Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

All right, today we have an extra special little bonus episode for you, and we are talking about Roasted Strawberry Margaritas. If you know me well, then you know that I love tequila. I love the way it tastes. I’ll drink it on the rocks. I love it in a margarita, and I especially love it in this roasted strawberry margarita. This cocktail is so delicious. It tastes like a craft cocktail. When I think of craft cocktails, I always think of a bartender behind the bar with suspenders on and a handlebar mustache setting drinks on fire and, and using fresh herbs and serums and syrups that nobody knows what they are.

You’re going to get that level of cocktail, but at home, in your own kitchen, at your own bar for not $400. This is an excellent cocktail to make in the summer when you have an abundance of really fresh, ripe strawberries. I have a tip for you. When you are buying strawberries at the grocery store, look for a container that has the darkest red color. Those strawberries that are really, really dark red, those are the juiciest and the ripest. 

Now I have another tip. When you bring those strawberries home, this is not scientifically proven. This is just, this is just a Suzy tip. Store the strawberries in the fridge upside down. I find that my strawberries last a little bit longer when I store them upside down, and I think it’s because most of the air holes are actually around the bottom of the container and more air can circulate through there and they don’t mold as fast. 

Tips and Tricks: So anyways, we’re not talking about moldy strawberries today. We are talking about roasted strawberry margaritas. Let’s get onto this recipe. There are a couple of things that you’re going to need to make this recipe correctly. Obviously, you need an oven because we’re making roasted strawberries. You need a sheet pan. You need some parchment paper, and you need a cocktail shaker. Like I’ve said in other recipes, if you don’t have a cocktail shaker, that’s totally fine. You can actually just use a mason jar with a lid. But since it is glass, you want to be extra careful when you do the shaking.

Roasted Strawberry Margaritas Recipe: You’re going to start making your roasted strawberry puree by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Then process one pound of fresh strawberries. You’re just going to clean them. Remove the stem and cut them in half. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. That parchment paper is actually going to collect all the jam and juice that’s going to cook out of your strawberries. So you definitely want to have the parchment paper. Add the strawberries on top, and then you’re going to toss them with two tablespoons of sugar. Roast them in the oven for 15 minutes. Then once they’re done, they’re going to be all kind of juicy and jammy and delicious. Let that cool for about five minutes. Then you’re going to pour all the juices and all the roasted strawberries into a blender or a food processor and blend them up until they are completely smooth.

You may need to add one or two tablespoons of water to get the blender going. That’s totally fine. Now you can use that strawberry puree right away, or you can store it in the fridge for up to five days, so you can make this ahead to make your cocktail time a little bit easier. You’re going to have about one cup of strawberry puree, which is going to be enough for four margaritas.

To make your roasted strawberry margarita, we’re going to prep a glass just like you would when you make a classic margarita. Run a lime or a strawberry around the edge of the glass, and then dip it in some kosher salt. When I make roasted strawberry margaritas though, it’s just like my pineapple margarita, I only like to dip half of the rim in the kosher salt. So sometimes you can take a salty drink or sometimes you can take just a sweet drink of the strawberry cocktail. Go ahead and fill that glass halfway with crushed ice. 

Now move over to your cocktail shaker or mason jar. Add a couple of cubes of ice. Then you’re going to pour in two ounces of the roasted strawberry puree, one and a half ounces of tequila. You can use a silver or a Reposado in this margarita recipe, half an ounce of Triple sec. I always like to use Cointreau, half an ounce of fresh squeezed lime juice, and then a quarter ounce of blue agave syrup. I like to use light blue agave syrup, and it’s not blue in color, it’s just I think the actual plant is called blue agave. I like to use the light because it doesn’t have as aggressive a flavor as the darker colored one. So if you’re in the store, grab the light one. 

Now, pop the lid on your cocktail shaker and give it a really vigorous shake for about 20 to 30 seconds. You’re going to strain that right into your prepared glass and then garnish it with a lime or a fresh strawberry, and that’s it. Your craft cocktail is ready and it’s going to be delicious. This is such an impressive cocktail to serve to guests. So I highly recommend if you’re having a summer cookout, or summer party that you make these roasted strawberry margaritas.

As always, I will put the link to the full recipe for the roasted strawberry margaritas in the show notes, so you can find it whenever you want. I will also link my classic Margarita and my pineapple margarita that I talked about in this episode. 

If you’re enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That will just make it easier for you to find future episodes right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode makes your cocktail time a little sweeter.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: All right, everybody. I am super excited to share this recipe with you today. It is probably one of the most requested recipes from my family, and I’m talking to my kids, which is saying something because I have very picky eaters here at my house.

When I ask the question, okay, what do you want for dinner? Like, what sounds good? What can I make this week that I know you’ll eat? The number one request is the Lasagna Skillet. Traditional lasagna takes a million hours to make, and I have a killer recipe for a traditional Lasagna on Mom’s Dinner that I’ll link for you, but this is Lasagna Skillet. So you may have also heard of it called Easy Lasagna or Lazy Lasagna because it is ready in about 30 minutes. It has really simple ingredients. It’s all made in one pan, right on your stovetop. 

Tips and Tricks: All right, a couple of tips on a few of the ingredients. Number one, this recipe only calls for half a pound of ground beef. So if you have another recipe that says called for one and a half pounds of ground beef, like burgers or something, and you have a half pound left, this is a perfect recipe to use up that half pound of ground beef.

Second, I recommend using ground beef that is a little less fatty so we’re not talking in 80/20 here, you’re going to want something more like an 85/15 or a 90/10 or a 93/7, something with a little less fat so you don’t end up with a really greasy dish. 

The next ingredient I want to talk about is the lasagna noodle. I have tried this recipe with both traditional lasagna noodles and with oven-ready lasagna noodles, and both work just fine. So whatever you have in your cabinet will work. 

Another ingredient that I hope doesn’t turn you off, but this recipe calls for cottage cheese, and I know traditional lasagna has ricotta cheese in it. However, I did grow up eating lasagna with cottage cheese in it, and America’s Test Kitchen actually recommends cottage cheese for your lasagna because it doesn’t tend to break down or become gritty and stays really nice and creamy when it’s baked. So give it a try. If not, you can sub the ricotta cheese, if you’re like, I am not eating cottage cheese in my lasagna. But I promise it’s delicious.

