

1) Remove pitt from avocado and add to two slices of thick bread. Mash onto bread like a spread. Use 1/2 an avocado per bread slice.

2) Top each half of bread with a few sardines, roughly chopped.

3) Top each sandwich with slivered red onion, capers, a drizzle of olive oil, and some fresh black pepper.

4) Bake sandwiches at 425 for 5-6 minutes or broil for 2 minutes.

5) Serve immediately!

Adapted from Alton Brown's sandwich.

Sardines

The sardine section at most grocery stores can be intimidating. There are a bunch of different options and some are better than others. Personally, I like wild caught sardines that are stored in olive oil with lemon.

These tend to be on the more expensive end of sardines. A can will set you back about $3-$4, but I find that these taste the best.

Shop around though and try a few different kinds until you find one you like.

When it comes down to health, sardines are amazing. They are a great source of vitamins and nutrients and contain a lot of Omega-3s. Because they are really low on the food chain, they also have very little traces of mercury which some larger fish can have.

They may just be the perfect lunch food in my opinion.

Alton Brown agrees with me. He attributed a good chunk of his weight loss to sardines and, in fact, this sandwich idea came from him.

Love these!

Making the Sandwich

I like to make this sandwich in open-face form.

Try to get some good thick and crusty bread for the sandwich that can hold up to the toppings.

Half an avocado per slice.

I used a whole avocado for two pieces of bread.

I suggest you do the same. The avocado works almost like mayonnaise and forms a kind of sauce for the sandwich. A nice thick layer of it really helps.

Pretty green color!

Then just throw a few sardines on each piece. If you have large sardines, you might want to chop them roughly.

I also topped my sandwich with some sliced red onion and capers.

The capers are optional, but I think the red onions really add a nice flavor to the sandwich.

If you don’t use sardines that are stored with lemons, you might want to squeeze some lemon juice on the sandwich also.

Toppings galore.

Drizzle the sandwiches with a small amount of olive oil and toast these bad boys in a 425 degree oven for about six minutes or you can broil the sandwiches under high heat for about 2 minutes.

Serve them immediately!

After a quick bake or broil.

This is really a simple sandwich but probably not something that a lot of people would think to try.

At the end of the day though, it’s really healthy, filling, and very tasty. I can’t get enough of the flavor combo.

So, how do you feel about sardines? Do you love them?

Raise your hand if you’re never reading Macheesmo again because of this sandwich!

In honor of fixing my grill that I set on fire a few weeks ago, I wanted to do a fun Tuesday treat related to the grill!

After all, it’s summer time and hopefully you’ll get a chance to light up your grill (or make friends with someone who can) at some point soon.

The Giveaway

Most people have the simple grill tools like spatulas, brushes, and tongs, but there are some super-useful tools that a lot of people overlook.

At the top of my list these days is the grill pan.

It basically lets you grill all kinds of foods that might normally fall through the grates in your grill. One of my favorite things to do is dice up some fresh vegetables and make a grilled salsa.

The pan is also awesome at grilling delicate things like fish. It just makes it a lot easier to work with the food.

It’s one of those tools that you maybe don’t have, but once you do have it, you’ll find yourself using it ALL OF THE TIME.

I’m giving away THREE of these bad boys to you lovely readers.

Tuesday Treat Rules

Just a reminder about the Tuesday Treat rules.

The whole idea behind these giveaways is that they are quick. This contest will close at 7PM Eastern time tonight (Tuesday) and I’ll pick THREE winners at random. That means that you have just 12 hours to sign up.

Unfortunately, I can’t ship internationally so just U.S. entries please.

Those three winners will get this sweet grill pan!

How to enter?

It doesn’t get much easier. Just leave a comment and you’re entered!

If you happen to be reading this in an email, you need to comment on the actual post to be entered please.

Good luck everyone!

If you want to make sure you never miss a Tuesday Treat, be sure to subscribe to Macheesmo via RSS or email!

Winners!

Congrats to Kinsey, Lou, and Erika! They are the winners for this Tuesday Treat.

These were better than expected.

I’ve always been skeptical of the lettuce wrap. This is how it usually goes down when I try to eat something wrapped in nothing more than lettuce:

1) I pick up the lettuce wrapped thing.

2) The lettuce rips into a million tiny pieces spilling stuff all over the place.

3) I look like an idiot.

Somehow that didn’t happen with these guys. I tried not to over-fill them which is sometimes the problem and I also used the sturdiest lettuce out there (Romaine).

And yes… I realize that sturdy lettuce is an oxymoron. Just go with it.

Turkey Lettuce Wraps

Yield: Serves 3-4.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey
1 jalapeno, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons cumin, ground
1 teaspoon coriander, ground
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon Braggs or soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper
Romaine lettuce leaves

Tomato/Avocado Topping:
1 cup tomatoes
2 scallions, minced
1 avocado, diced
1/2 lime, juice only
2 tablespoons cilantro
Pinch of salt

Directions:

1) For the avocado topping, dice the tomatoes, scallions, and avocado. Stir together with lime juice, cilantro, and a pinch of salt. Set aside for later.

2) If you're using whole spices (cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes), toast them in a dry pan over medium heat until fragrant, a few minutes. Then grind.

3) Mix ground spices with ground turkey, minced garlic, and the diced jalapeno. Stir in Braggs or soy sauce and cinnamon.

4) Add olive oil to a skillet over medium heat. Cook turkey mixture until it's well browned and cooked through, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

5) Rinse and dry your romaine lettuce leaves. About 10-12 leaves should be enough for the pound of turkey mixture.

