I have pretty basic tastes when it comes to hot dogs. Give me a hot dog and a bun and maybe some mustard and I'm good to go. But this recipe from Cooking For 2 seems rather interesting.

They're called Red Dogs, and they're turkey hot dogs that are cooked with currant jelly and Dijon mustard.

• How to make tortillas and frittatas.
• Foods gone wild.
• The Plonk of the Month.
• The world of gastropubs.
• Who has the best hot dog in America?
• A review of Fast & Fit.
• Restaurants reviews: Village Grille and Cafe Italia.
• This week's recipes: Five Spice Lamb, Spicy Chicken with Orange-Mustard Sauce, Aromatic Couscous, and Lemon-Pepper Fettuccine with Asparagus and Shrimp.

• Lots of ideas for your Super Bowl party, including Mini Hot Dogs, Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn, and Linebacker Limeade. Readers sent in recipes too, for everything from pepperoni bread to buffalo chicken cheesesteaks.
• Here's a recipe for something called a Power Pooch Smoothie, which is a dessert for dogs, but it sounds OK for us humans too.
• Win a date with one of these most eligible singles.
• Chinese New Year starts February 7.
• Send your significant other a food-related e-card.
• More recipes: Mashed-Potato-Stuffed Chicken and Sopa de mariscos.
• Also in this issue: ideas for two more parties you might throw, for Oscar night and Mardi Gras; caramel cheesecake; ideas for winter getaways, and what's in Al Roker's fridge.

For the most part, food and drink holidays come one per day, but today it's a regular smorgasbord.

Today is National Lollipop Day, National Hot Dog Day and National Ice Cream Soda Day! And that sounds like...well, a stomach ache. I would suggest not eating them all at once but maybe eating them at each meal. Maybe some lollipops for breakfast, a hot dog or two for lunch, and a couple of ice cream sodas for dinner.

Here's a history of the lollipop from Wikipedia, and here are some cool lollipops you can buy from Candy Favorites. Here are some hot dog recipes, including Spanish Hot Dogs and Rice, Joan Lunden's Paprikash, and Hot Dog Ramen. Then make yourself an ice cream soda or two.

American Joey Chestnut won the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest today at Coney Island. He got down 66 hot dogs and rolls in 12 minutes. But defending champ Takeru Kobayashi, even though he was injured with a sore jaw and pain from an extracted wisdom tooth, still gave Chestnut some competition. He ate 63 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes, his best showing ever but not enough to beat the new champ.

Hopefully you read this after you had your Fourth of July hot dogs. Congratulations Joey!

Happy Fourth of July!

Holidays always give us an excuse to eat badly. We always say that it's OK that we're eating cheeseburgers and drinking beer because we'll start exercising and eating well - seriously! - on July 5. At least that's what I'll be saying today when I have cheeseburgers and beer.

So what are you eating? Are you going to a cookout? Are you having a cookout yourself? Are you going to the movies instead to see Live Free and Die Hard and eating popcorn and candy? If you need some ideas, check out some of our recipes for the Fourth, including Thomas Jefferson's Ice Cream, Hamburgers with Herb Butter, Grilled Korean Marinated Ribs, Roasted Fig, and varous red, white and blue desserts.

Who says there are no injuries in the world of competitive eating?

Sure, they might not have to deal with torn cartilege or a twisted ankle or a blown out knee, but what about jaw injuries? Takeru Kobayashi, the king of the annual Nathan's Famous July Fourth International Hot Dog Eating Contest, has arthritis of the jaw. He can't even open his mouth more than the size of a fingertip, but he's still going to enter the competition this year. Last year he ate a little over 53 hot dogs in 12 minutes.

Kobayashi isn't limited to hot dogs either. He once ate 97 hamburgers in eight minutes. The hell?

I was going to say, "a hot dog made out of horse meat? Gah!" But then I thought, who the hell knows what's in the hot dogs that we eat now? Snouts, intestines, whatever. Maybe horse meat isn't too weird after all.

Esquire's Greg Lindsay gives us the scoop - from the horse's mouth, you could say - on the frikandel, a hot dog native to The Netherlands, Belgium, and parts of Germany. It's deep-fried sausage made out of beef, chicken, pork, and Mr. Ed.

His description (bland, soft, with pink gloop squirting out) doesn't make me want to get on a flight and try it anytime soon, but I'm not a big hot dog guy anyway.

• Need something to feed your pet? How about a French Grilled Sandwich?
• Rachael is looking for your the biggest goofs you've made in the kitchen.
• The Burger of the Month is the Sloppy Joaquin, which sounds slightly, um, dirty to me.
• Musician Moby is a vegetarian.
• Where can you find a good hot dog in Detroit?
• This month's recipes: lots of stuff made with eggs, including Poached Eggs with Mushroom Home Fries, Egg, Goat Cheese and Tomato Toasts, and an Alsace and Lorraine Omelet. More recipes: Great Grandma's Baked Chicken, Chilled Raspberry Cream Pie, Pomegranate Coolers, and an easy recipe for a Zucchini-Gruyere Tart.