Man Food Monday and Yes I know It’s Tuesday

I had to try this hot dog the moment I saw Sandra Lee making it on her show.  I think my husband was surprised at my enthusiasm since we have gone months since this past April and I haven’t really had any real motivation to do any major cooking.  All of you know who read my blog on a regular basis that I have lost approximately 40 lbs and I have kept it off.  I can’t remember the last time I had a candy bar I don’t even think about them anymore and I know it is time for me to rev things up again but I have decided to “HOLD” my weight on maintenance over the holidays.  That being said the other day Sandra Lee from the Food Network did a Hot Dog make over from the restaurant “Serendipity” in New York and it inspired my first Man Food Monday meal.  I love this show Sandra’s Restaurant Remakes  if you haven’t watched it you have to check it out!

I have decided that once a week whether I partake or not we will be celebrating “Man Food Monday’s” my son is in the midst of wrestling season so it’s definitely appropriate!   Tonight for sure I did partake and “Oh boy  am I feeling it!”  but I will keep on and continue on making a “Man Food Monday” meal every week it might not always be on Monday it just has to be on a day that feels like a Monday.

Sometimes we need to indulge and tonight we did!  My first challenge was to do a Remake of Sandra Lee’s Big Decadent hot dog so I guess this is a re-make of a re-make and it definitely was a huge hit with all my all male house hold now.  Yes now that my daughter has moved out this is an almost all male household with the exception of me, the cat who is quite elderly, and my chickens and bees which are of no solace when it comes to the testosterone and the antics 😉

So my recipe is super simple:

Karen Lynn’s Re-make of The Re-make Of The Serendipity Dog

Here is Sandra Lee’s recipe from the Food Network (in case I miss details which I probably will….;)…) A Big Decadent Hot Dog   In her show she mentioned this hot dog was about $69.00 I don’t know if she mentioned how much she spent to make the same dog but she saved bunches and I wanted to make this dog for my family but I knew I would have to cut back on the butter and the costs a little more so I did and instead of using liver mousse I substituted with liver sausage and instead of brown sugar I used molasses I always have to make every recipe I make my own but I always give credit where credit is due.  This recipe is delicious and inspiring and I never would have thought of it myself!

• 8 high quality hot dogs like Oscar Mayer (all Beef would probably make them better but  bought the Oscar Mayer pack that was on sale!) – $2.50
• 8 White Wheat Buns (I use these to give me more fiber) you don’t have too – $1.99
• one large onion sliced up nice and neat – purchased in bulk – 50 Cents
• 1 jar of whole grain mustard (the french style) if you don’t have this just use a nice rich dark mustard easily purchased for – 99 cents or so this jar was about $3.00 but its going to last me for a long time so we will add -20 Cents for the mustard to my budget since it’s a special buy and not a normal pantry item in our house
• 1 Tablespoon of molasses – (in the pantry)
• one roll of liver sausage – The Big Splurge – $3.64 – I love liver sausage! – we used half off it for a cost of – $1.90
• butter and more of it than I care to admit – about 4 tablespoons of it -50 cents

My recipe is a little lower in fat but this is mostly budget driven and probably a little more on the cheap eats side!  Put out 2 cast iron skillet’s one for the dogs and one for the buns.  I put a tablespoon of butter in the larger cast iron skillet to grill the buns.  I put another tablespoon of butter in the cast iron skillet with the dogs.  Cook the dogs well until they look a little brownish in spots.  The buns just need to be grilled.  Place a tablespoon of butter and the onion in a stainless steel skillet and then drizzle the molasses on top.  Cook these until they are carmelized then add another tablespoon of butter.  Yep throw the butter on its Man Food and it’s not every night!  So once the buns are grilled you place the hot dog on the grilled bun you spread a little bit of liver sausage on it and then a couple of dollops of the seed mustard (it’s a little spicy), and then top with the carmelized onions its delicious!  I didn’t add hot sauce to this recipe but hot sauce would have been great too.

The total for this recipe comes in at around – $7.59 and it is amazing!  I could have come in cheaper by going for the white buns and the cheaper dogs but I was very pleased with the quality of the meal.  This will feed four people however it fed three of us and we were full!

Have a great week everyone!

Fondly,

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