December 31st

December 31st

I like to stay at home on New Year’s Eve, because it seems to be amateur night when all the people who don’t normally drink go out. I generally like to sit at home and make a lot of food and do a variety of small dishes. My wife however didn’t think we needed to eat huge amounts of food all night, so I changed my plans.

She had been craving chili dogs for quite some time, but we hadn’t made any, so it seemed like a good opportunity. Chili dogs may not seem like good celebratory food, but a chili dog, like most simple food, can be sublime if done right and prepared correctly with good ingredients. We had a small amount of ground beef, but we made a last minute run to the grocery store for other ingredients, and purchased hot dog rolls, sharp cheddar cheese, and a package of Hebrew national hot dogs, which are the best hot dogs widely available. Unless you have a good butcher nearby who makes his own hot dogs, Hebrew National is the only choice. They’re not cheap, but I don’t eat chili dogs every day.

The chili for chili dogs doesn’t have beans. It’s more like a sauce or condiment. I just used onions, ground beef, cumin, dried red chiles, garlic, tomato paste, chili powder and Mexican oregano. It had a little heat to it but wasn’t too hot, because you don’t want to overwhelm the hot dog. I broiled the hot dog to brown them and get them a little crusty, and then served them on the rolls with the chili, some yellow mustard and shredded Tillamook sharp cheddar on the top. I’m normally a Dijon or brown mustard guy, but yellow mustard just seems to work on a hot dog. The whole thing was a sloppy mess but was a truly sublime chili dog. My only complaint was that I had steamed the buns to make them softer and warmer, like a great NY hot dog. I ate far too many of them.

I had picked up a bottle of Pelican IPA at the store as well. I love Pelican’s beers, but unfortunately, this is the only one that they bottle any longer. It’s expensive at about $6 per 22 oz bottle, but it’s one of the great NW IPAs. It has great hop flavor, aroma and bitterness but still maintains good balance because of its strong malt backbone. What better beer to wash down chili dogs and what a great way to end the year. It’s hard to beat well made “junk” food.