August 7, 2005

• Over on mile23.com: Another thrift store find. Stop me before I buy more useless crap!

  Over here:

  Dinner: Hot dog (phosphate-free and otherwise politically-correct) in a whole-wheat bun. Stand around eating it, decide to cook another one since the pot is full of hot water. Eat the first while cooking the second. Drink some ginger ale (not that Canada Dry crap, but Reed's). Sit on the patio while the dog begs.

  Come inside, wash the dishes, sit at the computer, gnaw on some fancy-schmancy chocolate (Dolfin brand, dark with crystallized orange peel).

  I'd like to take a moment and offer my instructions for boiling the perfect boiled hot dog on an electric range. Boiling is the preferred method only by virtue of practicality; ideally, hot dogs get cooked on an outdoor grill, but that's not always the kind of effort you want to put into a hot dog.

  So. Put an inch or so of water on the bottom of a pot with a lid. Put that on to boil. Once it's boiling, put the dog(s) in and turn off the burner. Don't remove the pot from the burner, just turn it off. Gather the bun and tuck it over the handle of the lid, so that the slice in the bun goes around the handle.

  Go do something else, like eat the first hot dog you cooked. Or wash a couple dishes. Return to the pot when the boiling has stopped, there is no steam coming out, or if you're concerned that the bun will be a sticky mess by now. The benefit of this method is that if you wander off and forget you were cooking a hot dog, no harm.

  Retrieve the dog with a fork, and hold it over the pot for a little while to drain. Place it in the bun, add scary cajun-style mustard, and voila.

  • 9:25 pm
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