6) When turkey is cooked, scoop some into each lettuce leaf. Don't over-fill them. Then top with a spoonful of the tomato/avocado mixture. Serve immediately!

A Salsa Topping

My goal with these wraps was to make sure the turkey tasted like something. I hate bland turkey more than anything ever.

So I knew I was going to add a lot of wonderful spice to the turkey.

I figured a simple tomato and avocado topping would help balance out the flavors a bit.

Hard to go wrong here...

This isn’t really a salsa and isn’t really guacamole, but it’s really good.

Basically just chop up all the stuff and stir it together with s squeeze of lime and some salt. It’s pretty hard to go wrong here.

Chopped and mixed.

Turkey with Flavor

Ground turkey is super bland on its own.

To fix this problem, I toasted some whole spices like coriander, cumin, and red pepper flakes until they were fragrant and then ground them. I figured this would solve the flavor problem.

Toast and grind!

I also tossed in a spoonful of my new favorite ingredient: Bragg Liquid Aminos. The stuff is kind of like soy sauce, but without the sodium. It basically just adds a lot of umami richness to the turkey. (Thanks to readers Maeve and Sean for the Braggs tip.)

Or soy sauce...

A secret ingredient

Besides the ground spices, some minced jalapeno and garlic, and the Braggs I also added in a small pinch of something that you might not expect to see in this recipe: cinnamon.

Special ingredient!

It almost gives the filling some sweetness and just makes all the flavors more interesting.

You might not be able to pick it out as an ingredient if you didn’t know it was in there, but it is definitely a good idea.

Then you just stir everything up!

All mixed up!

Cooking the turkey is pretty straightforward. Just add a drizzle of olive oil to a skillet and cook the turkey mixture over medium heat until it’s browned and cooked through.

It should take around eight to ten minutes.

This will smell amazing.

A Lettuce Dilemma

I’ve never found a lettuce that works for wrapping as well as Romaine. Everything else I’ve ever tried just falls apart.

These guys hold up pretty well though even to a hot filling like this.

I was concerned.

I think you know the rest of the story. Add a few spoonfuls of the turkey mixture to a piece of lettuce and top it with a spoonful of the avocado topping.

Just be careful not to overfill the lettuce cups. That’s how spills happen!

Pretty tasty!

If you’re good, you can eat these with your hands, but I recommend keeping a fork handy just in case.

I found these to be a completely delicious dinner. About four of these was more than enough to fill me up.

They would be great if you’re trying to do the low-carb thing!

Also, if you aren’t into the lettuce wrap idea, you can use the turkey mixture for all kinds of stuff. It would be great in tacos or even in burger form!

Bloody delicious.

There are two questions I immediately ask myself when creating recipes:

1) Is there any way I can add booze to this?

2) Is there any way I can add Sriracha to this?

Any time I can stick both of these together, I’m a happy camper.

Also included in this post is quite possibly the best skewer of bloody mary garnishes you’ll ever see!

Sriracha Bloody Mary

Yield: 32 ounces of mix

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

32 ounces tomato juice
1/4 cup Sriracha hot sauce (or less)
2 tablespoons horseradish
1 tablespoon Braggs or worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1/2 lemon, juice only

Garnishes:
Celery
Pickles
Olives
Jalapenos
Sweet peppers
Caper berries
Anything pickled really!

Directions:

1) Combine all ingredients in a big bowl. Start with 2-3 tablespoons sriracha and add more to get to your desired level of spiciness.

2) Once all your ingredients are combined, taste and adjust flavors.

3) Make a bloody mary with 3 parts mix to 1 part vodka. So for 2 ounces of vodka, use 6-8 ounces of the mix.

4) Garnish and serve!

Making the Mix

I really don’t like most of the bloody mary mixes that are available in the store. I find them to be too salty and not spicy enough.

So, over the years, I’ve worked out a ratio of things that I really like in my bloody mary mix. But that’s not to say that YOU will like it. I highly recommend that taste as you go when making the mix and adjust to your liking.

For each ingredient, especially the sriracha, start with a small amount of the ingredient and add more.

Just tomato juice.

Sriracha is a really strong hot sauce but I seriously put in 1/4 of a cup of it in my mix.

That’s kind of an insane amount of hot sauce, but I think it needs that much for the flavor to really come through once it’s mixed.

If you don’t love spicy foods though, I would start with two tablespoons of the hot sauce and work up from there.

No need to go light on it.

While sriracha provides a lot of flavor for this mix, one of my absolute favorite ingredients in any bloody mary mix is grated horseradish.

When you are buying it, just make sure you get pure horseradish and not horseradish sauce which has all kinds of weird crap in it.

My favorite ingredient.

So the horseradish and the sriracha are my favorite ingredients in the mix, but I think the most essential ingredient is actually lemon juice.

The acid from the lemon makes all the other flavors really bright. If you make this recipe and leave out the lemon juice, don’t put my name on it!

Most important.

Once you get all the spices and everything mixed together well, be sure to taste the mix.

It should have an intense flavor. Remember that it will calm down a bit when you mix it with vodka and ice. It should be almost too strong on its own.

You know it’s a good mix when it’s speckled with all kinds of stuff.

Lots of stuff in that mix!

Once I have my bloody mary mix ready, I just pour it back into the tomato juice container.

Just be sure to write on the label so someone doesn’t drink it thinking it is just tomato juice!

Back in the bottle!

