Page 32 - Barbecue News June 2020 Issue

keeping it simple
Vic Clevenger
Chimney Cartel
victor0568@gmail.com
There is no beating around the bush on this, sometimes you just need a hotdog. During this whole quarantine busi- ness, many of us have been cooking like crazy. Trying new recipes has been the thing to do. Maybe
you’ve been taking grandma’s old recipes
and re-imagining them for today’s more
health conscience eater. Although I think
many are at the point where healthy eating
is out the window until the gyms open back
up. I know some have taken my advice from
last month about having theme nights just
to save the sanity, plus justify binge watch-
ing Indiana Jones on NETFLIX. But when
all is said and done, sometimes you just
need a hotdog.
Many times, we get caught up in the com-
plexities of new recipes (I’ve gotten 4 Dis-
ney Cookbooks during all of this) which
cause us to challenge ourselves as cooks.
One of my favorite things to do is to take a
recipe from Betty Crocker (or Julia Child or whomever) and try to recreate it on the grill. What got me to thinking about this is ‘back in the day’ all food was cooked with wood. How many of you have ever had your entire meal cooked on an old-fashioned wood stove in
someone house? As much fun as this is, sometimes you just need a hotdog.
Memories
Cooking a hotdog brings back so many memories of years gone by. To simpler times when families had reunions at the park cooking over those rusty grills at each shelter house or picnic table area. For me there are the times when we went camping, stuck a hotdog on a stick (an actual stick) and roasted them over a campfire. I would eat 4-5 of these on buns smothered with mustard and onions. I can still hear my cousins and I laughing as we contemplated what to play next at my grandparents.
These memories are the stories I have told my kids through the years and the memories I’ll share with my grandson as I teach him to cook hotdogs. For this reason alone, some-
times you just need a hotdog.
Easy
Watching the news everyday (yes, I’m one of those) I see the difficulties being faced by all of us, especially those on the front lines of this pandemic. We’re quarantined, told we can’t really visit anyone and if we do, we need to stay at least 6-feet apart. So, what have we been doing? We’ve been cooking but looking at some the recipes we’re doing in our Disney recipe cook-a- thon, WOW, are they detailed. Some have a bunch of ingredients while others have you feeling like you’re spinning several plates in the air. As this is a great challenge and helps me to grow as a cook, hotdogs are just easy. Boil them (how a lot of our moms
did it) or on the grill (how I prefer it), they are just easy to cook. As we’re halfway through this difficult year, some- times you just need the ease of cooking a hotdog.
Filling
When I was a kid I could really eat. I re- member several Saturdays where I ate 10 biscuits smothered in gravy. Then that night around the fire I would eat maybe five loaded hotdogs then go burn all that off playing. Now days the B&G is restricted to two biscuits as are the fully loaded hot- dogs. As much as I want more or even get a 3rd or fourth one, I regret it because, as mom used to say, “your eyes were bigger than your stomach.” I know many talk about what’s in or not in a hotdog, but hon- estly, I don’t care, they’re filling. When your sitting outside enjoying the begin- nings of summer, sometimes your hunger can only be satisfied with a hotdog.
BarbecueNews.com - 32
JUNE 2020
Sometimes You Just Need a Hotdog