The Many Uses of Cheddar Cheese: From Nachos to Canned Corn

Cheddar cheese. This wonderful invention of mankind is delicious in all forms, but most especially in its most pliable: grated. Cheddar is my favorite cheese, and I will hear of no other. If you swear by American or some other cheese abomination, I beg you, spare me the pain. Cheddar is my cheese and I will not acknowledge any others in these recipes.

Now, to begin.

Nachos. They're delicious, right? But the nachos you get at the ballgame or the fair have that awful melty squeezable cheese, and while it seems delicious at the time, it's not the kind of quality you'd seek in homemade nachos. The first and most important nacho tip is:

Use grated cheddar cheese.

The salty, sharp flavor of the cheddar goes extremely well with the basic blandness of the corn chips. This snack is absolutely great just like this - spread the nachos out on a pan or ovensafe dish, top generously with grated cheese, bake at 450 for 6-8 minutes, and enjoy. But there are ways to kick nachos up a notch.

Add banana peppers and/or jalapenos.

Yeah, those yellow pickled things they use at Subway. They add a mild vinegar taste to the whole ensemble. If you're daring and you like it spicy, throw on some pickled jalapenos as well. Fresh jalapenos tend to be too spicy for this, but if you really like your nachos to bite back, give it a try.

Under the cheese, put some chili.

Whether homemade leftovers or canned, chili turns the snack of nachos into a hearty meal. The spicier, the better. Hormel's jalapeno chili is cheap and good.

Use leftover taco fixin's - refried beans, meat, chopped onions, et cetera.

These nachos are just like broken tacos, which is what you end up with anyway once you bite into one.

These ideas are all well and good, until you run out of corn chips. Never fear - if you've got some macaroni elbows in the cupboard, the fun to be had with grated cheddar isn't over yet.

Your basic macaroni and cheese involves grating the cheese over just-cooked macaroni, stirring it up, and consuming it voraciously. However, there a lot of fun variations to be had with this as well.

Add milk.