Fun with Hot Dogs

It's been pretty slow at work which is a nice break from my normal hectic days. However, all this extra time leaves me feeling sluggish, slow and bored! And when I am bored in a kitchen, I eat. A lot. So to keep m waistline in check, I've started experimenting with food and trying out some recipes from our large collection of cook books.

I was feeling a bit tired and loopy from a lack of sleep when I decided to have a hot dog cook off with a fellow coworker. We sometimes serve prepared foods for the staff when there isn't a lot of excess food lying around so there are mounds of hot dogs in our freezer ready to go. Years ago, I made a rule to not eat hot dogs unless at a baseball game but today I decided to make an exception so I could play a little.

I wasn't in the most creative mood so I made a couple simple dishes: hot dog pizza and cumin spiced hot dogs over lentils with avocado, pineapple and papaya.

Surprisingly they both came out not that bad. The saltiness of hot dogs compliment pizza amazingly well. It balances out the richness of mozzarella and the acidity and sweetness of the tomato sauce. My second dish definitely didn't look appealing but tasted great. Who knew you could change the flavor of hot dogs so easily with just a little spice?


My coworker came up with this masterpiece: pasta with hot dogs in a tomato cream broth. It didn't taste bad, but I didn't taste much of the hot dog.

We didn't declare a winner. It was too much fun turning processed beef parts into something a little more gourmet. Next time you have hot dogs, think about all the other ways to serve it besides in a bun with some ketchup and relish. Can't wait for another slow day.