Hot diggity

I made chili dogs for dinner one weekend. Express ones. I got german franks, a can of pork and beans in tomato sauce, some extra tomato sauce, and ground sirloin.

First, I caramelized some onions in butter with black pepper, some balsamic vinegar, and a little sugar. The onions take a lot of time to brown so I did this first.

Then for the chili, I sauteed garlic and added about an eighth of a kilo of the sirloin, seasoned it with salt and pepper, and some chili powder, and cooked it until the sirloin changed color. Then I dumped the can of pork and beans on it and the extra tomato sauce. I didnt make it spicy. The kids wouldnt like that. I let the whole thing simmer until the chili had the right consistency: it should be able to stay put on the hotdogs and not run and get all over the floor.

While this was going on, I boiled water in a pan and dumped the franks in. Boil the dogs for about 7 minutes. Theyll come out plumper and juicier than if you had fried them in oil.

For my chili dog, I smeared a lot of mustard on the bun, put the dog in, dumped the caramelized onions on top of that, then topped the whole thing with the chili.

Cael doesnt like mustard, and isnt too crazy about the onions either, so hers is just the dog and chili. Isabel, on the other hand, would eat anything.

I thought some orange juice would go great with the meal--healthier and all that--but opted for cold vanilla Coke instead. I didnt need to get all Health Nazi about it since this was supposed to be a fun dinner; something for the kids to talk to their friends about, telling them how their dad made them hotdogs for dinner so they could eat in front of the TV.