Dinner for two ... Empty Nesters Now

We just sent off our last child this past week ... after having a small reunion with another son who is serving in the Army. The house is quiet and my wife and I have been eating to our style ... not what the kids will eat.

It amazes me that our tastes can change with age. We have seven kids between us ... 4 I brought into the marriage and 3 that she had ... each is unique and it has been fun to watch their palates change over the years.

So back to my topic, now that we are on our own ... probably for the first time ... we can eat what we want. So my wife decided to take advantage of the freezer's we have and pulled out some hotdogs! We need to eat up all this stuff we have stored ... so I took on the challenge.

Having odds and ends in the frig and pantry ... I decided to create a different kind of "Hot Dog" dinner that I could appreciate. Here is the result:

Using a technique I employed in our German Restaurant,"The Sauer Kraut", I braised some sauerkraut with onions, applesauce, a bit of red wine, teaspoon of brown sugar, caraway and juniper berries. Adding a small amount of beef stock to create the broth to poach our Hot Dogs. (normally I would use Bratwurst or Kielbasa.)

Toasting the buttered buns in the oven and adding a Special Sauce (ketchup & horseradish) and some mustard ... it was more than a meal. I made up 3 dogs ... we only managed 2.

So now I have one for later ... :)

Warmest Regards,
Chef Tom Heintz 


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