Lasagna Skillet Recipe: All right, so let’s get on to making this recipe for a lasagna skillet. You’re going to want to start with a large skillet that has a lid. You need that lid to trap the heat in there and the steam to cook the noodles. So start with that over medium heat, and you’re going to add half a pound of ground beef and completely cook that through while you crumble the ground beef. Again, I’ve talked about this in other episodes. One of my favorite kitchen tools that I use all the time is called a meat masher, and it kind of looks like a spatula that has, I’m not even sure, does it have five or eight prongs that help you mash and crumble any ground meat really well. So I will link that product in the show notes for you. 

Crumble up and cook your ground beef through. Then if you have any excess grease in the pan, go ahead and drain that off before you move on. Then you’re going to stir in half a cup of diced either yellow or white onions, and two fresh garlic cloves that have been chopped. Saute that around for just about another five minutes until everything is cooked and softened.

Next, you’re going to stir in two cups of your favorite marinara sauce. We love RAOs, either marinara or tomato basil. They’re both absolutely delicious. Add one and a half cups of water. Then raise the heat to medium-high to bring that to a nice hard simmer or a boil. Once that is bubbling, you will turn the heat to low. You’ll need about eight dry lasagna noodles that have been broken up into pieces and we’re talking like Mmm, anywhere from a two-inch to three-inch piece each. It doesn’t have to be fancy. I mean, they can be shards of lasagna, or noodles, it doesn’t matter. Again, this is just lazy lasagna. What you’re going to do is nestle all of those broken lasagna noodles down into the liquid and make sure that everything is kind of covered or coated, or at least touching the liquid. You’ll pop the lid on and simmer that for about 10 minutes. Then take the lid off and kind of zhuge the pan around and see if any of the lasagna noodles are sticking to the bottom of the pan. If the pan is looking a little dry, like the noodles have soaked up a lot of that water and liquid, you can add another half cup of water at this point.

Now you will take one cup of cottage cheese and just dollop it right into the pan and then kind of stir it in a little bit. Then sprinkle the top with about four ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese. My tip here is to use freshly shredded mozzarella cheese, and that will be half of an eight-ounce block of cheese.

You’re going to cover the pan again and let it simmer for an additional 10 to 12 minutes until the noodles are all cooked through. Remove it from the heat and let it sit uncovered for about five to 10 minutes just to let it cool. And your dinner’s ready. That is your lazy lasagna. I think a traditional lasagna would take you at least two hours to make. So here we’ve got 30 minutes. You’ve got delicious, I mean, really, really delicious, even my kids love this, lazy lasagna. 

When you’re serving this, to keep it nice and easy, I recommend just using a begged Caesar salad that you bought at the grocery store, and if you want to bulk it up a little bit more, you can even serve some garlic bread right on the side.

As always, I will link all of the recipes I talk about. About in this episode, right in the show notes so you can find it when you are ready to make Skillet Lasagna for dinner. 

If you’re enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would really love to have you subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player that will just make it easier for you to find all of our future episodes right in your podcast beat. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: All right, y’all. We are out here keeping it real today, and I’m going to share with you the best recipe for Bacon Jam. You heard it right, Bacon Jam. It’s a pound of bacon made into this delicious, jammy, syrupy condiment that you can put on top of burgers, on top of cream cheese, or eat it with a spoon, but that might be weird. Okay. I’m going to start off by reading you this comment from the actual recipe on my site, momsdinner.net. Jill says, made this and it was so like five ohs, good. I called a burger place I knew that made Bacon Jam and they wanted $8 for four ounces. My daughter didn’t think it would be as good, but it was delicious. One of the best recipes out there, I feel. Okay. First of all, yes, one of the best recipes out there. Second of all, this is some high-dollar stuff, people. If they were selling it, for $8 for four ounces, that means that Bacon jam is worth $32 per pound. $32. That’s like prime tenderloin or prime rib prices. So this is a recipe you want to have in your arsenal. This is a recipe that you want to make at home and not buy at a restaurant. It’s actually made with super simple ingredients, most of which you probably already have. So we’re talking a pound of bacon, yellow onions, garlic, brown sugar, and raisins. Stick with me on the raisins, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, and water, and then if you like a little kick of heat, you can add some cayenne pepper. 

Tips and Tricks: Let’s talk about the raisins for just a second. This is a very salty and tangy dish. To balance out the saltiness and the real richness of the grease and the bacon, the raisins and the sugar are the perfect balance. Your bacon jam is not going to taste like raisins. It’s not going to be like you’re eating oatmeal raisin cookies. They just add a nice little texture and a nice little sweetness throughout your bacon jam. So if you think you can stand it, definitely don’t skip the raisins.

One more thing. When we’re talking about serving the Bacon Jam, we’re going to be talking about serving it on top of burgers. If you don’t have a good burger recipe or you need a little help in the burger department, pop back to episode number one where I go over the perfect grilled hamburger. It is full of tips and tricks to make a killer grilled burger.

Bacon Jam Burgers Recipe: Onto the Bacon Jam recipe. You are going to start with one pound of bacon and you need to cut it up into one-inch pieces. So of course, you could use a sharp knife and a cutting board, or if you have a pair of sharp kitchen scissors, go ahead and use that just to clip the bacon into one-inch pieces. Now, pop it into a large skillet over medium, medium-high heat, and you’re just going to cook it until it’s nice and crispy.

Once that’s all done, take a slotted spoon and transfer all of the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate. The bacon grease that is left in the pan, you want to make sure and reserve that because we’re going to need it for the next step. So pour all of that grease into a heat-safe container. Note: a mason jar is not heat-safe enough. I have made this mistake and I poured hot bacon grease into a mason jar and it literally cracked in half. So a better option would be like a metal bowl or something like that. 

Now you’re going to need two cups of yellow onions, and I find that this is about either one large onion or two small onions. What I like to do is thinly slice it and then give it a nice, rough chop so you don’t have any long strands of onion left. Pop that into your empty skillet with three tablespoons of bacon grease. Let that saute for about 15 to 20 minutes until the onions are nice and soft and translucent. However, while those onions are sauteing, you want to go ahead and rough chop the cooled bacon so that there aren’t any really large chunks of bacon left.

Now back to the onions. Once they’re nice and soft and translucent, you’ll add two minced garlic cloves in there and give it a stir. Then you can add all of the bacon to the pan as well as a third of a cup of brown sugar. Stir everything so that the brown sugar coats all of the bacon and the onions, and let it cook for about two minutes. Then you’re going to add two tablespoons of raisins, one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and about a third a cup of water to that bacon mixture. Then you’re going to let it simmer over medium-low heat for about five to eight minutes. While that simmers, it will start to get kind of thickened and syrupy, and that’s when you know it’s ready.

