Weiners and Sauerkraut

As hard as it may be for my children to believe, I grew up in a world where microwave ovens were uncommon.  Whereas leftovers today can be zapped a minute or two for a hot meal, when I was a kid, fast food was a frozen Mexican TV dinner in a foil tray that took about 45 minutes to heat up in the oven. 

After Thanksgiving, Mom and I would use leftovers to make 2 or 3 TV dinners in aluminum foil-topped pie pans and freeze them to enjoy later, each time re-heating them in the gas oven for close to an hour.  Even re-heating food from the refrigerator required heating up the oven or re-cooking it in a pan on the stove top.  Not so yesterday when I re-heated a plate of the delicious turkey and dressing Julie made fresh on Easter Sunday.  In the microwave, a minute and a half made the turkey and stuffing temperature suitable for Goldilocks.

Mr. Moose

Similarly, hot dogs take 45 seconds or less to nuke.  When my son Jay was a little guy, a hot dog was one of his favorite foods, whether in a bun or cut into small pieces as "dunky dogs" to be dipped in ketchup.  With a microwave, it couldn't get much easier to fix a meal.  Just add a glass of moosey juice (combination of fruit juice and 7 Up), and Jay was able to eat while watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Power Rangers from the kitchen counter in Oceanside.

When I was a little boy, it was a different story.  Hot dogs meant my Mom had to boil water in a pan for about ten or fifteen minutes.  And if you've ever tried them, you'll probably agree that boiled hot dogs aren't as good as microwaved weiners.  However, when Mom added some sweetened sauerkraut to that boiling water and hot dogs, that was a real treat.

The recipe is easy, and while it takes longer than microwaving weiners, it is worth the time and trouble.

Put a can (14 1/2 ounces or so) of sauerkraut into a medium pan.  Add about three cups of water (I've been leary about not having enough water since my noodles fiasco), and then a package of whatever brand and type of hot dogs you like.  Today, I used Bar-S, which my dad's friend Horserace Charlie, a butcher, used to serve at his barbecues (and at $1.88 the package only cost a few cents more than the super cheap-o brand).  The secret ingredient in this recipe is: 1/4 cup of Splenda Granulated. Actually, the way Mom made it, which did taste better, was with brown sugar instead of zero calorie fake sugar, but I try to avoid real sugar, as you may have noticed.  With all the ingredients mixed together, just bring them to a boil on the stove top and cook them in some combination of boiling or simmering, uncovered or covered, for about 30 minutes.  I don't want you to be too stressed about getting this exactly right, as it seems to taste good regardless. 

When I was a kid, I used to like to soak pieces of bread on my plate with sauerkraut and the sweetened juice to eat with a fork even if the hot dogs were all gone, a rare case of me as a kid going out of my way to eat a vegetable. 

Now if you have a more sophisticated palate, or if you just happened to catch a good sale, then using bratwurst, knockwurst or a sausage of your choice, definitely adds an extra dimension of flavor and texture, but you probably should cook them an extra fifteen minutes at least.  Children often prefer plain old hot dogs, and there are usually some weiners on sale somewhere. By the way, the Bar-S weiners were delicious today. 

Clean-up is extremely easy.  Just soap and water.  Put the leftovers in Tupperware and you can microwave a snack or meal later.

By the way, sauerkraut seems to be very healthy.  As my dad used to say, it will clean you right out.