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Week Zero has come and gone. Did you get your practice reps in? Are you properly stretched and hydrated? The regular season is only 3 months long, and this can feel both shorter and longer than you realize. What I’m saying is, we’ve got a full slate this week so I hope you set aside some time to watch a few games last week, whether it was the huge FCS slates on Thursday and Friday or a mixture of FCS and FBS on Saturday. We had some great games and compelling stories before the season officially started! What did you learn last week? What questions do you have for the rest of the season?

As for me, I’m going into Week 1 with some eyes on the G5…or G6… whatever you call it.

The Chippewas are definitely fired up and ready to begin their 2026 campaign and are headed down to the Land of Enchantment for some sun, some football, and maybe some Christmas burritos? Perhaps they’re interested in extending their trip, heading a bit further south, and staying at the Inn of the Mountain Gods? (Sponsor us, please!)

I know many places had to cancel the green chile roasting season and all their festivities due to a crop shortage, but luckily I was able to pick some up at my grocery store this summer. I roasted them at home and froze a batch just in case I had a need. Not only that, but I was originally thinking about just making some chile verde this winter, but luckily through this project I found a more fun use! This week, I am bringing you…

As I mentioned before, it’s hard to think about New Mexico without thinking about green chiles. I love them in soup, I love them smothering my burritos, and I love them in queso dip. They’re so versatile! If you find yourself at a McDonald's in New Mexico, you’ll even see green chile cheeseburgers on their menu. You almost never see a regional variant in a US McDonald’s!

So with that in mind, I was looking to see if there was anything in Michigan I could take and adapt. In my research, I learned about the wet burrito. I asked myself, “Isn’t that just an enchilada? And didn’t you just make enchiladas last week? It’s the second newsletter, and you’re already repeating yourself?” So I decided against that one. I then found the pasty (pronounced pass-tee). The pasty is a stuffed pastry popular in the Upper Peninsula when Cornish immigrants settled in the area to work in the copper and iron mines. Like the pepperoni rolls in West Virginia, it’s a great handheld hearty lunch for folks hard at work. Central Michigan is the northernmost FBS school in Michigan, so I figured they’re close enough to be in the UP.

When I was at the store earlier this summer, I saw a display for Hatch green chiles. I didn’t even realize it was harvest season yet; it was still July! But there was only one bag left, so I grabbed it in case I didn’t get another chance. It’s a good thing too; I haven’t seen any more since! Roasting them is super easy to do at home. I don’t have a fancy rotating roller like they do in the Santa Fe supermarkets, but you can do this on your grill at home.

Preheat your grill to a high heat, at least 400F. While the grill is heating up, wash, dry, and cut a small slit in each pepper. The slit gives a chance for air to escape while they’re roasting. The last thing you want is for a hot pepper to explode all over everything! Place the peppers on the hot grill, turning them occasionally until the skin starts to blister and char. How long you do this is a personal preference, but it should take about 10-15 minutes. After the skins have charred, it’s time to let them steam for a bit. I like to place mine into a brown paper bag, close the top, and let them sit for about 15 more minutes. This also gives the peppers a chance to cool.

After letting the peppers steam, the skin should remove pretty easily. I definitely recommend wearing gloves while you do this! The last thing you want is chile oil on your fingers in case you end up touching your face or eyes after this. Wearing gloves, peel off the skins and discard them along with the stems and the seeds if you’d like a milder chile. Once the peppers are cleaned, you can use them right away or do as I did and vacuum seal them for freezer storage.

The next step was to make the dough for the pasties. If you've ever made a pie crust from scratch, you’re familiar with the process. Basically, you want to mix in cold butter with some flour, giving the butter a chance to crumble until the mixture starts to feel like sand or bread crumbs. A food processor is a great tool for this! It minces the butter while mixing everything, plus you don’t have to worry about the heat from your hands melting the butter. Pie crusts like everything to be COLD.

For my dough I used:

After that has all been well incorporated, empty the food processor (if you used one) into a bowl and slowly add in ¾ cup of cold water. Mix everything together until it forms a dough and briefly knead everything together. Set aside and store in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight.

Now comes the part of filling the pasty, and it is a chance for you to get creative. Typically they’re stuffed with ground beef, onions, potatoes, and rutabaga as well as various herbs and seasonings. But you can add anything you want to make it your own. Like I said, I’m going for a green chile cheeseburger motif, so my ingredients are the following:

The best part about this step is you don’t have to cook anything in your prep process, aside from roasting those chiles earlier. Everything cooks while the pasties bake! I combined the onion, the potatoes, and some seasoning into one bowl while I crumbled the ground beef with some more seasoning into a second bowl. I kept them separate so the beef didn’t mold together. Likewise, I wanted it to stay crumbly and not end up like a meatball.

After the dough has rested for at least an hour, take it out and divide it into 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a circular/ovular shape about ⅛ inch thick. Top the flattened dough with the onion and potato mixture, some ground beef, some green chiles, and some cheese. I didn’t measure the amounts for each pasty. I just eyeballed it until it looked like an adequate filling and that each one had equal-ish amounts. This is truly one of those “whatever the heart desires” kind of things. If you overstuff, it’s not the end of the world. One thing to note, if you use 80/20 beef, you should have enough fat, but if you use leaner beef, you might want to add some butter into the filling too.

Fold the dough over onto itself, fold the edges together, and crimp them with a fork. Give each pasty a light egg wash and bake for an hour in a preheated oven at 350°F for about an hour until the filling is hot and the crust is a delicious golden brown.

I served this with some seasoned fries, because what is a cheeseburger without fries? It was excellent! I bake a lot of bread, but I had never attempted to make my own pastry crust from scratch. Hearing how finicky it is and how everything needs to be cold, I was always scared. I guess I could have bought a pie crust and cut it to size, but part of the fun is a challenge. This was a lot easier than I expected, unless I got lucky. The crust was both flaky and chewy. It worked well with my burger filling. I probably didn’t need to mix potatoes with the onions, especially if I had a side of fries, but they didn’t detract from anything. The green chiles provided a good heat to the sandwich too. From what I was reading, there’s a mix of people who like to top their pasties with ketchup or with gravy, but I thought it was fine by itself. I could see some ketchup, burger sauce, or a fancy aioli working well here too if you need a condiment.

I served this with some seasoned fries, because what is a cheeseburger without fries? It was excellent! I bake a lot of bread, but I had never attempted to make my own pastry crust from scratch. Hearing how finicky it is and how everything needs to be cold, I was always scared. I guess I could have bought a pie crust and cut it to size, but part of the fun is a challenge. This was a lot easier than I expected, unless I got lucky. The crust was both flaky and chewy. It worked well with my burger filling. I probably didn’t need to mix potatoes with the onions, especially if I had a side of fries, but they didn’t detract from anything. The green chiles provided a good heat to the sandwich too. From what I was reading, there’s a mix of people who like to top their pasties with ketchup or with gravy, but I thought it was fine by itself. I could see some ketchup, burger sauce, or a fancy aioli working well here too if you need a condiment.

I give this one a 4.5 out of 5 Corns. It was so good that I’ll definitely be making this again, maybe even with other fillings!