July is National Hot Dog Month, 31 days to try something new.

We’ve seen hot dogs wrapped in biscuit dough (photo #2), but why not a regular wrap?

That’s what Atoria’s Bakery did with their whole grain lavash (lah-VASH), a flexble flatbread.

Atoria’s makes lavash in Traditional, Garlic & Herb, Whole Grain & Flax, and new Roasted Red Pepper.

We really liked the switch from the standard doughy white bread hot dog roll.
 
 
WHAT IS LAVASH?

Lavash is an Armenian flatbread made with wheat flour, water and salt.

It can be topped with toasted sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic and other seasonings.

When fresh, lavash is soft and thin like a tortilla (but with more flavor), and is used as a sandwich wrap for kebabs and other foods.

It hardens (or can be baked) into a crunchy cracker consistency.

Use fresh lavash for wraps, rollups, panini, flatbread pizza base.

Of course, use it as a substitute for other breads with soup, salads, stews, etc.

You can slice it in advance, or be casual and just tear off pieces.

We’re big fans of Atoria’s Bakery (here’s our review).

You can order their lavash, naan and pita online.
 
 
RECIPE: LAVASH DOGS

Ingredients For 2 Dogs

 
Preparation

1. CUT the sheet a lavash in half, horizontally.

2. GRILL the hot dogs according to package instructions.

If you want, you can also lightly grill the lavash—but not so that it’s too hot to handle.

3. WRAP the lavash around the dog; then add condiments as desired.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF FLATBREAD & LAVASH

> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF BREAD
 

30 MORE HOT DOG RECIPES

Beef dogs, chicken dogs, pork blend, turkey dogs, vegan dogs:

These recipes work with any type of dog (leaving off the bacon and cheese for the vegan dogs, of course).

 
 
HOT DOG ROLL RECIPES

[1] Try a hot dog in a lavash wrap instead of a doughy white bread roll (all photos except #2 © Atoria’s Family Bakery).

[2] Hot dog in a crescent roll wrap (photo © Bison Council).

[3] Sheets of traditional lavash.

[4] Look for the Atoria’s package.

[5] Dips with all three of Atoria’s breads: lavash (at left), pita (at right) and naan (at top).

[6] At dinner, lavash in the bread basket.

[1] Braziian Sangria, made with cachaça substituting for vodka or other spirit (photos #1, #2, #3 © Novo Fogo).

[2] Silver (prata) cachaça is not aged; it “rests” in stainless steel vats before bottling. It is also called branca (white), clássica (classic) or tradicional (traditional).

[3] Novo Fogo’s Chameleon cachaça is categorized as an amarela or yellow cachaça. It’s aged in wood, which causes the color to change from clear to yellow. Amarela cachaça can also be called ouro (gold) or envelhecida (aged) cachaça.

[4] It’s easy to turn honey into honey syrup, a simple syrup. The recipe is at right (photo © National Honey Board).

Mention cachaça and most savvy imbibers would respond: Caipirinha!

Cachaça (cah-SHA-sah) is Brazil’s national spirit, and the Caipirinha (kai-puh-REEN-ya, photo #2) is one of the easiest cocktails to make. We’ve included the recipe below.

There are numerous fine cachaca brands available in the U.S. One we’ve been enjoying is Novo Fogo (“new fire”), especially their versatile Chameleon Cachaça (photo #3).

It’s aged for one year in repurposed American oak barrels, just long enough to gather nuances of flavor and aroma: a hazelnut nose and sweet-and-spicy herbs in the palate, finishing with some lively citrus.

Novo Fogo also has an award-winning Two-Woods Series (aged in American oak plus Brazilian woods) and single barrel cachacas aged 2, 3 and 5 years. All are affordable gifts for the cachaça lover.

Discover them and more at NovoFogo.com.

We thank them for these two cachaça recipes.
 
 
RECIPE #1: BRAZILIAN RED SANGRIA

This recipe uses honey syrup. The recipe is below.

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE all ingredients with ice. Garnish as desired.

