Inspired by a recipe I found in one of George Stella’s books as me and my family hung out at the local Barnes & Noble, I came home and tried one of his recipes. He has this very simple recipe for a cracker-like burnt blob of cheese. I was able to remember it and when I came home, grabbed a bag with some leftover cheese, cut it into tiny chunks and threw some chili powder and some garlic powder on the chunks and stirred.

I then put these chunks on a pan and put it into my new toaster oven – I never used one of these before and I’m quite impressed with how it expands my cooking options. OK – some of you might be shocked, but yes – I never used a toaster oven – and I am in my 40s.

Hey – when I grew up there were toaster oven families and non-toaster oven families. I was the latter.

Anyway, I had my daughter place them in the pan and we put them in the oven at 400 degrees. George Stella recommended that they should look almost burnt when they were done. My daughter monitored the burntness.

When they seemed done, based on this criteria, we took them out and let them cool.

The verdict: They were great.

The first pan was gone in 5 minutes – even my wife (the most reluctant member of the Low Carb Confidential Taste Panel) enjoyed them and kept asking for more.

We made a second pan, but we didn’t let them get as burnt as the first pan, and it wasn’t as good, but I think we know the trick to the recipe and it’s so darn easy, and so darn good, that I’m sure I’ll make it again.

If you aren’t familiar with George Stella, I recommend you check out his website – I was so impressed with his recipes that I bought both of his books. Not only does he have some great sounding recipes I can’t wait to try, but his personal story of losing more than 250 lbs on low carb is inspiring.