A True Gourmet Experience...And A couple Of Dogs

Tis the season...hot dog time. Well in our house hot dog time is all year long, we enjoy them in many ways, even at breakfast. Summer though brings out the family to the deck to get the grill going and feature the "frank"...by the way grilling be it gas or charcoal is my least favorite form of cooking hot dogs. Number one is steaming, and number two is grilling them in a hot cast iron fry pan. I use a natural casing frank, for it seems to hold in the juices. When steaming them do it slowly. Place the hot dogs in cold water, bring to a boil remove pan from heat at let stand a few minutes. The skin will remain intact and all of the flavors will be there. The cast iron method is to heat the pan first, place the hot dogs in pan and watch them, turning them several times until they become a light brown making sure they don't burn or blister and pop.

There are many toppings for the hot dog, anything and almost everything will work. One of my favorite toppings is my homemade relish. I use pickling cukes and red radish. They are grated mixed and then my secret spices are added. This relish along with diced fresh onions is all I need.

Grote and Wiegle are my local maker of NC franks. I buy them in large packs. When opened I remove them from their plastic wrap and place them in a sheet of freezer paper and wrap them up. Placed this way in the fridge they will keep for 10 days. Franks can also be frozen.

A grilled hot dog. Notice the bun...toasted New England style. When the buns are toasted they seem to hold up better to the toppings and don't get soggy.

Here are a couple of special dogs I'd like you to meet. The one on the left is "Kira" and the one on the right is "Parker"...Kira is a working K-9 and Parker is a working fetcher. The both of them are so sweet and so special to us.....and they love "hot dogs".