Mixing a Drink

Again, making a bloody mary is all about personal preference. For me, I like a 3 parts mix to 1 part vodka ratio plus a lot of ice.

I wouldn’t do more than 4 parts mix to 1 part vodka.

So for two ounces of vodka you would want between six and eight ounces of bloody mary mix.

About 3:1 is a good ratio.

Garnishes

A bloody mary without garnishes is no bloody mary at all.

I go big with the garnishes which pretty much makes a meal out of the drink.

Celery is required, but boring. I go with olives, pickles, jalapenos, sweet cherry peppers, and caper berries.

I skewer everything on a long skewer and BAM.

HELLO!

The drink is wonderful, but dipping all the garnishes in it and eating them is really fun.

If I ran a brunch restaurant, I’d charge $10 for this bad boy and you would pay it!

$10 at a brunch place.

I’ve only posted one other bloody mary recipe on Macheesmo, but I think this one might be my new favorite recipe.

Please comment and confirm how awesome my garnish skewer is!

They wanted me to come up with a recipe using their tomatoes so they sent me approximately a metric ton of tomatoes and I got to work.

I came up with a really wonderful strawberry gazpacho. It’s slightly sweet due to the strawberries and is perfect on a hot summer day.

I try to be pretty selective about what companies I work with and I was happy to do this since they are basically just promoting cooking with fresh ingredients. Hard not to like that!

The Poll

The Links

60 Second Aioli - Homemade mayo is one of my favorite condiments but it is kind of a pain to make. This smart technique makes it almost too easy! (@ Amateur Gourmet)

Mimosa Truffles – These look a bit advanced, but if you’re looking for something really homemade to wow for Mother’s Day, these would do the trick for sure! (@ Brown Eyed Baker)

Strange Cookies - I’ve seen a lot of cookies in my day and a lot of cookies with weird ingredients. I never, ever would have thought to put a hard-boiled egg in a cookie unless it was an April Fools prank! (@ Cupcake Project)

Coconut Shrimp With Orange Sauce - Shrimp are kind of hard for me to find around my neck of the woods, but recipes like this still make my mouth water! (@ No Recipes)

Connect with me!

Throughout the week I love chatting with people and sharing fun and interesting stuff around the web. I’m fairly active on a few different places:

- Follow @macheesmo on Twitter.
- Like Macheesmo on Facebook.
- Add Me to a Google+ circle.
- macheesmo on Instagram.

And, of course, you can always subscribe to Macheesmo via the feed or via email!

Have a great Mother’s Day weekend everyone!

A light and delicious pasta.

For those of you who voted for a fancy pasta in last week’s poll, I have to apologize.

You were probably expecting some fancy ravioli. A simple pasta primavera is maybe not what you had in mind.

But I was cooking for my mother and she likes simple dishes, so Nanny nanny boo boo!

My Mom is half Italian and loves a good pasta dish as much as the next Italian, but she also loves vegetables and spring time so a primavera seemed appropriate.

Oh. And I made my own angel hair pasta. So that’s pretty darn fancy in my book!

Spring Pasta Primavera

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes + pasta time

Ingredients:

Homemade pasta:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 large egg yolks
2 large eggs

Pasta Primavera:
1/2 pound angel hair pasta
1 cup broccoli florets, blanched
8 asparagus spears, blanched
1/4 pound green beans, blanched
1/2 zucchini, sliced
1/2 red pepper, sliced thin
3 scallions, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1/3 cup cream
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
Chopped basil (garnish)
Parmesan cheese (garnish)

Helpful Equipment:
Pasta Roller or the KitchenAid attachment

Directions:

Making Pasta Dough:
1) Mix flour with salt and pour it onto a clean counter surface. Make a small well in the center of the flour and crack in your eggs and egg yolks.

2) Use a fork to scramble eggs and slowly incorporate flour into the egg mixture.

3) After a few minutes, the egg mixture should be pretty thick and you can start to lightly fold it over itself and knead in more flour. Keep kneading in more flour until the dough is firm and not sticky, about 10 minutes of kneading. YOu won't need all the flour most likely.

4) When the dough is smooth and firm and not sticky at all, it's done. Wrap it in plastic wrap at this point and let it rest at room temperature for an hour. You can also freeze it at this point for longer storage.

5) To make the pasta, cut the dough into thirds or quarters and work with one piece at a time. Flour the dough well and start running it through your pasta machine on the widest setting. Do this a few times, folding and turning the dough to knead it a bit more.

6) Once the dough is in a smooth sheet, start cranking down the pasta machine. Roll the dough through each setting making sure it stays nicely floured so it doesn't stick. Stop on the second to thinnest setting. Then run it through the angel hair cutter to cut the pasta into shape.

7) Toss pasta with flour and set aside as you do the other pieces of dough.

To make primavera:
1) Chop broccoli, asparagus, and green beans into large pieces. Blanch in heavily salted water for 60-90 seconds. You can use the same water to cook the pasta later.

2) Remove veggies from water with a slotted spoon and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.

3) In a large high-walled pan or skillet, add olive oil, crushed garlic, and red pepper flakes over low heat. Cook for a few minutes to let the garlic flavors infuse into the oil. Be careful not to burn the garlic.

4) Turn heat up to medium and add the zucchini, red pepper slices, and scallions. Cook for another minute or two.

5) Add blanched veggies to the pan along with stock, cream, and parmesan.

6) Add pasta to boiling water to cook. The pasta should take only a minute or two to cook assuming you are using angel hair.

7) When pasta is done, transfer straight to pan with veggies. Toss to coat the pasta with the sauce and mix with veggies.