You can give your bacon jam a little taste, see if you want a little more sugar, see if you want a dash of salt, and see if you like it a little spicy. You can add some cayenne pepper and then let it cool and you can serve it right away on top of your burgers. Or you can put it in an airtight container in the fridge for about five to seven days, and when you’re ready to use it, you can just reheat it on the stovetop right in a skillet.

For serving this bacon jam on top of the very best burgers you have ever had, I’m going to give you the building blocks. Are you ready? Start with a brioche bun that’s lightly toasted on the grill. Top the bottom bun with a little green leaf lettuce or romaine lettuce. A slice of tomato that has been seasoned with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Then add your burger, pile on the bacon jam, and then sprinkle on something that’s called Boursin cheese. It’s amazing. Now if you’ve had Boursin cheese and it’s not your favorite, it’s just really creamy and buttery and garlicky. If you don’t like that, you could also use blue cheese. Pop that top bun on and you are good to go. You are going to crave these all summer long. 

As far as side dishes go, of course, I just recommend your classic barbecue burger side dishes. So fries, sweet potato fries, sweet corn pasta salad. Coleslaw, baked beans, whatever you like to serve when you have a barbecue. 

I will place the link to the full principle recipe for you in the show notes so you can find the recipe for Bacon Jam whenever you’re ready. 

If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would rate and review this podcast in your preferred podcast player. That will just help others find Let’s Make Dinner and enjoy these delicious recipes. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome in, y’all, to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: Today we are talking about a very special grilled dinner that is near and dear to my heart. This is the Grilled Pork Burger episode. So I grew up in Iowa and on the 4th of July in my hometown, there is an enormous festival, party, whatever, in the park. There are lots of craft vendors, games, and fun things to do. There’s a parade, there’s a boat parade. Then there are also food vendors in the part, and one of the main things that you want to get on the 4th of July is grilled pork burgers. We love them so much, and I knew that I needed to have a grilled pork burger recipe on my site, momsdinner.net. So sure enough, I tested, I tried, and I finally nailed it, and it is excellent. It’s a very popular recipe on my site. It is a Grilled Pork Burger. We are not talking about sausage, we are talking about ground pork, which by the way is also a super economical option for your grill. These pork burgers are also topped with a homemade garlic cream sauce that will knock your socks off. 

Tips and Tricks: Here are the ingredients you want to have to make your grilled pork burgers. Two pounds of ground pork, saltine crackers, milk, Worcestershire sauce, Lawry seasoned salt, onion powder, and garlic powder. Then to make the garlic cream sauce, you want to make sure you have mayonnaise, sour cream, dijon mustard, fresh garlic, and kosher salt. Then of course, to serve, you want to make sure you have buns, lettuce, tomato, onion, or whatever you want on your burger. 

Just like we talked about in episode one, where we made beef burgers, all of those same tips are going to apply to your grilled pork burgers. So number one, do not overmix the panade with the meat. You want it just to all come together nice and light and fluffy. 

Second of all, after you form your patties, you want to take your thumb or a clean spoon and make a divot in the center of each burger patty. That’s going to reduce the amount of shrinkage that you get on the grill. When that fat cooks out of the burger, your burger patty will shrink up. But if you have that little divot in the center, that’s really going to reduce the amount of shrinkage you get. The other thing with your pork burgers, I do like to cook them to 160. I know that you can eat pork closer to 140, 145, but since you’re eating that ground pork and you’re not sure of that exact source, you know it’s not like one cut of meat, like a pork tenderloin, I do recommend cooking your pork burgers to 160. 

The other tip is making a panade. I said it earlier. A panade is basically a method for keeping ground meat recipes juicy. I was going to say moist. We’re going to say juicy. In this recipe, we’re using saltine crackers and milk, and Worcestershire sauce to make that panade to add to the ground pork. Even though you’re cooking it then to 160, it’s still going to be a juicy burger. 

Grilled Pork Burgers Recipe: Let’s get to making our pork burgers. You’re going to want to set your grill up, whether you have a charcoal or a gas grill for direct heat grilling. Now in the kitchen, you’re going to start with 12 saltine crackers. You’re going to squish all those up so that they make a nice cracker crumb. To those cracker crumbs, you’re going to add a quarter cup of milk, two teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, and one teaspoon of Lawry seasoned salt. Then one teaspoon each of onion powder and garlic powder. Mix that all together and then let that sit for about five minutes so that it kind of makes like a little panade paste. Then once that’s ready, you’re going to add two pounds of ground pork. You can either use clean hands or you can use a fork, but lightly mix everything together so that that panade is mixed throughout all of the ground pork. 

It’s time to make your patties. You can make six third-pound burgers, or you can make eight-quarter-pound burgers. Whatever you want to do. Form your patties, and as I said before, press your thumb or a clean spoon into the center of each patty, making a little divot to reduce the shrinkage on the grill. Take your pork burgers out to the grill and you’re going to start them over direct heat with the divot side down. You’re going to grill it for about four to five minutes. On the first side, flip the burgers over so the divot side is up and you’re going to cook them for another three to four minutes on the second side. If you have an instant-read internal thermometer, that’s a lot of words. If you have an instant-read internal temperature thermometer, is that what it’s called, why can’t I think of what it’s called? Anyway, take the temperature of your burgers and make sure that they’re 160 degrees. If they haven’t reached 160 degrees, pop them over indirect heat and pop the lid on and let them cook a couple more minutes until they reach that 160. Then you’re going to let the burgers cool for about five minutes before eating. In that five minutes, you can go ahead and make the garlic cream sauce that you’re going to serve with your burgers. 

In a little bowl, you’ll just mix a quarter cup of mayonnaise, a quarter cup of sour cream, one tablespoon of Dijon mustard, one garlic clove that has been finely minced, and just some kosher salt to taste. Stir that all together, and that’s your sauce. It’s delicious.

When you serve your burgers, I like to use just like a brioche bun or a sesame seed hamburger bun. Smear a little bit of that garlic cream sauce on both sides of the bun, the top, and the bottom. Add some lettuce and some red or white onion. Here’s my tip with the onion. After you slice it, rinse your slices under a little bit of cool water because then the onion won’t overpower the entire burger. Also, when you add your tomato, add a little bit of kosher salt, black pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder before you serve your dinner. The seasoned tomato makes a huge difference.

So on your bun, add the sauce, add your lettuce, tomato, onion, and your pork burger. Maybe a little bit more sauce, and you’re good to go.