 
RECIPE #2: AGED CAIPIRINHA

You can make a Caipirinha more special by using barrel-aged cachaça (analogous to a reposado tequila—photo #3).

Over the years, numerous variations have appeared. For example, a Caipiroska substitutes vodka for the cachaça, a Caipirissima replaces the cachaça with rum.

Then came the Lemon Caipirinha, the Strawberry Caipirinha, the Whisky Cipirinha, and so on.

Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture did not want the national cocktail to be sullied with other ingredients, so in order to be called a Caipirinha, they published a decree in 2009. Legally, to be called a Caipirinha, the drink can only be made with cachaça, lime and sugar.

They can only enforce the law in Brazil in commercial establishments; so if you feel the need to play with the recipe, go ahead.

This recipe uses aged cachaça, for more layers of flavor.

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. MUDDLE the lime in a shaker until the juice is all squeezed out. Add the sugar and muddle to combine.

2. ADD the cachaça and ice, shake, and strain into a glass with ice cubes. Enjoy!

 
RECIPE #3: HONEY SYRUP

Honey syrup is simple syrup that is made with honey instead of table sugar. It’s the same 1:1 recipe as simple syrup.
 
Ingredients For 1 Cup

*Don’t have superfine sugar? Just pulse table sugar in a food processor or spice mill to superfine consistency.*

†There is a difference between stored and aged cachaça. Stored cachaça is kept in wooden barrels for a non-specified period of time. Aged cachaça must contain more than 50% of cachaça that is at least one year old, and rested in barrels of up to 700 liters. The highest categories of aged cachaça are Premium, aged for a period not shorter than one year, and Extra Premium, aged for a period of than three years or longer. Both of these must contain 100% of cachaça aged in wood barrels.

On July 16, 2018, the city of Buffalo, New York celebrated the first National Blue Cheese Dressing Day, honoring a “special sauce” that’s combined with chicken wings, celery and hot sauce to create Buffalo Wings.

If you’re a Buffalo Wings fan, also note that:

 
There’s a great blue cheese dressing recipe below.

Blue cheese dressing had a distinguished life before the creation of Buffalo Wings in 1964.

While no one can date blue cheese dressing, the history of blue cheese dates to the 7th century to a cave outside the village of Roquefort in France.
 
 
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BLUE CHEESE

Blue cheeses aren’t blue, of course—they’re dotted with veins that are dark blue, blue-green, green or bluish-black.

The veins are Penicillium molds—cousins of the antibiotic. The molds are also relatives of the bloomy mold that covers Bries and Camemberts.

Blue cheese was an accidental discovery.

The documented history of blue cheese begins in the 7th century to a cave outside the village of Roquefort in France.

The legend has is that a distracted young man forgot his lunch of bread and sheep’s milk cheese in the cave (to romantics reading this, the details are that the shepherd saw a beautiful girl).

When he returned months later, the mold (Penicillium roqueforti) had transformed his cheese into what we now known as Roquefort.

Whatever the legend, blue cheese is believed to have been discovered by accident because cheeses were stored at natural temperatures and in the moisture-controlled caves, which are favorable environments for many varieties of harmless mold.

Not everyone could access a cave. But fortunately, blue mold is abundant in the air. It grows rapidly and in proper conditions, it out-competes most other molds in the air [source].

Give it a humid, damp environment with plenty of oxygen—including barns and cellars, where cheese was often stored—and you have the ideal environment for blue mold to grow.

Once cheesemakers realized what was happening, they made pinholes in the cheeses to help the mold penetrate more easily. The practice continues today.

Of the three best-known blues, Gorgonzola is known to have been created around 879 C.E.

Stilton is a relatively new addition, becoming popular sometime in the early 1700s. Subsequently, numerous varieties of blue cheese were created, and still are.

In the 20th century alone, Cambozola and Danablu were created to fill the demand for Roquefort-style cheeses that were more affordable. The double cream blue in photo #7 debuted in 1969.

Great American cheese makers like Point Reyes Farmstead and Rogue Creamery created their cheeses in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

And cheese makers in the U.S. and Europe continue to work on blue cheese recipes to please blue cheese lovers and entice new ones.