8) Serve immediately with chopped basil and extra Parmesan.

Homemade Pasta

Homemade pasta gets a bad rap for being very hard to do.

It’s really not that bad though. I promise that you can do it. The real question is… is it worth it?

That depends. I definitely don’t make all the pasta that I eat, but I would guess that I make homemade pasta at least once a month. All told, it’s about a half hour of work and the results are really spectacular.

I always make the dough by hand and then use a machine to roll it out.

To start, just make a well with your flour/salt mixture and then crack in your eggs. Use a fork to start mixing the eggs and slowly incorporating the flour into the eggs.

Eventually, the yolk mixture will take on enough flour that you can start to gently fold it over itself using your hands. As you do that, work in more flour and after a few minutes you’ll have a nice, firm ball of dough.

If you look back at the first homemade pasta I ever made, you’ll see that I wasn’t always so good at containing my eggs in the well.

Don’t stress if you make a mess. Just keep mixing flour into your eggs and eventually you’ll have a dough ball. Knead the dough ball for about 6-8 minutes until it is nice and smooth and not sticky at all.

Then wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for an hour at room temperature.

For this recipe, you only need a half pound of dough, so I cut my dough down to about that amount. I froze the rest for later!

About half a pound.

Once you have your dough ready, you can roll this out by hand and cut it into long noodles, but I have never been able to get it thin enough without a pasta roller.

If you have a kitchenaid, you can just use the pasta attachment which works great.

I cut my half pound of dough in half to make it easier to work with and then started rolling it through my pasta machine press on the widest setting (1). Don’t be afraid to coat your dough pretty liberally with flour as you roll it so it doesn’t stick.

Rollin' with the doughmies.

Keep running the dough through the widest setting a few times to knead the dough. Fold it and turn it as you go.

After a few times, start cranking the pasta machine down. Run the dough through once for each setting. I have eight settings on mine and I stopped at the second thinnest setting (7)

Then just slap on your angel hair attachment and cut it up!

The hair of an angel!

Toss the cut pasta with some flour so it doesn’t stick and you are in business!

Homemade pasta is really fun.

The Primavera

Some primavera recipes are really cream heavy which has its place and time. This recipe is a bit on the lighter side though. It is jam-packed with lots of good spring vegetables and has just a touch of cream and stock to make a very light sauce.

To start though, cut your broccoli, asparagus, and green beans in to large pieces and blanch them in salted water for about 60-90 seconds. Then rinse them with cold water to stop the cooking.

Blanched stuff.

You can use the same boiling water to cook your pasta also so don’t through it out!

Eventually, you’ll need these things to make the sauce.

A touch of cream never hurts.

In a large skillet, add your oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes over LOW heat. Let those flavors cook together slowly for a few minutes.

Be very careful not to burn the garlic.

Once the mixture is really fragrant, add the zucchini, red peppers, and scallions. Turn the heat up to about medium and continue to cook for another minute or two.

Don't overcook these!

Then add in your blanched vegetables, stock, cream, and parmesan cheese.

As this cooks the liquid will come together to make a light sauce.

All together!

Once you add your blanched veggies, start cooking your pasta.

Assuming you are using angel hair pasta, it should take just a minute or two to cook.

Once cooked, add the pasta straight to the large pot and toss everything together!

Garnish the pasta with some extra Parmesan cheese and chopped basil and you are in for a treat!

Really tasty.

The tricky part about a primavera, in my opinion, is making sure that all of your veggies are still slightly crisp and not soggy at all. The best way to make sure this happens is to have everything ready for the dish before you start cooking. You don’t want to be chopping scallions while your zucchini overcooks.

Obviously, you don’t have to make your own angel hair pasta for this, but I know that my Mom would like it if I did.

I don’t know if you’ve been to a candy shop recently, but fudge is fudgin’ expensive!

It’s just sugar and chocolate but you would think that it was filled with gold bullion.

When it comes to making candy, I think fudge is a pretty beginner item. It does require a bit of patience and you’ll need a decent thermometer, but assuming you can watch a thermometer and stir occasionally, it’s pretty easy to make really good fudge at home for 10% of the cost most candy shops charge.

I had never actually made fudge before I tried out this recipe. I decided to use some of the Ibarra chocolate left over from my mole attempt and toss in some cayenne to give the fudge a little bit of heat.

One of my favorite flavor combos is spicy mixed with chocolate so I knew that if I could get the fudge process down then I would end up with some pretty tasty candy.

Mexican Chile Fudge

Yield: 16 fudge squares

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes + chill time

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups sugar
2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
2 ounces Ibarra chocolate
1/4 cup butter, divided in half
1 cup half and half
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pinch of salt

Helpful Equipment:
Candy Thermometer

Directions:

1) Line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper and set aside for later.

2) Combine sugar, half and half, chocolates, corn syrup, half of the butter, and a pinch of salt in a medium pot. Put over medium heat and stir constantly until sugar and chocolate are completely dissolved.

3) Bring mixture to a simmer. Cover pot and let simmer for three minutes.

4) Remove cover and give the mixture a quick stir. Attach your candy thermometer. Heat the mixture until it reaches the soft ball candy stage - around 235 degrees Fahrenheit.

5) Remove fudge from the heat. Add butter to the mixture, but don't stir it. Let the fudge cool slowly until it cools down to 130 degrees.

6) Add vanilla and cayenne pepper and begin stirring fudge with a heat resistant spatula. Stir until the fudge turns from silky and shiny to matte in texture. It should start to thicken as well.

