Cookout In The Snow

During our last shopping trip into town, I was able to find some Hebrew National Beef Hotdogs. I rarely buy hotdogs or deli-type meats, but I thought it would be a nice change for a quick dinner some night. A few evenings ago as I was opening the packages to heat them in the oven, my youngest son asked if we could build a campfire and cook them on sticks! He was so excited about the idea that I couldn’t resist. It did sound fun. The look my husband gave me when I said yes showed his lack of enthusiasm, to say the least. Nevertheless, once he got the fire going out in the garden, and his appetite grew, he was a little more into it.

One of my sons roasting hotdogs on a stick.

The boys gathered willow shoots they found popping out of the snow, Chuck sharpened them and tended the fire, and I found our last jar of sauerkraut that I’d made and canned a few years back. (Glad I ordered plenty of cabbage seeds this year!) The boys wanted to eat the dogs right off the sticks, but Chuck and I (being co-dictators in the family ;) overruled that one and decided to heat them back up in the Dutch Oven with the sauerkraut. Mmmmmmmm. Delicious!

A good time was had by all. But that was the smokiest fire! If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought we were trying to burn alder. With all of our red, watery eyes, you’d never know we were having fun. We still have about 4 to 5 feet of packed snow on the ground, and when the fire burned down through the snow, it was in sort of a pit and hard to keep our faces out of the smoke.