This recipe goes along with this Tuesday’s Tip for the perfect burger. (Next Tuesday’s Tip will be more grilling tips. Have to keep a good theme going!) Many professional chefs and home cooks agree that Worcestershire sauce is key to a great burger. This is because Worcestershire sauce is effectively an ancient fish sauce (it contains fermented anchovies), so it adds a sort of interesting depth of flavor or that perfect umami that enhances the basic burger to a true classic burger.

A couple of months ago I bought a 3-pound bag of refrigerated shredded beef at Costco. It had a long-away expiration date (March 2018!) and the photo of the beef on the front of the bag looked so good!

It sat in my refrigerator for a few weeks, then I took it on our trip to Carlsbad in the beginning of August, just in case we decided to make tacos or something. We never opened it, so it came back to Arizona. I finally opened it last week.

Not at all as pictured on the package. What a disappointment! Costco is known for its thorough vetting process before selecting and selling products. I’m not sure how this product slipped through. It didn’t taste all that bad, as I did end up using it for tacos one night, but then decided I’d rather use the rest in some sort of casserole. It tasted much better mixed in with other ingredients. The next time I make this dish, I’ll be using leftover beef from a roast.

Note: In a photo of the ingredients below, you may notice that the can of green chiles is missing. That is because I decided to add them as I was assembling the dish.

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For the 4th of July party main course(s), I made beer-boiled and grilled brats, oven-roasted BBQ chicken thighs (recipe to follow), and chile-cheese stuffed burgers.

Far and away, the burgers were the star. (Look for Sheila’s Old-Fashioned Potato Salad recipe tomorrow.)

Tram and Julie, filling their plates with burger and brat.

This recipe makes enough burgers for a crowd. It can easily be halved or quartered. One thing you’ll need is a 5-inch template to form the burgers with. The center green area of this plate is exactly 5-inches, so I used it as my guide.

The Grill Pit – where the Magic Happens!

Chile & Pepper Jack Stuffed Burgers

6 Anaheim chiles
4 large jalapeño chiles
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
12-ounces shredded pepper Jack cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 pounds ground beef, divided into 32 three-ounce portions
16 hamburger buns or Kaiser rolls, split and lightly toasted

Lettuce leaves, onion and tomato slices, sweet pickle relish, mustard, and ketchup, for serving

Roast the Anaheim and jalapeño chiles on either the grill or stovetop until blacked on all sides.

To prevent the jalapeños from falling through the grates, use a stovetop-roasting grate, which can be found at kitchen stores such as Sur La Table or ordered online from HERE.

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If there was one food, dish, or recipe that you could eat for the rest of your life; as much as you want, as often as you like, from now until eternity – without gaining an ounce – what would it be?

If you would have asked me that question a few weeks ago, I would have said, “Ice Cream!”

Ice cream is my go-to answer to any question that begins with “What food would you…”

I love ice cream; the coldness, the smoothness, the creaminess, the richness, the pure happiness that ice cream brings. And that is why we rarely have ice cream in our house!

But ask me that question today – my new answer is, “Chile, Cheese, and Chorizo Bread Pudding.”

I developed this recipe for my classes at Les Gourmettes and I could not love it more! I am quite certain it is as calorie and fat-laden as ice cream, if not more so. It’s full of bread, cheese, chorizo, more cheese, eggs, and milk. And it is SO GOOD!

Perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It is just perfect, in every possible way. It is amazing! Well, except for the calorie/fat count – on that front – it sucks!

I made it twice last week. First for the class and then again for a dinner party the evening before Thanksgiving that we had with our family and Marissa’s boyfriend, Jeff’s family. One of the guests was vegetarian, so for the dinner party, instead of using a 9×13-inch pan, I made two 8×8-inch pans. One with the chorizo and one without.

The recipe is for the larger pan but the images are of the two smaller pans … just to clarify … so you aren’t confounded by the instructions vs. the photos.

Oh, and if you don’t have time to make the red pepper sauce, it’s still delicious with out it. Just saying!

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It’s been overcast and threatening rain all week… and finally…RAIN!  Nothing more to say than… CHEESE!

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The inspiration for this dish? One big beautiful heirloom tomato… that’s all it took, well that and some good-looking poblano chiles. Watch out – the onions, garlic, bell peppers, and jalapeño are used for both the renello stuffing and the pico de gallo; so be sure not to toss it all in the skillet for the filling. Reserve the indicated amounts and set them aside for the pico. Also, it is important to rinse and drain the black beans well, otherwise, they will discolor the filling. You don’t want that to happen since the vibrant colors are a big part of this dish. OK, gotta run, that’s all I have to say about this yummy vegetarian meal, enjoy!

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Two weeks ago, Dave and I went down to Tucson for a long weekend. On the first night, we decided to go to J Bar, my friend, and James Beard award-winning chef, Janos Wilder’s, casual restaurant which is right beside his acclaimed upscale namesake restaurant, Janos. After perusing the menu, we wanted to order everything on it!  Instead, we decided we’d control ourselves and just come back the next night, which we did. One appetizer we just had to have was the J Bar Nachos. They did not disappoint – I haven’t been able to get them out of my mind since!  When Janos came to the Valley last week to teach a class, I asked him to please share the secret of “the out-of-this-world” chili con queso that pushed the nachos into a league of their own. Turns out the con queso had an Italian twist in the form of mascarpone. I didn’t ask for the exact recipe, although he offered, Dave and I think this is pretty darn close. The Salsa Fresca is from Janos’ cookbook, The Great Chilies Rellenos Book, which is a must-have if you love Rellenos. I used heirloom tomatoes from the farmer’s market I visited this morning.  See, I took my own advice and went this weekend, hope you got a chance to get to one too!

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