For serving these burgers, I love to serve sweet potato fries or sweet potato tater tots. If you’ve never had those, those are delicious too. Then either corn on the cob or I have a wonderful recipe for homemade creamed corn that’s made with corn on the cob that you cut off of the cob.

Of course, I will link all of these recipes for you in the show notes so you can access them whenever you’re ready to make these grilled pork burgers for dinner. 

If you are loving, let’s make dinner podcast episodes, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That will just make all of our future episodes easier for you to find right in your podcast feed.

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: We are going to get right to it today. We have an amazing recipe that you can use in so many different ways. We are talking about basil pesto today.

You’ve probably had basil pesto out at restaurants. If you get a pesto pasta or a pesto pizza, it goes great with chicken, it goes great with pasta. There are so many different ways that you can actually use this sauce. Believe it or not, if you haven’t made it, it is extremely easy to make. It’s made with just a few ingredients. It comes together in about 10 minutes. That really includes your prep, so cracking garlic cloves, and getting all of your ingredients ready. This will be really easy to make. 

Here are the ingredients you’re going to need. Walnuts or pine nuts. Fresh basil, of course. Fresh garlic, extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, and Parmesan cheese are optional, but I do prefer Parmesan cheese in my pesto.

Also, to make your pesto, you will need some equipment. I like to make mine in a food processor because you can use the little feed tube at the top to drizzle in your extra virgin olive oil. If you don’t have that, you can absolutely just use a really powerful blender, whatever you have in your kitchen.

Tips and Tricks: A couple of tips with some of the ingredients. Number one, your fresh basil. You’re going to need a ton of fresh basil. You need about five cups. So if you’re buying it in the store, I find the best place to get it is actually Trader Joe’s, if you have one nearby. Their packages of basil are nice and full, so you probably only need to buy two of their packages to get close to your five cups, maybe three actually. If you’re buying it at the regular grocery store, you’re going to need a lot of those little packages of basil. So your best bet is to go to Trader Joe’s or to grow your own basil in the summer. It’s a pretty easy plant to grow actually and it is prolific. It grows and grows and grows. If you are into having a green thumb, my recipe post for this basil pesto actually has some tips for growing, harvesting, and regrowing your basil. 

Another ingredient I want to talk about is the extra virgin olive oil. E V O O. Extra virgin olive oil is not the same as just olive oil. It will say it right on the package so you can see what is what. You want to buy the extra virgin olive oil. It has a much stronger, more pronounced flavor than you want in your pesto. So if you don’t have that, go to the store and get extra virgin olive oil. 

Basil Pesto Recipe: All right, let’s get on to making this recipe. So you’re going to grab your food processor with a blade attachment or a blender, and you’re going to add a third a cup of walnuts, or you can use pine nuts and seven garlic cloves. It is very garlicky, but that is what you want. Now if you are very sensitive to garlic, maybe you could cut it back to like four cloves. But if you love that garlic, keep all seven. Then you’re going to go ahead and pulse that walnut and garlic mixture together about 20 to 30 pulses until it’s nicely ground up. Then you’re going to add five cups of basil, four tablespoons of lemon juice, one teaspoon of kosher salt, and then a third a cup of fresh grated Parmesan cheese if you’re choosing to use the Parmesan cheese. Then you’re going to start your food processor. In that feed tube, you will slowly drizzle in one cup of extra virgin olive oil and just keep blending it until it is smooth and all of the pesto comes together.

Now, if you’re using that food processor, you may need to scrape the sides of the bowl down a couple of times just to make sure that everything gets processed together. With your pesto. You can use it right away, or you can store it in the fridge. It should be good for about a week. This is my favorite tip though. Pesto can be frozen beautifully. It will keep for six months in your freezer. What I recommend is actually taking an old-fashioned ice cube tray, spooning about one and a half tablespoon portions into each little cup, and popping it in the freezer. Let all those cubes freeze up and then pop them out and put them in just like a freezer-safe baggie and keep it in the freezer for six months. That way you can use just a little bit at a time. Or when you are ready to use it, it will thaw and cook down a little bit faster than if it was just in one big block.

To use your pesto, it is excellent just tossed with pasta. A little bit goes a long way with pesto. It’s not like a marinara where you want it to soak the noodles. You just want it to lightly coat the pasta. So I also recommend if you’re going to toss it with pasta, save a little bit of your starchy pasta cooking water. It will help kind of thin that pesto out and mix it into the pasta a little bit better. My tip for saving your starchy pasta cooking water is when you get your calendar out and put it in the sink, pop a measuring cup in the calendar, and you won’t forget that water.

Pesto also makes a great dip for grilled chicken or roasted shrimp. You can make a pesto cream sauce by adding a little bit of heavy cream, or you can make a pesto lasagna. I have a great recipe for a pesto lasagna skillet that has a little bit of Italian sausage of pine nuts and pesto. It’s all made in one pan, right on the stovetop.

As always, I will link all of those recipes, the pesto recipe, and any recipe that I have to use that pesto right in the show notes for you. 

If you’re enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow or rate and review the show so other people can find it and enjoy the recipes too.

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Okay. I have some food trivia knowledge for you that I hope sometime you are in a trivia situation. You’ll be like, oh my gosh, I learned this fact on Let’s Make Dinner. It’s a great podcast. All right, you ready? Today we are making barbecue chicken sliders, and I knew I was going to come on here and talk about obviously sliders. I thought, why are they called sliders? What does that even mean? Why aren’t they called minis or littles or cuties or something like that? So I got to researching and the first thing that Google pulls up, I typed in Why are small burgers called sliders? This random website comes up. Interexchange.org. They have an article about sliders, and here’s what they say: the name originated in the 1940s when sailors in the Navy referred to mini burgers as sliders because of their extreme greasiness. In just one or two bites, the burgers would just slide right down. The slider was first created at White Castle, a popular American fast-food chain. I have never eaten at White Castle, but I obviously know what that is. It’s those tiny little greasy burgers on the little white buns. 

Okay, so we’re having sliders for dinner. Ours are not going to be greasy and they are not going to be burgers. I feel like as soon as the sliders became really popular in the late nineties. Sliders were everywhere. You could get a flight of sliders at a restaurant. But what we are making for dinner is barbecue chicken sliders. So let’s get into this recipe. 

If you like barbecue chicken pizza, then you are going to love this recipe. It’s basically all of those flavors, so barbecue chicken, barbecue sauce, red onion, provolone, cheese, cilantro, but instead of a pizza crust, you’re serving it on that smaller slider-style bun.