So…what about blue cheese dressing?

No one knows when the first cook crumbled or mashed blue cheese into a dressing or sauce. Let’s just be grateful that the concept took off!

Whether as a salad dressing, a sauce or dip, blue cheese dressing is a gift to food lovers. See more uses for blue cheese dressing below.
 
 
POINT REYES FARM’S BLUE CHEESE DRESSING & DIP

One of our favorite blue cheeses is Original Blue from Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese in Marin County, California.

Some 15 years ago, they created a blue cheese dressing with it, and it was magnificent.

Alas, it proved impractical to produce over the long term, and it was discontinued. But thankfully, they made the recipe available.

You can substitute a different blue cheese, but as with all cooking, the better the ingredients, the better the finished result.

Even if you don’t use it in dressing, definitely enjoy Original Blue on your cheese plate.
 
Ingredients For Approximately 2-1/2 Cups

[1] Point Reyes blue cheese dressing. The recipe is below (photo © Point Reyes Farmstead).

[2] Original Blue, the cheese used in the dressing recipe (photo © Good Eggs).

[3] Cobb Salad with a side of blue cheese dressing (photo © eMeals).

[4] Wedge Salad, another popular use for blue cheese dressing (photo © Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse).

[5] Gorgonzola cheese (photo © Castello Cheese).

[6] Roquefort cheese, the first blue cheese (photo © Castello Cheese).

[7] Double cream blue cheese is a variation introduced in Denmark in 1969 (photo © Castello Cheese).

You’re sure to find your own favorite ways.

[1] Frozen melon cocktail served in melon halves. The recipe is below (photo © Melissa’s Produce).

[2] A Charentais melon is a more refined cantaloupe. While you can’t smell or taste it here, look at the smoothe skin (photo © Marius Kant | Wikipedia).

[3] Charentais melons in a market in France (public domain image).

[4] The recipe requires melon balls, but you can scoop and freeze any melon balls for a quick frozen snack, or to defrost for dessert (photo © American Diabetes Association).

[5] There are many fine tequilas, some with interesting packaging like this bottle from Santo Blanco (photo © Santo Spirit).

[6] You can add some sizzle to your cocktail with Tanteo tequilas in Chipoitle, Habanero and Jalapeño (photo © Tanteo Tequila).

What’s better on a hot day than a a frozen cocktail (or a non-alcoholic slushie—just leave out the tequila).

This recipe, below, comes to us from Melissa’s Produce, which used a Charentais melon, a relative of cantaloupe.

You can substitute cantaloupe or any other melon.

There are also more delicious frozen drink recipes below.
 
 
WHAT IS A CHARENTAIS MELON?

This “gourmet” melon is a more elegant version of a cantaloupe—some call it a French cantaloupe.

It has similar flesh, but was bred to be even sweeter, with a more intense and distinctive aroma of tropical fruit and flowers.

The variety originated in the Poitou-Charentes* region of western France in the 1920s.

It was developed as a refined cantaloupe with a smoother, more aesthetically appealing skin—minimally netted, as opposed to the complete netting on a cantaloupe skin.

The size was smaller, too: a perfect “breakfast for two.”

These melons were almost exclusively available in France, because their thin skin and soft flesh does not travel well.

Thus, while they are prized, there is low production because they are too delicate for commercial shipping.

To please melon lovers across the pond, small amounts were planted and hybrids were created by crossing the Charentais with North American cantaloupes. This created a larger size and a thicker skin for better shipping.

There is limited production of Charentais melons in the U.S. today. But if you have space for gardening, you can buy seeds and grow your own.

Or, a faster solution: get them from specialty produce purveyors like Melissa’s.

(By the way, unlike another famous french melon, the Cavaillon, Charentais melons are not protected by an A.O.C. designation [appellation d’origine contrôlée], which limits by law the specific region(s) where a product can be grown/made [like Champagne and Roquefort cheese, e.g.]. Therefore, Charentais melons can legally be grown anywhere.)

Charentais melons grow 6″ in diameter and weigh 3-4 pounds.