7) After stirring for 4-5 minutes, pour fudge into an 8x8 baking dish lined with parchment paper.

8) Let fudge cool in fridge for at least four hours.

9) Cut fudge into 16 pieces and serve or store in the fridge for up to a week.

Recipe adapted from an Alton Brown recipe.

Fudge Basics

There is really just two tricks to fudge. First, you have to heat it to a pretty precise temperature. Then you have to slowly cool the fudge so that crystals form out of the sugar. Once the fudge hits a specific temperature, you stir it like crazy to break up the crystals as they cool and also incorporate air into the fudge.

We’ll talk more about all of this later. The good news is that for a basic fudge like this the ingredient list is pretty short.

Just a few ingredients

If you don’t have Ibarra chocolate handy, you can just use four ounces of good quality semi-sweet chocolate chips.

The Ibarra chocolate is really interesting though. It’s much more brittle and sugary than most American chocolate.

Good stuff.

Starting the Fudge

Step one to making fudge is just to melt everything down. Combine half of the butter, the chocolate, the half and half, the corn syrup, and a pinch of salt in a pot and put it over medium heat.

Stir stir stir!

This will be a pretty thick mixture but will thin out as the sugar and chocolate dissolve. Stir it constantly as it heats so the sugar and chocolate don’t burn in the pot.

After about five minutes of cooking, everything should be dissolved.

Make sure all the sugar is dissolved!

The next step requires a bit of faith and I had my doubts that it would work.

Bring the fudge mixture to a slight simmer over medium heat, then cover it, and let it cook, undisturbed, for three minutes.

I’m not entirely sure why this step is necessary, but Alton said to do it, so I did it, and it worked.

3 minutes. That's it.

The Temperature Game

Temperature control is the name of the game now for the fudge so make sure you have a good candy thermometer. As far as I know, you can’t really eyeball this. The hot fudge looks basically the same at 225 degrees or 250 degrees.

Once you uncover the fudge, give it a quick stir just to make sure it isn’t sticking and then return it to the heat and attach a candy thermometer.

If you’re in the market for a candy thermometer, I wouldn’t recommend the kind I’m using in these photos. It’s glass and is pretty fragile. Get a metal one.

Anyway, once your thermometer is attached, just watch it closely (no stirring) until the temperature reaches 235 degrees Fahrenheit.

235 is the goal.

At that point most of the water is cooked out of the fudge so it will thicken nicely but it won’t turn into a solid, hard block.

Then we just need to cool the stuff down!

Take it off the heat and add in your reserved two tablespoons of butter.

Then let it cool to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. This should take around 10-15 minutes. Don’t go too far though. If the fudge cools down too much, it will harden in your pan and be ruined.

A slow cooling.

Stir Time

Once your chocolate is cooled down to the right temperature, you can stir in some extra flavor.

Awesome flavors.

Then just start stirring the fudge! It’ll start off silky and smooth and as you stir it, air will incorporate into the fudge and cool it off more.

After 4-5 minutes of stirring, the fudge will start to thicken and it will very obviously change textures. It will go from a silky look to a matte look.

It was kind of hard to capture in photographs, but this was pretty close to my finished texture.

Keep stirring!

At this point the fudge will thicken rapidly so don’t leave it alone. Keep stirring and scoop the fudge into an 8×8 baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.

This is looking good!

Move quick!

Stick this pan in your fridge for around four hours for the fudge to harden completely.

Then you can pull it out and remove the parchment paper. I sliced mine into 16 cubes.

Really good stuff.

If you wanted to, you could fold some nuts into the fudge after it cools down to 130 degrees. I’m not much of a fan of nuts in my fudge.

By itself, this is a really rich fudge. The cayenne is my favorite part. You don’t taste it immediately, but then it hits you on the back of your tongue and is awesome.

For my first fudge attempt, I was really happy with the results.

It turns out that if people discover you run a semi-successful food blog, they want to eat at your house.

I imagine that chefs have a similar problem. The main distinction, of course, is that I’m not a chef! I don’t cook for people for a living and so I still get a bit stressed out when I have dinner guests over. I know that expectations are high.

That said, having people over for dinner is one of my favorite things to do. It’s one of the reasons why I learned how to cook in the first place! Seeing the smile on someone’s face after a great meal is really awesome.

Over the years, Betsy and I have had a lot of people over for dinner and most of the time it goes off without a hitch (unless I start a fire). But a lot of the success depends on who is coming for dinner.

I plan (and cook) completely different things depending on who is knocking at the door.

So I thought it would be fun to breakdown 10 different kinds of dinner guests that you might want to entertain at some point in your life. For each dinner guest type, there’s a few recipe ideas to get your planning started!

The In-Laws

Once you have found that special someone in your life, eventually you will have to interact with their family. This can be stress-inducing so the key thing to remember is to stay calm.

I’m lucky in this category because Betsy’s family reads Macheesmo pretty regularly and they save recipes that I post. When a visit comes around, they request specific meals which makes my life very easy.

The key thing to remember when cooking for in-laws (in my opinion) is to keep it simple. You don’t want to come off as flashy or try to over-impress. Just cook something that you know you can nail.

Here’s a few ideas:
Sesame Chicken Noodle Salad - This is a simple dish and almost impossible to screw up but it tastes kind of exotic and different. It’s also quick to make so you can focus on the conversation.

Olive Bread - A good loaf of bread is a fantastic way to start a meal or serve as a side to some simple pasta. Your in-laws will be impressed by your baking skills and this recipe is about as easy as it gets.