This dinner will be done in about 20 minutes, and this is also a great time to use leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken. We love to get rotisserie chickens at Costco. I think they’re under $6 still, and they are delicious and the meat is perfect to use in any recipe that calls for cooked chicken.

Tips and Tricks: Before we get started making this recipe, I have a few different tips for you. When you’re using slider buns, there are a few different options. You can now get actual slider buns by the hamburger buns. Or you can get a sheet of buns that would be more like dinner rolls that are all attached. Those are the ones I love to use. I love the King’s Hawaiian savory butter rolls because they’re all attached. You can literally slice the top buns from the bottom buns and keep them all attached until you’re ready to serve. Then you can slice them up into individual sandwiches. 

Another tip is for using your cooked chicken. In episode four, we talked about making Instant Pot Pulled Barbecue Chicken. That would be a great recipe to use to make the chicken for these sandwiches. Or like I said before, a rotisserie chicken or poached chicken. Poached chicken is a great way to make a pre-cooked chicken for this recipe. 

Now the last tip that I had before we get started is dealing with your red onions. If you are like me, if you eat a raw onion, that flavor can stay with you in your mouth for hours. It can also tend to overpower the dish. What I always recommend when you’re using raw onions is to slice them up and then either run them under cool water or soak them in a little cool water for like five minutes and that actually washes away the enzyme that will stay in your mouth and have you tasting onions way longer than you want to. 

BBQ Chicken Sliders Recipe: Let’s get to making this recipe. So you want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and then you want to grab probably a 9×13 casserole dish. Go ahead and slice your buns in half so that the top buns are removed from the bottom buns. Take that sheet of bottom buns and place it in the 9×13 pan. Then you want to mix about two and a half to three cups of shredded cooked chicken with one cup of barbecue sauce. Then take all of that and spread it all across the bottom buns that are in your 9×13 dish, spreading it all the way to the edges. Then you’re going to top it with some sliced red onions, and some cilantro and then top it with provolone cheese so that it covers the entire span of chicken. Even if you have to overlap a little bit, that’s totally fine. You’re going to place the top buns on the sliders, cover the pan with foil, and then bake it for 15 minutes.

While that’s baking, you’re going to make this delicious garlicky butter deliciousness that’s going to go over the top of the buns. So in the microwave, you melt together two tablespoons of salted butter, one large garlic clove that’s well minced, and one tablespoon of parsley that is also minced. Give that a really good stir. Then you’re going to remove your chicken sliders from the oven. Take that foil off and brush that butter mix all over the top of the buns. Pop it uncovered back in the oven for five minutes and that’s it. It’s time to eat. You can slice them into individual little slider sandwiches or you can just pull them apart to serve.

When you’re serving your sliders. I like to plan about two sliders per person if it’s for dinner and if you have some hungry people, they may want to have three sliders. As far as side dishes go, I like to keep it simple. You could do macaroni salad, coleslaw, or potato chips. You could do fries, corn on the cob, or anything that goes with a barbecue dinner. These also make a great addition to a tailgating situation, game day, football party, or anything like that. Just set it out on a buffet, and then I usually plan one slider per person. 

That does it for today. As always, I will link the full printable recipes for you in the show notes so you can find the recipe when you are ready to have barbecue chicken sliders. 

If you are finding that these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner are helping you get dinner on the table every week, I would love to have you rate and review this podcast in your preferred podcast player. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. 

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Welcome in everybody. All right, turn up the volume and get ready to listen, because this episode is going to be full of tips and tricks for you to make really good grilled Turkey burgers. I know we’ve all had a grilled Turkey burger that was either too dry, didn’t have any flavor or fell apart on the grill. And I’m going to give you all the tips and tricks to make sure that doesn’t happen to you this summer. 

Let’s get started with this one. We are talking just a classic grilled Turkey burger. Just like you would have a grilled burger, which if you need a good grilled burger recipe, head back to episode number one. 

Tips and Tricks: This one we’re talking about ground Turkey, and that’s where you can run into some issues. My very first tip for you is when you are buying your ground Turkey meat, you want to get the 93% lean ground Turkey. The 99% will cook like the bottom of a shoe. It is way too lean to make Turkey burgers. So get that 93%, which just means that it has 7% fat content mixed in with the ground turkey meat. That fat is going to add juiciness to your burgers, and it’s also going to add flavor to your Turkey burgers, which we need when we’re cooking with Turkey.

The second rule, when you’re talking about making grilled Turkey burgers, is adding flavor to the mixture. It is crucial to add a lot of flavor to your Turkey burgers. In this recipe, we’re going to be adding a Lipton dry onion soup mix, sour cream, dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder, you could even add fresh chopped garlic if you want to. Then of course, salt, pepper, and some Tabasco, and all of that together is going to make for really juicy Turkey burgers and really flavorful Turkey burgers.

The third rule when you are making Turkey burgers is to make sure you cook them to 165 degrees internal temperature. Turkey is not like beef. Beef you can cook 130, 135, 140, 145 and be golden. Turkey and chicken need to be cooked to 165-degree internal temperature to be safe to eat. 

So those are my three golden rules for making great Turkey burgers. Let’s pop into the recipe and stay tuned because this recipe is going to be full of tips and tricks.

Juicy Turkey Burgers Recipe: So let’s get started. Get your grill out. If you have a charcoal grill. Wonderful. Set it up for direct heat grilling. Same if you have a gas grill. Set it up for direct heat grilling with medium to high heat. Then you’re going to make your mixture. You’re going to start by making somewhat of a panade. A panade is a starch and a liquid mixed together to keep a ground meat recipe really juicy. With ground Turkey, we need that help. Our panade is going to consist of a dry onion soup mix packet, two tablespoons of sour cream, one tablespoon of Dijon mustard, two teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, and then go ahead and put in half a teaspoon of garlic powder, half a teaspoon of kosher salt, and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. If you want a couple of dashes of Tabasco sauce in there, go ahead and add that as well. This is your panade. This is what’s going to keep your Turkey burgers juicy. So mix that all together. Let that sit for just a few minutes. Then we’re going to add the ground turkey. You’re going to add one pound of 93% lean ground Turkey into your panade, and then just lightly mix it until it all comes together. If you overmix that ground Turkey, your burgers will have more of a compact texture, than more of a loose burger texture. 

For this recipe, you are just forming four patties, so divide that meat mixture into four equal portions and then form your patties. Here’s a great tip when you are making burger patties. Form them about half an inch to an inch larger than the bun you’re going to use. When they have a little bit of shrinkage on the grill, they will be the perfect size for your bun. 

