Nothing says WASP like pretzel covered hot dogs!

This lovely picture is of my husband, Royall, after we made pretzel covered hot dogs a few days ago. Such joy and excitement!

Our favorite pastime is eating, and our second favorite pastime is creating food that white people like us enjoy.

First up: the pretzel dog.

Now, I've made hot dogs on several occasions. I've grilled 'em, pan fried 'em, microwaved 'em, boiled 'em, and even deep fried some when I was in college, but I had yet to master the pretzel dog.

It was surprisingly simple. Here's the great website where we found the recipe: A Dash of Sass: Pretzel Dogs

Estimated time (cook and prep): At least an hour and a half.

Ingredients: water, sugar, salt, yeast, a pack of hot dogs (we used Hebrew National), flour, butter, baking soda, egg, and toppings of your choice

First, you will need to get your microbiology experiment started by placing the following in a Kitchenaid bowl for about 5 minutes:

warm water (1 1/2 cups), sugar (1 tbsp), salt (2 tsp), and yeast (1 packet)

After the yeast has pigged out on all that sugar, you add flour (4 1/2 cups) and melted butter (2 tbsp) and start mixing with a dough hook at medium speed for about 5 minutes until it forms a nice shiny dough ball.

Let this rise in a covered greased glass bowl for about an hour.

Get your oven ready at 450 degrees and spray some cookie sheets.

Bring water (10 cups) and baking soda (2/3 cup*) to a boil in a large pot.

*this could be reduced a little, I think it was a bit too much when we made it

Divide the dough into 16 pieces, give or take.

Roll these into balls and then into 12" ropes/snakes. Wrap around half a hot dog in a swirl pattern and try to close up any seams.

Dunk the wrapped dogs a few at a time into boiling water for about 30 seconds.

Place on cookie sheet and brush with egg yolk. Add whatever seasonings you'd like. We made some "everything" dogs that had poppy seeds, garlic, sesame seeds, salt, and onion powder. If you don't want horrendous breath or seeds stuck in your teeth, coarse salt is simple and delicious!

Bake for 15 minutes.

Enjoy! (and take silly pictures for your blog!)