The First Date

Maybe this isn’t technically a first date because I think most people like to go out for a first date (easier to escape if need be). But if you like cooking, you’ll eventually want to cook for them.

These would be on my list for first date meals.

Persimmon Risotto - A very light risotto (for risotto). It seems exotic, but is actually really straightforward. It’s almost guaranteed that your date hasn’t had this before and won’t complain about it.

A Date Night Spread - Betsy and I did this last year and it was a wonderful date night. Basically, it’s just a spread of a bunch of fun tapas style things that you can largely prepare in advance. This gives you plenty of time to chat with your new crush.

The Boss

Cooking for the boss might be the most stressful thing. I mean, after all, your job could be on the line!

Actually, if you get fired because you messed up dinner, you would probably get fired eventually anyway.

When cooking for the boss, I think it’s important to make something impressive, but almost impossible to screw up.

Bourbon Cured Salmon - If you are having people over for a quick happy hour, make this a few days before. Your boss will be impressed.

Roasted Pork Rib Roast - I cooked this for my actual boss a few years ago. I believe that it was a success!

The Vegetarian

Cooking for vegetarians isn’t really hard for me because Betsy and I eat a lot of vegetarian meals. I also feel bad for vegetarians when they go to dinner parties. I feel like they frequently get something frozen while everyone else is eating something grand.

These are two recipes that will smack your vegetarian friends across the face with flavor and have them knocking at your door for more.

Charred Eggplant Curry - The curry is spicy. The eggplant is smoky and flavorful. I guarantee you that you won’t miss the meat in this recipe.

Beet Burgers - I feel especially bad for my vegetarian friends when it is grilling season. Frozen veggie burgers suck. Make these next time you are grilling for veg-lovers.

The Drop-In

Sometimes you don’t have time to prepare for dinner. Maybe it’s an old friend who happens to be in town and have a free night or maybe you just plain forgot about something you scheduled weeks ago.

Both have happened to me and these are two meals I recommend!

Quick Carne Asada - A quick rub on a flank steak and a few minutes on a very hot grill and your impromptu guests will be loving life.

Thirty Minute Chickpea Stew - I love this stew. The flavors would make you think someone was slaving away for hours.

The Old Roommate

When an old friend is coming through town I like to make dishes that are pretty low maintenance so I can focus on catching up.

Enchilada Lasagna - A really fun change on a standard lasagna and a lot less work than real enchiladas.

Three Chile Quesadillas - I actually made these for an old roommate back in the day. He also happened to be vegetarian so I made a beef and a mushroom version.

The Gluten Free Guest

The Gluten-free diet is all the rage these days so it’s a good idea to have a few great gluten-free meals in your back pocket in case they are requested.

The key thing about these meals is that they don’t rely on any weird frozen gluten-free stuff. They are naturally gluten free and really delicious.

Summer Soba - I’m not trying to eliminate gluten from my diet, but if I was trying I would eat a lot of soba.

Spicy Maple Tofu - Also a good recipe for the vegetarian or just someone who loves spicy and tasty food.

(Note: Be careful to inspect all of the ingredients you are using for gluten when cooking for gluten-free guests. Both of these recipes have soy sauce in them, for example, which can have gluten. Be sure to get a gluten-free version.)

The New Friend

When Betsy and I moved to Colorado we tried to have a lot of people over for dinner so we could get to know them. It’s rare that someone turns down a homemade meal.

For people that I don’t know well, I like to cook with simple flavors that have a little twist on them.

Salmon Tacos - Quick and easy, these will impress. Also, you can show off your skills by making salmon skin chips!

Gin Penne Pasta - It looks like a simple pasta, but has a great herb flavor. See if your new friends can guess the secret ingredient.

The Couples Crush

Sometimes Betsy and I crush out on another couple. We totally want to date them and be friends with them 4ever.

These are surefire winning recipes to woo your couples crush.

Shredded Chicken Hard Tacos - Screw taco shells. Just make your own on a griddle.

Cast Iron Pizza - Not only are you making homemade pizza, but you’re making it in a cast iron skillet. Delicious and super-hip.

The One

You will hopefully someday meet someone you think is “The One.” Obviously, you will want to cook them things that they love. If your One is like my One, then they will like these.

Taco Stack - Betsy is an enormous Tex-Mex fan. If/When we fight, I just make these and leave it on the table for her. Problem solved.

Sweetbreads Po Boys - This might be considered more of a test than a treat. Are they adventurous? If they are willing to try sweetbreads, they will be rewarded with one of the most delicious sandwiches out there. Betsy loved these guys.

Add to the list!

Can you think of a type of dinner guest that I left off the list? What would you cook for them?

I ate a bunch of these...

I’m not entirely sure who was the genius behind serving breadsticks with pizza.

It’s like some mad marketing genius at Pizza Hut woke up one day and exclaimed, “I know! You know that super-bready pizza we shill to people? Let’s sell MORE bread on the side. In fact, it can probably be the same dough we make the pizzas out of, but we’ll just slice it into sticks and charge more for it!”

It was indeed a genius plan and it certainly worked. If you order a pizza now from any chain spot the very next question is, “Do you want breadsticks?” I would guess that 75% of people (including me sometimes) say, “Heck ya!”

Who doesn’t love more bread with their bread?!

When you think about it, almost any bread recipe can be turned into breadsticks. Just slice it up before baking it and BAM… breadsticks.