Now, after you have your patties all formed, this is another great tip that works for any type of burger you’re making. You’re going to want to press either your clean thumb or a clean spoon into the center of your burger patty and make just a thumb size divot, that divot will help prevent more shrinkage on the grill so you don’t end up with a little hockey puck for a burger.

One key to making sure that your Turkey burgers don’t stick to the grill is making sure you oil the grill grates. I even like to oil the actual patties on both sides. Turkey is so lean that it sometimes can have a hard time releasing from the grill before it’s to a burned state. So making sure you get that oil in there is crucial.

Now take your Turkey burgers out to your prepared grill and start them divot side down for about five minutes over direct heat. Flip the burgers and cook for about another four minutes, and then you can pull them off, take their internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer and Thermo Works has the best. It’s even recommended by America’s Test Kitchen. They have the best instant-read thermometers. I will link that piece of equipment for you in the show notes. You can let the burgers rest for about five minutes. Then go ahead and serve them. You want to use all of your favorite burger toppings here because this is just like a classic burger. So, lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard. If you want more of a barbecue-style burger, you could do provolone cheese, french-fried onions, pickled jalapenos, and barbecue sauce. If you like more of a Mexican-style burger, you could top it with guacamole, pico de cayo, and ranch. Or if you want a really good burger, you can make some of my bacon jam and top it with Borsin cheese, lettuce, and tomato. I will link that bacon jam recipe for you in the show notes so you can check it out. 

My favorite side dishes when I am serving these grilled Turkey burgers are sweet potato fries. It’s just the most perfect combination ever. You could also do just regular fries, chips, potato salad, anything that goes with barbecue, cookout style food.

That does it for today, of course, I will link all the recipes including the grilled Turkey burger recipe in the show notes so you can find it when you’re ready to make this for dinner. If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow on your preferred podcast player. It will just make all of our future episodes easier to find. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier. 

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner. I am your host, Susie Weinrich, and we are going to get right into it today. 

Susie Weinrich: We are actually not talking about dinner at all. We are talking about cocktails today. I have an excellent summer margarita for you. It’s a fresh Blueberry Margarita. You are going to love this cocktail. It’s the perfect balance of tart from your fresh blueberries and lime, sweetness from a simple syrup and a little bit of orange, and then salty, of course from your margarita salted rim. 

I have kind of a special relationship with blueberries because my family goes up to the boundary waters in Minnesota every summer. In mid-July to maybe early August, blueberries grow wild in the northern United States, I think more than just Minnesota. And when we go up there, we pick wild blueberries and make all the blueberry things: blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, blueberry pie, and we love it. So I thought it was only appropriate for me to make a blueberry margarita on Let’s Make Dinner.

Tips and Tricks: So let’s get into this recipe. There are a couple of pieces of equipment that you will want to have to make your blueberry margaritas, and I have some hacks for you as well. So if you don’t have this equipment, don’t worry. We’re talking about a cocktail shaker and then a muddle. Now, if you don’t have a shaker and you don’t want to get a shaker, you can always use a mason jar. You just have to be careful because it’s glass. But a large mason jar with a lid will work perfectly. Just shake it a little bit more delicately than you would with like a metal cocktail shaker. Now, if you don’t have a cocktail muddle and you do not want to buy one, you can use the handle of a wooden spoon. It will work just the same. 

There’s one other thing that you need to make to make this cocktail. That’s a simple syrup. If you’ve never made a simple syrup before, it’s literally simple. It’s one part sugar and one part water. Let’s say you’re going to do a third cup of sugar and a third cup of water. Put it in a tiny little saucepan over low heat just until the sugar melts into the water and that’s it. That’s your simple syrup. You don’t need to boil it, you don’t need to do anything crazy. Once that heat hits the sugar and it melts in, it’s ready to go. Just let it cool and then you can actually store it in your fridge for up to six months. So it’ll be good for you to use it whenever. So if you want to make a larger batch, you know, do one cup sugar, one cup water, and you’ll have it for a while.

Blueberry Margarita Recipe: Onto the actual recipe. Let’s get started. You’re going to need fresh blueberries, a silver, or a Rapsodo tequila. Triple Sec. I like to use Cointreau, fresh limes, fresh oranges, and then the simple syrup that we talked about before.

Now since this is a margarita, we are going to rim the glass with kosher salt. It’s crucial that you use kosher salt and not table salt. Table salt or iodized Salt is not the thing that you want on the rim of your cocktail glass. If you’re like, eh, I don’t really like to have kosher salt on my cocktails, I have another great little tip for you with margaritas. If you don’t like that kosher salt, try mixing 50% kosher salt and 50% sugar on the plate, and then rim your glass and see if you like that a little bit better. You might like it just a little bit sweeter. 

To make this drink, you’re going to want to first put your kosher salt on a flat plate and then run either an orange wedge or a lime wedge around the rim of your glass. Then turn it over and dunk it into that kosher salt, and the juice will help the salt stick to your glass. Go ahead and fill that glass up with ice. Then in your cocktail shaker, you’ll go ahead and add about half a cup of fresh blueberries. Now if you have really huge juicy berries, you can get away with just about a third of a cup of blueberries. Muddle those with either your wooden spoon handle or your cocktail muddler until they are completely pulverized and all the juice is released. Then you’re going to pour in one and a half ounces of silver or reposado tequila, half an ounce of your triple sec, half an ounce of freshly squeezed lime juice, half an ounce of fresh squeezed orange juice, and half an ounce of simple syrup. Add some ice to your shaker, pop the lid on, and then shake it really vigorously for about 20 to 30 seconds. Now you’re going to strain that blueberry margarita into your prepared cocktail glass. 

Here’s the thing with blueberries, though. They are full of the tiniest little seeds you’ve ever seen and you have all that blueberry pulp. So when you’re straining, you may need to do a few passes where you shake the shaker to get all that pulp off of your strainer. If you are sensitive to seeds and pulp, you may want to do what’s called a double strain where you’re actually taking the cocktail shaker and straining that liquid through another fine mesh strainer into your cocktail glass. That’s totally optional. Not necessary, but like I said, if you don’t like to have any of that pulp or anything in there, you may want to think about doing that. 

That’s it. Your blueberry margarita is ready. It’s going to be so good. You are going to love this cocktail all summer long. 

As always, I will link the full recipe to the Blueberry Margarita in the show notes so you can find it whenever you want.

