TOD trio

Inspiration comes from strange places sometimes — it this case, it was this post about holy-crap-awful recipes from yesteryear. The Prune "Dried Plum" Whip is probably not in the cards, but when I saw Hot Dog Nutty Fritters I knew I was on to something.

It's simple. Just take three tastes you might never have considered combining and put them together. Start with a hot dog and butterfly it, spread peanut butter on the inside and then wrap the whole package with a strip of bacon. Grill or broil (I broiled — six minutes a side). Allow the peanut butter to cool a little before eating.

They're awesome.

The salty meat junk food taste is tempered just a little by the sweetness of the peanut butter. A reviewer called it "white-trash rumaki," but I don't think that's accurate — it seems all it has in common with rumaki is the bacon wrap. So I say we call it one of America's greatest tailgate foods!

It should, of course, come with a Surgeon General's warning. By my count, two of these babies contain 530 calories, 38 grams of fat and 970 milligrams of sodium. That's pretty much a full day's worth of sodium right there and half a day's fat. (I used reduced-fat franks and peanut butter.)

They also serve up 28 grams of protein, for what it's worth. But so does a chicken breast. Bottom line — one or two a year. And savor the heck out of 'em.

So what am I supposed to do with the rest of these hot dogs?