Heaven in a Bun: Bliss

Heaven on earth (Photo credit: MarocStoun)

Jessica from howsweetitis provided this recipe: Loaded Cheddar Hot Dogs. yep, they’re a thing! on her blog today. I am totally stealing it and hope she does not mind. I am changing the name to Heaven on Earth Hotdogs though.

I am loving this recipe, though I most likely will find a way to shorten it up as I am a lazy cook and will probably not spend 45 minutes to cook hot dogs, no matter how gourmet. I will find a way to make these in under twenty minutes in one skillet not two—I promise. Also, they say if you change one thing in a recipe it is yours—so I am changing something—those of you who want to find out what I changed, go to howsweetitis. And I would definitely double the recipe—making six hot dogs is just not enough!

Loaded Cheddar Hot Dogs

Yield: makes 6 hot dogs

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

6 hot dogs
6 whole wheat hot dog buns, toasted
1 sweet onion, diced
12 ounces of sliced mushrooms, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon honey
1 garlic clove, minced
6 ounce cheddar cheese, freshly grated
4 slices bacon, fried and crumbled
ketchup, mustard + relish

Directions:

Heat two skillets over low heat. Add one tablespoons each of olive oil and butter to both skillets. To one skillet, add diced onions with a pinch of salt. Stir to coat. Cover and cook over low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure the onions don’t burn. Remove lid and add honey, tossing to coat and cook for another 10-15 minutes, until completely caramelized. Once caramel-y, set aside.

In the meantime, add the chopped mushrooms to the (second) skillet, tossing to coat. Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring once or twice. Add in garlic and cook for 5 minutes more. Remove from heat and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Set aside.

Cook hot dogs as desired: either grilled or in a skillet over medium heat until browned. Place each hot dog in a bun and top with an equal amount of grated cheese. Place hot dogs under the broiler (or even back on the grill) for a minute or two just until the cheese is melted. Top with ketchup, mustard and relish, then add mushrooms, onions and bacon. If not serving immediately, wrap in aluminum foil tightly. They can be reheated this way too!

This recipe made me so hungry, I am going out to dress up some hot dogs and have them for lunch. While I am fixing them I will try not to remember why hot dogs are bad for me, or what is in some of them, or that I really should not be eating them. And for those of you who are vegetarian, health conscious, or just not into hotdogs–sorry.

My bliss today: a souped up hot dog. What is your food bliss today?

Note to readers: look in the comments–Zen A. translated the “Heaven on Earth” sign for us!

(Photo credit: ~db~)

Unusual Bliss

As good as Soup Nazi’s Soup (Photo credit: naokomc)

Feature blogger of the day: the usual bliss.

Why? First and foremost because of the name of her blog, but today she featured a most delicious soup recipe and she also has not taken her tree down, which will make anyone who has not taken their tree down yet happy. Blissful even. Her excuse is that she is sick, but personally I do not think she needs one. Many years I do not have my tree down by this date. I consider this year a fluke.

Unusual blisses:

1. A chili dog on a hamburger bun. The hotdog buns were gone, but I still had hamburger buns and the makings of two chili dogs. It tastes just as good on a hamburger bun as a hot dog bun. My recipe for a chili dog: hot dog, fried; top it with chili, mustard, and onions. Bliss.

2. When something broken gets fixed. My furnace was broken and it is fixed now. No more expensive electrical heaters (which did the trick but did not add much to my Christmas decor). Bliss.

3. A new handle on my back screen door. Now it does not open at random. Bliss.

4. A flu shot given by my favourite nurse who knows how to give shots that do not hurt. She did not even have to ask me what flavour I wanted (a trick my doctor used when I was little). Bliss.

5. Finding a blog called the usual bliss. How fortuitous is that. Kismet. And again, bliss.

What are some of your unusual blisses?

Party Like It is 1965!

A cooked hot dog garnished with mustard. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Party! Party! Party! (Sorry that was a chant from 1973, the beginning of my university academic life–probably should have been study! study! study!–but just doesn’t have the same ring to it!)

Let the frivolity begin! It is Friday. Not only that, it is the beginning of a holiday weekend. The reason for the holiday weekend is superfluous to me; the important thing is that it is a holiday weekend.

Does anyone remember having wiener roasts? When it was okay to offer people hot dogs roasted over a real fire, with real wood in a brick encased fire pit? My parents had a sort of outdoor mini fireplace they built with my older brothers’ help and it was the heart of  summer at my house.

We gathered around the makeshift hearth for many a wiener roast, hamburger binge, and on occasion steak fry (it was not really fried, hence I do not understand the term, but hey, who am to argue with a time-honoured tradition?)

We did not have steak a lot, but my parents would buy a half cow or quarter cow at the end of summer from some farmer who had it wrapped in a million big and little brown packages secured with string.  At the beginning of the procurement of the partial cow, we had the steaks. The steaks were big T-bones, and if I remember correctly, I could eat one that was about half my size. Now mind you, as I get more mature (?) I may remember things a little differently than they really were—but I swear those steaks were humongous.

And we would have potato salad with egg (always with egg), cottage cheese encased in green Jell-O (which I would never, ever eat!), huge mounds of coleslaw, and for dessert there was watermelon. We would cut it so that we could eat it without forks, and of course have seed spitting contests. (This sounds like I am making it up—but I am not—just ask my brothers and sister—oh, sorry—they do not want me to divulge their identities—so you will just have to take it from me).

English: fresh potato salad (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There will be no wiener roast for me this Labour Day weekend. We had to retire our barbeque a few weeks ago as it had just given up the ghost. We put it out at the road, and some poor guy came along and took it before garbage day, and as he was loading it onto his truck, all the burnt briquettes spilled out onto him. I just happened to be looking out the front window when he was loading it up and felt bad for him. Hope he got something out of it for his trouble.

Anyway, I digress. I am not sure what is on the menu for this weekend. Are any of you having a barbeque you want to invite a charming couple to—we will byob and some extra if you throw a couple more hot dogs on the *barby for us. Have the mustard ready!

*Friends from down under — did I spell this right – feel free to correct me and I will edit it.