How to: Ultimate Nacho Plate

We recently received an email from a reader named Earl. He saw our previous How To, the one on tossing midgets, and asked if we could help him out. Here was his question:

Baconsoup,

Recently I made a great plate of Nachos, perhaps the best plate ever, but while on my way to my couch. I tripped over my dog and my Nachos went all over the floor. They were not able to be saved. My question is this I'm having the hardest time
duplicating that plate of Nachos, and I was wondering if you could help.

Thank you,
Earl

Well Earl, we can most certainly help you. The predicament you are in has happened to me as well. But in my case I made the Ultimate Nacho Plate only to have it eaten by my aunt and cousin. Man was I pissed. I worked long and hard on that plate only to have it enjoyed by them and not me. Anyway, enough about me. This is all about you and how we are going to help you achieve the Ultimate Nacho Plate.

What you need:
- A block of Sharp or Medium Cheddar Cheese.
- White Corn Torilla chips. (preferably Santitas)
- Nice sturdy plate (whatever you do, do not use a paper plate)
- Cheese Grater
- Taco sauce (preferably Jack in the Box)

Steps:
1. Grab another plate to grate your cheese with. Never grate cheese over your tortilla chips. Reason is you lose the upper hand on cheese placement. Which is very crucial.
2. Grate/shred a little under a half of the block of cheese. Sharp or medium cheddar works best. (Never use white cheese, or already shredded cheese.)
You have to have control over your cheese and prebought shredded cheese is a big no-no.
3. Carefully place tortilla chips individually on your plate. Note - not the one you grated the cheese from step 1 on.
4. After you have a nice balance of chips, then you may begin the placement of the cheese. With one of your hands, slowly release cheese. Do not go to fast or you'll have to start over. Important: Each chip should have some cheese on it.
5. Place nachos in microwave for approx. 35-40 seconds. You want the cheese to be melty but not to crisp/burnt. Remember the chip is warm so whatever cheese has not melted completely will melt more due to the warmth of chip.
6. Strategically place taco sauce on chips. Not to much and not to little. Basically you want a 1/4th of your chips covered with sauce.
7. Eat

Tips:
- Eat the chips without least amount of cheese first.
- Usually one chip has more cheese than others, save that one for last.
- If the cheese falls of the chip. Eat that chip without cheese and save the cheese that fell off for the last chip.