It may be time to drive a final toothpick through the heart of the cocktail weenie appetizer.
Thank Peggy Wang for leading the attack.
Wang, founding editor of BuzzFeed, has written “Amazing Food Hacks: 75 Incredibly Easy Tips, Tricks & Recipes to Amp Up Flavor,” in which she offers shortcuts and clever ideas she has assembled to goose up mundane menus. Among her recipes are a couple that may knock the cocktail weenie out of the sweet-and-sour sauce and into oblivion. We will get to them.
Some of Wang’s suggestions are brilliant in their simplicity. Do you like crispy hash browns? Make them in a waffle iron. Turn those pedestrian scrambled eggs into spicy Thai scrambled eggs by adding some peanut butter and Sriracha, the latter administered via a spray bottle. That tip alone is beyond brilliant.
We didn’t have time to test all 75 ideas. And, in truth, just choosing two to try took a couple of days of deliberation. But we finally settled on Cook Your Meatballs in Cranberry Sauce and French Dip Crescent Rolls, both of which we figured would make interesting appetizers.
For the first, a jar of chili sauce and a can of jellied cranberry sauce are combined in a saucepan and cooked until the cranberry sauce unjellies and becomes one with the chili sauce. Throw in a 32-ounce bag of frozen meatballs — Wang is very good about keeping it simple — and simmer for three hours. A little salt and pepper and bam! The cocktail weenie is just a memory.
Onto the French dip roll-ups.
Spread horseradish sauce on crescent rolls, add a slice of provolone and a slice of deli roast beef. Roll and bake. Next, combine au jus mix with some Guinness and boil it down. Dip and enjoy. Another reason to abandon cocktail weenies.
Other intriguing offerings are Greek bruschetta, hot dogs in tortillas and, maybe best of all, putting Cool Ranch Doritos crumbs into a pepper grinder and seasoning everything — everything — with them. Maybe even cocktail weenies.
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