If you are loving these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow on your preferred podcast player. That will just make it easier for you to find all of the future episodes right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your cocktail time a little sweeter.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Welcome everybody. Today we are doing a special episode of Let’s Make Dinner. We’re not talking about one dinner recipe, we’re talking about an entire menu.

4th of July is just around the corner, and so I wanted to give you guys a really good menu that you could turn to for the 4th of July that has all of your side dishes, really killer hamburgers, all of the garnishes you need plus tips on making everything ahead. Not everything, we’re not going to make everything ahead, but any of the dishes that you can make on July 3rd, or even July 2nd so that on the 4th of July you can have some drinks, have some fun with your friends, and not be in the kitchen the whole time. 

4th of July Menu: So let’s get started on this menu. I’m going to go over the entire menu now, and then I’m going to talk about each individual item and give you some tips for that item, and also ways that you can make it ahead to make your 4th of July a little bit smoother.

So we’re starting with just a classic hamburger, potato salad, some type of corn. I have two different recipes to share with you. A broccoli bacon salad. A veggie pasta salad, fresh watermelon, and of course some chips. Then for dessert, we’re talking either a blueberry crumble or a no-bake chocolate pot de creme.

All right, starting with those classic burgers, you’re of course going to need whatever grilling situation you have set up. Get that already a couple of days ahead. Make sure you have charcoal, make sure you have propane, or whatever you need for your grill. For the burgers, you can absolutely make these a day ahead.

You’re going to make that burger patty mixture, form your patties, pop them onto a sheet pan, get them in the fridge and let them just sit in there overnight. They’ll be good to go as soon as you have your grill already. Of course, you want to make sure that you have all of the toppings ready for your burgers. What I recommend is just getting a big platter or again, a sheet pan, laying out all of the toppings, covering it with plastic wrap and putting it in the fridge. Here are the toppings that I recommend. Just a romaine or a green leaf, lettuce, pickles, or onions. Now slice your onions and then give them a nice little rinse under cool water. What that does, is it removes the enzyme that makes your onion flavor stick with you forever. Three hours later, you’re still tasting the onion. Once you rinse that enzyme away, you can still taste the onion, and it’s still delicious on your hamburger, but it’s not going to overpower the entire dish. Then you’ll also want to slice up some tomatoes. I actually recommend doing that the day of, because tomatoes should not be stored in the fridge. When they’re stored in the fridge, they actually break down and they lose flavor. So I recommend waiting to do your tomatoes and then right before you serve them, season them with some kosher salt, black pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. It makes all the difference on your burger, promise. Then just make sure you have ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise, and you’re good to go for your burgers.

Next, let’s talk about potato salad. Potato salad is better done the day before anyway. When potato salad has a little bit of time to sit in the fridge, the flavors kind of meld together and it’s so much better. It’s just like chili. So I have a recipe for Instant Pot Potato Salad or just a Classic Potato Salad, and I will link both of those in the show notes for you.

I said that I had two different corn options for you. You can of course do just your classic corn on the cob. You can boil it just in salted water for around eight minutes. Or you can make your corn on the cob in your instant pot. So if you are a pothead, get out that instant pot and cook it up in there. I have a great recipe, a complete how-to-make corn on the cob in your instant pot that I will link in the show notes for you. 

Now if you have that fresh corn, but you maybe don’t want to serve corn on the cob, I also have a killer recipe for homemade creamed corn. You can absolutely make that a day ahead. If you’re going to serve corn in the cab. I would do that the day of. But if you’re going to do the homemade creamed corn, make it up on the second or the third and just reheat it on the stovetop on the 4th of July. 

This next recipe is actually a family favorite. It’s the broccoli bacon salad. If you haven’t had this one, it’s like a raw broccoli salad that has bacon, onions, sunflower seeds, and raisins, and then it has this creamy kind of tangy mayonnaise-based dressing that you put on it and it’s delicious. You can absolutely make most of the components ahead of time for the salad. Chop up your broccoli. Measure out your raisins. Measure out your sunflower seeds, chop up the onions, get all that ready, pop that in the fridge, and then make up the dressing in a little mason jar and pop that in the refrigerator, separate from the salad. Then just like an hour before you serve, mix it all together and you’re good to go. 

With your veggie pasta salad, it is like potato salad, where it’s actually better if you can make it a day ahead because it kind of marinates everything. So I would completely make the veggie pasta salad a day or two ahead and let that sit in the fridge.

Of course, there’s watermelon and chips. Those are easy. Good to go the day of. For dessert, I have two different options for you. If you’re more of a berry type of person, you can go with a blueberry crumble. What I would do with that, is serve your blueberry crumble, sprinkle a couple of fresh raspberries on top, and then add a little bit of vanilla ice cream so you have your red, white, and blue for the 4th of July.

Now, if you’re more of a chocolate person, I would recommend doing these no-bake chocolate pot de creme. It is delicious. No baking is required. Basically, everything is made in your food processor or blender, and then it goes in the fridge and it’s a chocolate custard. It’s silky chocolate mousse. It’s delicious. Again, I would recommend topping it with maybe some fresh blueberries, fresh raspberries, and a little bit of whipped cream so you have your red, white, and blue for the 4th of July. 

I hope all of these tips and recipes help you have an amazing 4th of July and celebrate our beautiful country. I will place links to all the printable recipes right in the show notes so you can make them for the 4th of July and plan out exactly how and when you are going to make all the recipes.

If you are loving these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you subscribe or follow on your preferred podcast player. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: All right, I have a confession today. I fully have a secret food love. Do you have any foods that you love that’s like, oh God, do I admit that? I dunno. I super duper love hotdogs, like I really love hot dogs. I don’t know if it’s from my childhood or what it is, but I love a hotdog with a steamed bun and a really good all-beef hotdog that’s garlicy and oh my gosh. They’re so good. I know it’s like bits and pieces, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t know how the sausage is made and I don’t care because I absolutely love it.

If you love hot dogs, stick around today because we’re making a quick stove-top chili to make chili cheese dogs. This recipe is only going to take you about 15 minutes to make. You will definitely have dinner on the table in under 30 minutes. 

Tips and Tricks: Before we get started with the full easy Stovetop chili recipe, I want to talk about heating up your hotdogs. So of course you could grill them, you can poke some holes in them, and pop them in the microwave. But our very favorite way to cook hot dogs is to actually boil them in water. I think that’s how they do it at baseball fields, or if you’ve ever had hot dogs at Costco and they’re not boiled in water, but they’re more steamed. There’s just something about that method that makes your hot dogs super delicious. Fill up a pot of water and just pop all of your hot dogs in and simmer them for 15 minutes while you make this chili.