I kept this in mind when I was thinking about what dough I wanted to try out for these bad boys. Eventually, I landed on the same dough that I use for my deep dish pizzas. The trick to this dough is that it’s laminated which means that as you eat it you get these layers of butter and garlic baked into the breadstick.

I didn’t eat mine with pizza, but I would put them up against any restaurant version any day of the week!

Cast Iron Breadsticks

Yield: Makes 2 batches.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour + rise time

Ingredients:

Dough:
3 1/4 Cups (16.25 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 Cup cornmeal
2 Teaspoons kosher salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 1/4 Teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/4 Cups water (10 ounces), at room temperature
8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, (4 melted, 4 softened)
1 Teaspoon olive oil for bread while it rises

1 clove garlic, mashed

Toppings:
Melted butter
Parmesan Cheese
Cornmeal

Helpful Equipment:
Cast Iron Skillet

Stand Mixer

Directions:

1) Combine yeast, salt, sugar, water, and oil in a large mixing bowl for a stand mixer (or just a large bowl if you are making them by hand). Stir and let sit for a few minutes until yeast starts to foam.

2) Add in 4 tablespoons melted butter, flour, and cornmeal. With the dough hook attachment, mix dough for 5-6 minutes on medium speed. It should be a soft dough, but not sticky. If it is sticking to the bowl, add a bit more flour. If it is dry and crumbly, then add more water. If you are kneading by hand, stir together ingredients until they form a ball, then turn the ball out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is soft, about 10 minutes by hand.

3) Add dough ball to a oiled bowl and rotate to coat lightly in oil. Let rise until it doubles in size, about an hour.

4) Scoop out dough ball, punch it down, and roll it out into a large circle, 14-16 inches in diameter.

5) In a separate bowl, mash together softened butter and minced garlic clove.

6) Spread garlic butter mixture in a light layer all over the rolled out dough.

7) Roll dough tightly into a cylinder. Dive in two equal pieces. Fold each piece over itself into thirds (fold the right third over the center, then fold the left third on top). Form into a ball. This process will create lots of layers of butter and dough.

8) Wrap each of the two laminated dough balls in plastic and freeze if you aren't going to bake in the next day or two, otherwise store in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

9) When you're ready to bake, remove one dough ball from fridge and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Then roll it out into a 10 inch circle.

10) Place dough into a lightly buttered or oiled cast iron skillet.

11) Slice dough down the center and then into 1/2 inch sticks. Don't cut all the way through the dough. Just mark the sticks basically.

12) Brush dough with melted butter, sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and cornmeal.

13) Bake sticks at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool slightly when they come out.

Serve as is or with melted butter or marinara sauce.

Adapted from a Cook's Illustrated recipe for deep dish pizza dough.

The Dough

You can make this dough by hand or with a stand mixer. Either way you’ll need some basic bread ingredients to get the party started.

Just the basics.

Any time I’m using dry yeast in a dough recipe, I always recommend mixing the yeast with the water, salt, and sugar and letting it sit for a few minutes. This will give the yeast some time to dissolve and also make sure that the yeast is still good.

If it starts foaming after a few minutes, you are in business. If it does nothing, then you need to buy some new yeast!

Once that step is done, go ahead and stir in four tablespoons of melted butter plus the flour and cornmeal.

That’s right. Cornmeal right into the dough. I love the texture this gives the dough.

Delicious addition.

If you’re using a mixer, just mix the dough with a dough hook on medium for about 6 minutes until you have a soft, but not sticky dough.

You can also stir together the dough ingredients and then knead the dough for about 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface.

Whether you are doing it by hand or with the mixer, if the dough is sticky at any point, mix in a bit more flour. If it looks really dry and flaky, stir in some extra water (by the tablespoon).

Eventually, you should end up with a really soft dough ball.

Nice, soft dough.

Put your dough in a lightly oiled bowl and let it rise until it doubles in size, about an hour.

Lamination Domination

Laminating doughs is a popular pastry method that involves folding dough over butter over and over again to form lots of layers.

Normally, it also involves me wanting to stab myself with dull butter knife.

Luckily, this is about as easy as laminating dough gets. Just mash some soft butter with a clove of garlic. This will obviously be very good folded into bread.

Garlic butta, baby.

Once your dough has doubled in size, just punch it down and then roll it out into a large circle. Mine was about 16 inches across. It doesn’t have to be exact though.

Then spread out a thin layer of the garlic butter all over the dough.

Already smellin' good.

Next, just roll it up like you would to make cinnamon rolls!

Just like cinnamon rolls!

As the final step, divide this large roll into two pieces.

Then fold the dough over itself into thirds. This will make even more layers of dough.

Get it?

If you are going to be baking the breadsticks in the next day or two, wrap these laminated dough balls in plastic wrap and store them in the fridge for at least two hours.

You can also freeze the dough balls and they will keep for months. Just pull them out a day or two before you want to bake them and stick them in the fridge to slowly thaw.

Baking the Sticks

You could bake these on a normal baking sheet I think, but I like the super-hot cast iron skillet.

I just lightly coated mine with some butter to make sure the dough wouldn’t stick. Assuming your cast iron skillet is well-seasoned you probably don’t even need to do this, but I did it anyway.

I wiped out most of this butter before baking it as you can see in the lower photos.

Magical pan.

Take your dough ball out of the fridge 30 minutes before you want to bake it just to let it come to room temperature and relax a bit. Then roll it into a 10 inch round and set it in the cast iron skillet.

Place the dough right in the center of the skillet and slice it into sticks!

