The Healthy My Ass Cookbook

Bacon Cheese Franks

A gourmet version of the bacon cheese dogs I remember my mother making.

Ingredients:

Directions:

Remove the Gourmet Franks and Bacon slices from the refrigerate and let rise to room temperature.

With each frank resting flat, cut a deep, but not all the way through, slit in the top from a half inch from one end up to a half inch from the other end.  Retrace the slit to make it as deep as possible without going through.

Separate the bacon slices, stack them atop each other such that only half the lengths are overlapping and the excess halves alternate between extending past the overlap on the left and right sides.  Now alternately fold the extended halves over onto the stack overlapping each other.  Loosely wrap the entire bundle in a paper towel and microwave 1 to 2 minutes on high, just enough to warm the slices to make them more pliable and to get a head start on the cooking process such that the fat begins to look more translucent than white, but not too hot to handle nor enough to cause them to fuse together.

Remove the Cheese from the refrigerator.  Cut each slice into 4 equally wide and long narrow strips.  Stuff two strips into the slit of each frank, extending to each end of the slit and overlapping in the middle.  Spiral wrap two bacon slices, one at a time, around each frank, being sure to cover all the cheese slit and secure with one wooden toothpick at each end and one in the middle that intersects the other end of both slices of bacon.

Place on a cold broiler pan, slit/cheese side down.  Place pan in a cold oven on a rack about 6" from the heat and high broil for about 5 minutes or until the bacon is sizzling.  Turn the franks over, cheese/slit side up, and continue broiling up to 4 minutes until the bacon looks done but not burned.

Serve on your favorite bun/bread with your favorite condiments.

Notes:

* Mom used regular hot dogs but I use Frick's Gourmet Franks which are pork and beef with no poultry in natural casing, smoked and come five to a pound.

** Mom used American cheese, which is all I ever knew of growing up, but I use a Colby/Monterey Jack (CoJack) blend.

We use the same bacon, but she only needed 1 slice to get around her dogs.