Had these little guys at Great Dane Pub & Brewery Co. They were delicious. Cheese curds will squeak while you eat this, and this was in interested combination of melty and squeaky mozzarella.

I also had the ribs with cole slaw, baked beans, and fried plantains. They were alright. I’m a tough critic when it comes to them though since I grew up in the south. I have a rule for ribs. If you can nibble off the end of a rib bone after you finish the meat, then the ribs could qualify for the good category.

I also had a little bit of the prime rib and that was pretty good. And for my nephew there were tater tots made into smiley faces. Those were cute. It was a surprisingly family friendly place for a pub with pool tables.

Got 2 pounds of ground beef and some Tony’s.

Mixed it all up.

Flattened it out with another cutting board (not shown). If you use a flexible cutting board then you can just peel it off onto your hand and then toss it onto the griddle or grill.

Tossed it on the griddle.

Its starting to brown and smoke a little.

I started cutting up some cheese.

I flipped it somehow.

Cooked it a little bit more and tossed on the cheese to get it all melty … Mmmmm.

If you look above before it was cooked, you’ll noticed how much a burger will shrink on you. It’s always best to make them a little on the big side.

I needed to make room in the bun for some cheddar and tomato, so I pulled out some of the ciabatta innards.

Some creole tomatoe, creole mustard, and a little love. Dawww ….

That’s how I made my NOLA Monsterburger.

I kinda liked how most of the ingredients were from local sources … except for maybe the beef. Next time … it will be a completely local burger.

I let the kitchenaid stand-mixer knead the dough. After it was all keanded, the bowl was cleaned and oiled. The dough went back in the bowl to rise.

An hour later, it had doubled. 

And then tossed onto a clean, oiled counter. 

Then cut into 8 pieces. 

Check out those arms. Their dough rolling machines! Check out the minutes of experience that they have!

Rolling out the fatter end will make the dough ropes more even. 

All rolled out. Even lengths and thickness is essential! jk

Started some water and baking soda boiling. 

Some rolled dough formed into knots. Pressing down the joints will keep the pretzels formed into knots. It will puff back up in the water.  

Tossed in boiling water for half a minute. The white stuff around it is the baking soda. It’s ok, it’ll come off easily. 

I just used a slitted spatula to pull out the pretzels. 

Placed onto some parchment paper and salted with some sea salt. I skipped the egg washed, it was fine without it. Make sure you use good parchment paper, otherwise they will stick to the parchment paper and you’ll have to cut off the bottoms. 

After they baked in a 425F oven for about 10 minutes, they came out incredible. 

You could eat it with some mustard. 

Or make a pretzel sammich (I suggest making some pretzels without salt for this). It’s alot like a bagel sammich, but fancier. 

I made one for lunch the next day. 

These pretzels are made from the same dough used in simple bread, pizza dough, bagels, or whatever.