DON’T cut all the way through the breadsticks. You want them to stay together as they bake. You are kind of just marking them.

Brush the whole thing with some melted butter and dust it with some Parmesan cheese and cornmeal.

Ready to bake!

Bake this sucker at 450 degrees for 20 minutes.

The final product will be crunchy on the outside and soft and buttery on the inside.

They are really delicious breadsticks!

Layers of wonderful.

These aren’t the traditional soft breadsticks that you might be used to. They have some crunch to them that I really liked.

The little bit of garlic butter gives them just a hint of garlic flavor.

You could serve these guys with marinara sauce or melted butter. We went the marinara route and just had these with some pasta and salad for dinner.

Any breadstick fans out there? You have to give these a shot!

Action shot.

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!

I kind of didn’t mean to, but I posted basically all Tex-Mex stuff this week. If you need some inspiration for this Cinco de Mayo Saturday, make some tacos, some salsa, or some nachos if you’re feeling ambitious.

Or you could just make these delicious Southwest hash browns. They are the perfect way to start your Tex-Mex day.

Southwestern Hash Browns

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

4 medium Russet potatoes, grated
1 red pepper, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/4 cup cilantro, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Salt and pepper
1 avocado, sliced (garnish)
Hot sauce (garnish)

Helpful Equipment:
Griddle

Box Grater

Directions:

1) Peel potatoes and grate them. Rinse the shredded potatoes under cold water to rinse off extra starch. Then press the shredded potatoes between a few paper towels to dry them off.

2) Seed and dice jalapeno along with other veggies. Dice them pretty finely.

3) Mix veggies in a large bowl with shredded potatoes. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.

4) Heat a large griddle over medium heat. Add a good drizzle of olive oil to the griddle and spread out the potato mixture. Let it cook, undisturbed, until the edges start to brown, about 5 minutes.

5) Start flipping the potatoes so they cook evenly. If they look dry, drizzle on some extra oil so they brown nicely.

6) As the potatoes continue to brown, use your spatula to form 3-4 large rectangles out of the potatoes. Keep cooking.

7) Flip the hash browns and try to keep the rectangles together so they form a solid chunk. Cook until crispy on the outside, another 5 minutes.

8) Serve hash browns immediately with sliced avocado, a pinch of salt, and hot sauce. Optionally, you could top with an over-easy or poached egg.

Lotsa Veg

Obviously the backbone of these hash browns is potatoes and I like to shred mine fresh, but in a pinch you could use the frozen shredded potatoes as well.

But don’t stop at potatoes. There is a wide world of veggies at your disposal for these hash browns. I shied away from adding tomatoes (or salsa) just because I thought it wouldn’t crisp up nicely.

I did add a few different kinds of peppers, some red onion, and some cilantro though.

Great flavors.

While you can use a food processor to shred potatoes, I only use mine if I’m making a lot of hash browns. I don’t really think it’s worth it for just a few potatoes though. The clean up of the food processor takes longer than just busting out a good box grater and running a few potatoes through it.

I like to peel my potatoes for hash browns, but if you want a more rustic look, just scrub them really well and leave the peel on.

Peeled and shredded.

The key thing to do when you are cooking fresh potatoes that are shredded is to make sure you A) Rinse them and B) Dry them.

I know. This is an annoying step, but it’s really important to wash off some of the extra starch on the potatoes.

I scoop all my shredded potatoes into a colander and then rinse them well with cold water. Once they are rinsed off, lay the shreds out on a few paper towels to dry.

They don’t need to be perfectly bone dry, but wet potatoes will steam rather than crisp on the griddle. So the drier you can get them, the crispier they will get later.

Water does not equal crispy.

Dice all your veggies and add them to a large bowl.

This part isn’t rocket science and again, feel free to experiment with other peppers and flavors here.

A fine looking dice.

Then add in your rinsed and dried potatoes and toss everything together. The potatoes should be well-speckled with lots of peppers and add-ins.

It looks good already!

All mixed up!

Cooking the Hash Browns

You have some options when it comes to cooking these bad boys.

You could definitely cook them in some sort of large skillet, but you won’t be able to do them all at once. That’s a bit annoying in my opinion.

I think you could do them in the oven. Lay them out on a baking sheet that’s been oiled well and drizzle oil over the hash browns. Bake them at 350-400 degrees for 10-15 minutes and check/flip them regularly. They should crisp up just fine.

The best way to cook them though, in my opinion, is on a large griddle. This way you can control the heat really well and also cook them all at once.

Just add a good drizzle of olive oil to your griddle and then lay out all of your hash browns.

A griddle makes these easy.

Hit the hash browns with a good pinch of salt and pepper and let them cook, undisturbed for about five minutes. When they start to get browned around the edges, they are ready to flip.

Flip them and let them cook for another five minutes or so.

Eventually, you can kind of partition the hash browns into large rectangles (servings). I like mine really crispy so I cook them for 15-20 minutes total on medium to medium-high heat.

If they ever look dry, drizzle on some more olive oil.

Remember, brown equals crispy so this is about how I like mine!

After some flipping...

Serving options are endless.

You could serve these just as a side, but you can easily make a meal out of it as well. Top each rectangle with some sliced avocado, hot sauce, and maybe a poached egg or two and you are in for a treat.

An egg isn't a bad idea.

This is a really simple recipe but it has some great flavors in it.

It’s really hard to go wrong and would be perfect to have for brunch tomorrow.

This is Dr. Macheesmo’s cure for all those cervezas you’ll probably drink today!