Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs With Cheese Sauce

It doesn’t take much for me to get enthused about get togethers with my fabulous friends. Even last Friday when I was out with the girls and we were talking about our annual Christmas party (yes – 6 months out), I instantly raised my hand and chirped “I’ll do the food!”. Whether it’s a game, a birthday, baby shower, hen’s night or out of town visitor, I’ll jump on any opportunity to host a get together. 🙂 4th of July is one such get together. Born in Japan, raised in Australia, I’ve travelled throughout the US a handful of times and have very fond memories. From NYC to Washington, Miami to LA, San Fran, Texas and New Orleans, I had so so much fun (and food) everywhere I visited. So I’ve celebrated 4th of July almost every year since I first visited the US and this year is no exception. It is actually winter in Sydney, but our winter is very mild. We will grill outdoors and I’ll be making hot dogs, ribs, potato salad, corn on the cob and I guess I have to provide a green salad too. Not just any old hot dogs though – these Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs! Smothered with the most awesome ever cheese sauce (that stays gorgeously creamy even when it’s cool and it’s NOT made with plastic cheese!).

Oh! Before I forget – few photos of how to roll the hot dogs up in bacon. Super simple – just place the hot dog on the bacon on an angle, then roll it and secure the top and bottom with toothpicks that have been soaked in water. If you are cooking them on the outdoor grill, then the toothpicks won’t get in the way of browning the bacon all over because they kind of poke down in between the slats. But if you are cooking this on the flat plate side of the BBQ or on the stove, then use scissors to trim the toothpicks so they don’t poke out. Makes it much easier to evenly brown the bacon all over. 🙂

And a little close up of the cheese sauce for you…it’s SO good. It’s based on the Nachos Cheese Dip and Sauce that I shared previously. It’s special because it’s not made with plastic cheese and yet it stays creamy even when it cools down. Here’s a picture of it when it’s at room temperature. See how it’s nice and creamy still? Almost like the consistency of mayonnaise. So it’s perfect for using as a dolloping sauce for these hot dogs. 🙂

In reality, I dollop a LOT more cheese sauce on these hot dogs. If I used as much as I normally do, you wouldn’t be able to see anything else – including (probably) the bun!!! So for the purposes of the photos only, I used restraint. Extreme restraint. – Nagi x PS You know what happened two seconds after I snapped the photo, don’t you? Yes, I grabbed one of those hot dogs, piled on more cheese sauce. And grinned happily as I savoured every single bite. Can’t wait to make these for my friends next weekend!!