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By Root 586 0

swirl the franks in the batter so they’re swathed in a thick yellow coat, and drop them in the oil. A few minutes later, when they’re puffed and tan, pull them out, drain them on a brown paper grocery bag, and serve. They’re much less nsaty than State Fair brand frozen corn dogs (we did a taste test), but it just feels awkward sitting around a dining room table eating deep-fried hot dogs with your family and friends, and you will almost certainly feel a little bit sick afterward. Corn dogs, like cotton candy and Sno-cones, are rodeo food—state fair food, carnival food—and best consumed outside on a sunny day, washed down with Mountain Dew from a coated plastic cup. Corn dogs are a wonderful thing—in context. But Bonita Myers’s Wiener Wraps are a better choice for cooking at home.

BONITA MYERS’S WIENER WRAPS

If you want a hot dog recipe that has what vintage cooking magazines called a “fun factor,” this is what you should make instead. I first tasted these at my sister-in-law Laura’s house and I sat there calculating whether people had noticed how many wiener wraps I’d put away, and how long I had to wait before I could take another. (For some reason, I can say “wiener wraps” with a straight face but not “wiener bean pot.”) Bonita Myers was the mother-in-law of Laura’s mother-in-law, Mary Ann, from whom I requested the recipe. I came home and promptly made them for my sister’s fortieth birthday party. I cooked for days—dips, spreads, crostini, dumplings, alcoholic punch—but all anyone talked about afterward were the dry-aged tenderloins my mother brought (expensive) and “those hot dog things” (cheap!).

DOUGH

1 tablespoon instant yeast

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

⅓ cup sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 large egg

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as necessary

1 cup warm water

Neutral vegetable oil, for greasing

1 pound miniature sausages (I use chicken-apple sausages)

1. Mix all the dough ingredients together in a bowl. Knead until smooth. If the dough seems sticky, add a bit more flour.

2. Turn out the dough, oil the bowl, return the dough to the bowl, and cover with a clean, damp dish towel. Let the dough rise for 2 hours at room temperature. At this point you can proceed with the recipe or cover the bowl tightly, and refrigerate for up to 5 days.

3. Grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper. Deflate the dough, roll out to just under ¼ inch, cut into rectangles about the size of playing cards, and wrap the sausages so you have a bit of meat showing from either end. Put the wiener wraps on the cookie sheet, cover, and allow to rise for 1½ to 2 hours, until puffy but not enormous.

4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

5. Bake the wiener wraps for 12 to 15 minutes, depending on how brown you want them. Serve immediately with saucers of ketchup and mustard for dipping.

Makes about 40

FRIED CHICKEN

One rainy Sunday a few years ago, Isabel, Owen, and I decided to pass the afternoon by watching a DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring, that movie about hobbits and elves and Orcs that we’d been hearing about. One hundred and seventy-eight minutes later, during which we neither moved nor spoke, we looked at each other, eyes glazed. We walked straight to the car, drove to the video store, and rented The Two Towers and The Return of the King. It was getting on dusk when I pulled into the Kentucky Fried Chicken down the hill and bought dinner.

My kids were shocked. Happy, but shocked. What was going on with Mom? KFC? I wondered that myself. But we were hungry and the chicken was hot and we had five more hours of Viggo Mortensen to watch. Fifteen minutes after I pulled into the KFC, we were back on the sofa with the bucket on the coffee table, eating mediocre chicken and mashed potatoes and biscuits and watching The Two Towers. It was one of the happiest nights of my adult life and my children get dreamy and nostalgic talking about it.

Not long ago, I cooked a grand fried chicken dinner out of Ad Hoc at Home