I remember once, while I was around 7 years old and playing at a friend's house, my mom stopped by with lunch for me (they were doing her a favor by watching me and she didn't want to impose on them to feed me as well). It consisted of a napkin-wrapped hot dog that she pulled out of her purse. I remember looking at with distaste, as the hot dog was wrinkled and grey, and the bun was also a sad affair. It was edible, but certainly not exciting. That experience colored my perception of hot dogs and it was years before I ate them with gusto.

Fast forward to the present day and I am singing a very different hot dog song. This conversion is in large part due to gourmet meat producer D'Artagnan's new line of exotic (and very tasty) hot dogs. They come in four varities - pork, beef, buffalo and duck and they are made from meat that was never treated with antibiotics or growth hormones. They are uncured, which means that they are nitrate-free. For all the fancy varieties of meat, they do still taste much like your classic hot dog. Larger than the traditional frank, they are filling, which means that while the pack only comes with four dogs, you'll only need to eat one to be satisfied, so there's plenty to go around.

I recommend eating them with potato salad and some good, whole grain mustard. Very tasty!

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I was perusing the offerings at my local Asian supermarket and some nice beef shanks caught my eye. I really enjoy long, low, slow braised osso buco for its tenderness and unctuous beefiness. It is the epitome of braising; and the perfect marriage of beef, white wine, and mirepoix.

While osso buco is normally made with veal shanks, I prefer the meatier beef shanks. I'm no animal terrorist who hates the thought of the "poor baby veals" being raised in captivity and slaughtered young. I have lived and worked on farms and helped make the useless bull calves into a plethora of meaty products. I just don't care for the taste of veal, I like bold flavors, not the restrained. (Unless it's sashimi, sushi, and some of the other delicate aspects of Japanese cuisine.)

Osso buco can be made with any type of shanks (legs/femur.) Beef and veal of course, but also lamb or mutton, venison, elk, bison; and I guess llama, camel, and any other animal that has nicely developed legs with meaty marrow inside the femur. I wonder if you could make it with ostrich, emu, or kangaroo?

It's mid-January and the winter blues have hit. I need some comfort food to make me feel that all is right in the world. Here's my recipe for osso buco on a cold, mid-winter day.

Nearly extinct at the turn of the twentieth century, buffalo currently number about 400,000 in the U.S. and Canada. Europeans were to blame: trophy hunting, sport hunting, plain slaughter. For Native Americans though, bison were the perfect compliment on the prey side of a predator/prey relationship as they provided not only nutritious meat and organs, but, as most people know, no part of the animal was wasted. Shelter, sewing material, weapons were all made from what wasn't eaten.

As to what was eaten and why you ought to consider buffalo now: it is lower in cholesterol than other meats, not to mention calories. Buffalo meat is also higher in protein than very lean beef, and pork, and nearly equal to skinless chicken breast; it is lowest in fat of all the common meats. Buffalo burgers, steaks, even prepared fajitas are now easy to find in most supermarkets. You can order from any number of sites online. I have eaten many a buff burger and even tried a buffalo pate. One thing I could never stomach was Rocky Mountain Oysters, but I've known folks with progressive palettes that savor these delicacies...

Buffalo meat is quite lean, so be aware to baste often and cook at low heat when roasting or BBQing a large cut. I recommend thin tenderloin steaks with garlic, onion, dill, and olive oil. You can even find organically raised buffalo to boot.

When I lived in Italy, one of my favorite antipasti dishes was a rare Italian cheese called Mozzarella di Bufala Campana. Made from buffalo milk in the central and southern regions of Italy, the mild, smoky cheese is similar inconsistency to what we in America know as fresh mozzarella.

I know what you're thinking: Buffalo milk?

Since when are people breeding water buffalo? Actually, the practice of raising water buffalo was developed in the marshlands between Naples and Caserta. Because the land was undeveloped, could farmers breed and raise buffalo in a roaming, wild state.

The cheese holds a "Protected Designation of Origin" from the European Union, which means that only products genuinely originating in that region are allowed in commercial use. So, if you do decide to make some cheese out of your friendly neighborhood water-buffalo, just know that you are going to have to call it by a different name if you want to sell it!

I thought I could do better than the Hillbilly Housewife, whose weekly menu of weiner stirfry and tuna-and-peas-over-rice didn't appeal much to my sense of budgetary gourmet. I'm not the only one, evidently. The good people at the Better Times Almanac have created what they call the "Slow Food for Poor People Challenge."

Taking the "Food Stamp Challenge," they ate on a food stamp budget for a week (about $61 for two people) and tried to make their example an even better one by employing "(1) frugal supermarket shopping, (2) preparing meals from basic ingredients, (3) buying local foods, (4) gardening, (5) food storage, and (6) home preservation of food."

Menus like "Buffalo meatloaf, oven fries, corn on the cob, green beans," biscuits and gravy, buffalo pot roast and a breakfast of "2 scrambled eggs, 1/3 lb sausage, hash brown, potatoes, rolls, apple cobbler" are a little more my speed. The drawback is that their menu is a bit repetitive (and, being from Oklahoma, relies heavily on buffalo meat). But you can hardly argue with a $60 weekly menu that employs organic eggs from free-ranging hens and meats from local cooperatives. It's a nice attempt and only fuels my desire to come up with more and better cheap-but-gourmet meals.

[photo Sarah Gilbert]