Recipe – Hawaiian Hot Dogs

Ingredients

• two packages hot dogs (thinnest you can find)
• can crushed pineapple
• barbeque sauce (We use Sweet Baby Ray’s)
• 1-2 pounds bacon depending on thickness (thinner is better)
• toothpicks

Directions

We used to use the mini cocktail franks, but for the last two years we haven’t been able to find them anymore so we just use regular hot dogs now.

Cut the hot dogs into thirds to make really short hot dogs. Cut a slit lengthwise in the hot dog, taking care not to cut all the way through the hot dog. Fill the slit with drained crushed pineapple.

Cut the bacon in half. Wrap a half slice of bacon around the  hot dog. Secure with a tooth pick. To make ahead, you can bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, turning once. After they cool, I remove the toothpick from each hot dog, the bacon will hold everything in place now. Refrigerate or freeze until before the event. The pre-baking step will cook off most of the bacon fat which will make cleanup the day of the event easier.

The day of the event you can pop these back in the oven until the bacon is cooked, slather with barbeque sauce and bake an additional 10-15 minutes.

Advantages

• Kids and adults love them
• they are a very robust appetizer – they can be in a hot steam pan for several hours and still taste great
• They can be made ahead and heated before the party

Disadvantages

They are a little tedious and time consuming to make (by my standards), but did I mention they can be made ahead and frozen?