"hot dogs" news and stories

• It's too hot for the oven, y'all. Time for no-bake tamale pie.
• Think you know all there is to know about American food? Take this pop quiz.
• Gadgets, gizmos, whozits -- whatever we call 'em, we love 'em.
• How much do you love pizza? Can you eat it all day, every day, for a month, like this guy?
• Okay, one more quiz. This one's easy, frankly.

• CSA options are proliferating across the country, and Cape Cod is no exception.
• A sure sign of approaching summer: The clam shacks are opening.
• And of course there's plenty of fish for tacos.
• How to take a summer staple like the hot dog to the next level? Two words: mac and cheese.

Hot dogs became an unlikely focus of controversy last winter when the American Academy of Pediatrics called for their redesign. The convenient, iconic size and shape of the average hot dog is also, unfortunately, perfectly sized to stop a child's airway; 17 percent of all food-related asphyxiations involve hot dogs, according to the AAP analysis.

Well, at least one person has answered the call for a kinder, gentler dog, patenting a device that he claims will render a hot dog safer to eat. Veteran food inventor Gene Gagliardi, head of Creativators and the mind behind Steak-umm and KFC's Popcorn Chicken, is now pitching the Kinder Cut Hot Dog cutting machines.

In late summer/early fall 2010, hot dogs will be making their debut on Broadway -- and we're not talking about the street carts selling standard New York City fare (and really, it's off-off Broadway). Eater chatted with Kristyn Pomranz and Katherine Steinberg -- one of our fellow AOL editors! -- who together wrote Hot Dogs: the Competetive Eating Musical. The pair first collaborated on I Can Haz Cheezburger: the MusicalLOL, mirrored after the same-named site, and atrribute Nathan's International Hot Dog Eating Competition as their source of inspiration this go-round.

Head over the Eater to read about their favorite eating competition, why they think competitive eating has gotten more popular and more.

With baseball in full swing, we couldn't help but salivate over Delish's round-up of Home Run Hot Dogs across the country. Between the Houston Astros "Most Wanted" Dog (hot dog with chopped beef brisket BBQ sauce, topped with chopped onions and salty kosher pickles) and the Milwaukee Brewers Bratwurst (pork and beef brats doused with a secret stadium sauce and topped with sauerkraut and spicy brown mustard), Slashfood's ready to take a cross-country trip. Think we'll stop off at Nationals Park first for a Ben's Chili Half Smoke.

Does your favorite dog make the list? Check out the Top 24 over at Delish.