Hot Dogs: Fancypants-Style

The most recent edition of Food Network magazine featured this article about hot dog toppings inspired by worldly ingredients.  If you read this blog regularly, you probably have a good idea about how I feel about hot dogs, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when my husband requested hot dogs for his Father's Day dinner.  So I plopped the magazine on the table and we picked two different topping suggestions to mix things up.

First, I ate Hebrew International hot dogs because they contain no by-products, fillers, or nitrates.  The only thing I don't like about these dogs is that they are huge (insert sexual inuendo here).  The hubby, in his typical American way, opted for the 88 cent package filled with crap because, well, "it's what he grew up on."

Anyway, we decided to make the Polynesian-inspired dog and the Mexican-inspired one as well.  The Polynesian dogs included hoisin sauce, chopped pineapple, and chopped green onions:

I sauteed the pineapple in a skillet.  I planned to grill it (because I assumed we would grill the dogs), but we decided to boil them because it was getting late and we had promised the little one sprinkler-time.

The Mexican-inspired dogs included chipotle mayo, chopped avocado, and crumbled queso fresco:

I made the mayo by simply mixing a couple scoops of mayonnaise with a spoonful of sauce from a can of chipotles in adobo sauce.  I did scoop a few of the chilis in and it was super spicy - which is what we were going for.  You could obviously adjust for your own liking.

So while I envisioned a several course Father's Day meal, this is what we ended up with:

I left my camera in a friend's car and, until I get it back, am using the old one which is why this photo is a bit blurry.  In case you are wondering about the pasta salad, it was something I threw together yesterday for my slightly-more-formal meal that I provided for my own father.

I simply tossed together the following items:
- cooked tortellinis
- chopped cherry tomatoes
- chopped up fresh green beans (blanched in boiling water for 5-6 minutes)
- basil pesto (I bought it, but only until I can make more of my own from fresh)
- shredded parmesan

It would, of course, be delicious with bacon!

The verdict?  I did not enjoy the avocado on the hot dogs (which is really saying something because I absolutely LOVE avocado).  I found the texture to just be too mushy.  I really liked the chipotle mayo and would definitely use that again on brats.  I really liked the combination on the Polynesian dogs, but since hot dogs are not my favorite food item, I was already envisioning using this topping on salmon or chicken.  Overall, this was a fun way to mix things up, but since we so rarely eat hot dogs, it is kind of nice to have them with traditional toppings.  And even I can't deny the deliciousness of a good, soggy chili cheese dog from time to time!