The Good Stuff Cookbook: Burgers, Fries, Wedges, and More

Former Top Chef star Spike Mendelsohn takes all-American comfort food and spices it up. Based on menu items from his D.C. restaurant Good Stuff Eatery, “these 120 mouthwatering recipes offer a fast, fun, and completely fresh approach to the classics.”

“The Good Stuff Cookbook shows you how to add that gourmet touch to the traditional burger-and-fries combo to create good food and good times. This is an aspirational, inspirational cookbook for enjoying the good stuff in life–handmade burgers, hand-cut fries, and handspun ice cream you’ll crave again and again.”

Cooks&Books&Recipes Editors’ Notes:

THE BOOK. We’re talking basics with a spin. 23 burger recipes. 9 wedge salad recipes (and I thought a wedge was a wedge). 9 recipes just for mayo! Plus shakes, sides, desserts, and party dishes. And you gotta love the party plan, pantry list, fridge list, and must-have kitchen tools list. Plus one of my cookbook favorites: full-page, absolutely gorgeous photos of nearly every dish. This one lives up to its good times motto.

Featured Recipe: Mac ‘n Cheese

One Response to “The Good Stuff Cookbook: Burgers, Fries, Wedges, and More”

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   Katie, Cook It Fresh — September 25, 2010 @ 6:58 pm

   Mac and cheese is a favorite meal at our house.  Whether it’s out-of-the box or of the homemade oven baked variety, we all enjoy the irresistible combination of tangy cheese and pasta.  I have tried lots of different homemade mac and cheese recipes but this recipe takes a classic dish to a new level.  Bacon and cheese are always a winning combination, but the addition of fresh herbs, Parmesan cheese and a crispy panko topping made this recipe truly special.  The sauce was less creamy than most mac and cheese recipes but I found the texture to be a pleasing change and the flavor was definitely satisfyingly cheesy.

   I made a couple of changes to the ingredients due to the restrictions of my pantry.  First, I substituted a teaspoon of dried thyme for the fresh thyme and I used corkscrew shaped cellentani pasta in place of elbow macaroni. A combination of dried and fresh herbs worked fine, although I’m sure the flavor was not quite as strong as it would have been with all fresh.
   I made the cheese sauce and fried the bacon earlier on the day I made this recipe and then refrigerated them until needed. I then re-heated the cheese sauce over medium heat while I cooked the pasta and assembled everything.  This approach made the recipe much faster and easier to put together.  I would caution that if you are making this cheese sauce on an electric range (as I unfortunately have to), you should use a lower heat than the medium heat suggested in the recipe.  My sauce thickened  much too quickly over medium heat and I had to add a little extra milk to thin it out a bit.  Other than that little mishap, this recipe was fun to make and a delicious addition to my growing catalogue of mac and cheese variations.

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