Botanically, the Charentais melon is Cucurbitaceae Cucumis melo var. cantalupensis.

 
The Charentais melon is especially prized in France for its rich, honeyed finish on the palate. The French serve them plain for breakfast, as an appetizer wrapped with Bayonne ham or proscuitto as an appetizer, and as melon balls drizzled with Port or other sweet wine for dessert.

 
RECIPE: FROZEN CANTALOUPE COCKTAIL

You can make this cocktail with any melon (and with cucumber, too). But if you want to serve it in a melon half, you’ll need to find a small cantaloupe.

The frozen cocktail just as delicious in a Collins glass or a Margarita glass—and if you don’t want to scoop out the cantaloupe flesh when you’ve finished the drink, a glass is better.
 
 
Ingredients For 2 Melon Halves

 
Preparation

1. PROCESS all of the ingredients in a blender, adding just enough of the ice to make a slushy drink.

2. POUR into the melon halves. You may need to cut a flat spot on the bottom so that they don’t tip.

3. GARNISH with mint and lime wedges.

 
MORE FROZEN DRINK RECIPES

*Poitou-Charentes, a region on the French Atlantic coast with Roman, Renaissance and medieval history, is now part of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Its best-known cities are La Rochelle, the region’s capital, which is on the coast; and Poitiers, inland. Other important cities are Angoulême, Châtellerault, Niort, Saintes, Rochefort and Royan.

July 14th is National Macaroni & Cheese Day. We’ve got lots of great mac and cheese recipes below, but we’ll start out with a new one: Gnocchi Mac & Cheese.

Instead of using elbows, penne, or other plain pasta, this recipe uses gnocchi, small dumplings stuffed with cheese, potato, pumpkin, spinach, or other ingredients.

This recipe is courtesy Delallo Foods, where there are great cooks in the kitchen. They use their potato gnocchi (photo #2). We had both cheese and pumpkin gnocchi in the freezer, and the recipe is great with both (or any filling).

The recipe layers the cheesy flavors with three kinds of cheese: Cheddar, Fontina, and Parmesan.

We happened to have some Moliterno Black Truffle Pecorino, a Sardinian sheep’s milk cheese embedded with Italian black truffle. We substituted that for the Cheddar. Since truffled mac and cheese is our favorite recipe, it was, naturally, a big hit.

And before we get started, let’s thank Thomas Jefferson for mac and cheese. He brought pasta to America.

> Here’s the history of mac and cheese.

> There are 17 more mac and cheese recipes below.
 
 
RECIPE: GNOCCHI MAC & CHEESE

Instead of baking the recipe in a square baking dish, you can bake it in 4-6 individual ramekins or mini skillets. If so, the cooking time may be quicker.
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 375°F. Spray a shallow 9″ x 9″ baking dish with nonstick spray. Arrange the cooked gnocchi in a single layer at the bottom of the dish.

2. MELT the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the garlic and cook until lightly golden, about 1 minute. Whisk in the flour until the mixture thickens; then add the milk and sage. Continuing to whisk, cook the sauce until thickened, about 2 minutes.

3. ADD the shredded cheeses to the sauce. Stir until melted, then season with salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over the layer of gnocchi. Top evenly with Parmesan and the breadcrumbs.

4. BAKE until bubbly, about 25 minutes. Allow the gnocchi to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
 
 
17 MORE MAC & CHEESE RECIPES

In addition to the Gnocchi Mac & Cheese recipe above, and the two links to Lobster Mac & Cheese, here’s a wealth of macs with lots of personality:

[1] Gnocchi Mac & Cheese, our featured recipe (photos #1 and #2 © Delallo).

[2] You can purchase fresh gnocchi, or dried gnocchi like these.

[3] Sage is an underused herb in American cooking. Just a few uses: compound butter, omelets/scrambles, soup garnish, stuffing (photo © Good Eggs).

[4] Use panko [Japanese] breadcrumbs for a crispy topping (photo © Progresso).

[5] Grated cheddar, one of the three cheeses used in the recipe (photo © Szakaly | Panther Media).

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