Chili for Hot Dogs Recipe: To make your quick stove-top chili to make your chili cheese dogs take a large pot and pop it over medium heat. Add about one to two tablespoons of olive oil or vegetable oil. While that heats up, go ahead and dice up one medium-sized white onion. Then pop that in the hot oil and saute it for anywhere from three to five minutes so that it just softens up a bit. Then add one pound of ground beef and crumble it while it cooks through and browns. When the ground beef is fully cooked, go ahead and drain off any grease before you move on to the recipe.

Next, you’re going to pour in a four-ounce can of diced green chilies, and an eight-ounce can of tomato sauce. Then we’re going to measure in some spices. You need one tablespoon of chili powder, two teaspoons of cumin, one teaspoon of sugar, and then one teaspoon each of garlic powder and onion powder. Finish that off with one teaspoon of kosher salt. Give that all a really nice stir and let it simmer together for about two minutes. That’s it. Your chili is now ready, and if you put your hot dogs in the simmering water, your hot dogs are also ready. 

For assembling your chili cheese dogs, I just like to set everything out for people to make their own, because everybody kind of likes their own toppings. Pull your hot dogs out of the water, set the chili out, and then some other additional toppings you might want to have is, of course, cheese, and then maybe some diced white onions, pickled or fresh jalapenos, diced tomatoes, lettuce, of course, mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, relish, and maybe even some crispy bacon.

For side dishes, I recommend just keeping it pretty simple. Anything that’s a summer barbecue side dish will work here. Chips, french fries, corn on the cob, potato salad, corn salad, coleslaw, and anything like that will pair perfectly with your Chili Cheese Dogs. 

Of course, I will link the full principle recipe in the show notes so you can find it when you’re ready to make your Chili Cheese Dogs.

Outro: That’s it for today. If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. Until next time. I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinnertime a little easier.

Take me out to the ball game. Take me out to the field, buy me some peanuts and gra good jacks. I don’t care if I have a comeback cause it’s root, root for the home team… because it’s one, two, three strikes you route at the old ball game.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: Wasting away, again in Margaritaville. Did that make you uncomfortable? All right, you guys, today we are not talking about dinner. Today we are talking about margaritas. I mean, I’m a little nervous to make this episode because I love margaritas so much, and I want you to love margaritas. I want to make sure I’m conveying all of my tips and all my tequila knowledge to you so that you can make the ultimate tequila cocktails all year long.

Tips and Tricks: Let’s get into some tips for making the very best margaritas you can possibly make. I’m talking, okay, let me go over this first. I like a margarita that is very limey, that is a little tequila forward. That has just a hair of sweetness so that it balances the tartness of the lime. I’ve had margaritas that are way overly sweet that make you have that lemonade throat.

I’ve had margaritas that have no sweetness, and the lime almost burns your throat. That is not what you want. You want just such a beautiful balance of flavors that you can taste each one, and each one is beautiful and delicious and not harsh. All right. If that doesn’t make you want a margarita, I don’t know what will. My mouth is watering and I’m going to have to have margaritas tonight. 

So let’s get started with this. The first tip, you want to use kosher salt on the rim of your glass. This is not the time for your iodized table salt. You definitely want the kosher salt. It’s going to be a little bit milder in saltiness. It’s not going to be chemically like iodized table salt, and it’s going to have that nice, crispy, larger texture that you want around the rim of your glass.

Next tip, use fresh limes. Do not think you’re going to game the system and use the pre-squeezed lime juice that comes in a bottle. 

The next tip is to get yourself a good cocktail shaker. It makes all the difference in the world when you’re actually making a mixed drink. If you’re just having tequila soda or you’re having vodka soda, you don’t need a shaker. But when you have more than two ingredients, you want that shaker to get everything mixed together with a few ice shards and it’s magic. I will link in the show notes the shaker that I use and that I love. Actually, I have two that I really love. One that’s more of a professional shaker that has the shaker in a shaker, and then one that is really pretty, that’s a glass shaker that has an easier-to-remove lid. 

The last tip is tequila. You want to use silver tequila here. In a classic lime margarita, silver tequila is what you want. This is also called Blanco tequila. It’s going to be the clear bottle of tequila on the shelf. When you’re making a margarita, it’s okay to just have a mid-level price ranged tequila. I like to use a Jose Cuervo traditional. I like Cazadores. I like Espolon. I also love Casamigos, but that’s a pretty high price point and isn’t totally necessary to make a good margarita.

Classic Margarita on the Rocks Recipe: Now that you have all of my delicious tips, let’s get on to making a Margarita. Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to start by preparing your glass. Take about an eight to 10-ounce glass. I’m not a big fan of the stemmed margarita glasses. I like to make my margarita just in like an eight to 10-ounce rocks-style glass. Rub a lime wedge around the rim of the glass, or you can dip the rim in agave or honey. Then put a little bit of kosher salt on a flat plate, turn your glass over, and dip the rim into that kosher salt. Turn it back over and fill your glass with ice. You’ll set that aside because now we’re going to make our margarita in the shaker. Let me tell you, if you don’t have a shaker, but still want to make this margarita, you can even use a mason jar. It’s glass so be careful when you shake it up, but it still works. 

Place a few cubes of ice in the cocktail shaker and you’re going to add one and a half ounces of silver tequila. One ounce of fresh squeezed lime juice. One ounce of triple sec, I use a Cointreau, and then a quarter ounce of agave. That’s just enough to give, your drink, just a little bit of sweetness, and I like to use the light blue agave, or sometimes it’s just called light agave. It’s a little less flavor-forward than the darker agave that you see on the store shelf.

Pop the lid on your shaker and shake it up for a good 20 to 30 seconds. Then you’re going to strain it right into that prepared glass, garnish it with a lime wheel or wedge, and that’s it. Oh my gosh. Your margarita’s ready. Take a drink. It’s so delicious. Sometimes I like to also top my margarita off with just a splash or two of soda water.

If you’re having more than one margarita, you could certainly rim your glass again, but sometimes on the second, maybe even third margarita, I will just take a pinch of kosher salt and sprinkle it into the margarita and stir it around instead of having to rim my glass every single time. 

Outro: Now set out some chips and salsa. Go enjoy your margarita. If you want the full principle recipe, you can find it right in the show notes.

 (singing) Wasting away in Margaritaville.