Hot diggity dog

As I said in my last post, yesterday (April 15th) was the last day of tax season (as if you didn't know), so I went to my parent's house for our annual hot dog celebration dinner.

In case you didn't read the last line, I'll tell you why this day is worth celebrating in our family. You see, my father is an accountant, which means we don't get to see him much during the home stretch of the season.

When my sisters and I were little, we used to make a chain out of construction paper links. Each link represented a day closer to when daddy would be home more again (he would work long hours during this time, getting home after our bedtime and going in on the weekends). I remember fighting over who got to rip off a link each day.

The other tax season tradition we have is the concluding meal. This one goes back about 30 years to when my father was just starting out in this profession. My parents were like most young newlyweds; they didn't have the biggest bank accounts at the time. So, for some odd reason, a hot dog dinner seemed like a "rich man's meal" in comparison to the usual tuna noodle casserole and other frugal cuisine.

Now, I'm not quite sure how the real story goes, but according to my dad, the decision was made to have hot dogs when he returned home after months of hard work on April 15, 1970-something or other (not sure of the exact year). It was like they were "eating like kings" (he has quite the sense of humor).

Somehow, this idea stuck, and we've all been having hot dogs for our end of tax season meal ever since, even if it's a vegan hot dog or just something resembling one (you didn't expect me to eat a real hot dog).

For instance, this year I opted to have a banana in a romaine leaf, topped with papaya ribbons (draped across it like mustard), strawberry slices (in place of ketchup) and pear chunks (which sort of resembled relish). I served some pear "fries" alongside my fruit (instead of veggie) dog.

As you can see, I've been lightening up my diet lately, which is something I do every spring and summer. I hate to disappoint you, but you won't be seeing many of my usual heavy dishes until it gets cooler this fall.

In the past week, I've been experimenting with proper food combining, which is something I've failed miserably with in the past. So far, I've done pretty well, although this dish isn't quite perfect (the acidic strawberries shouldn't be combined with sweet bananas). I'm known for breaking the rules from time to time.

So, back to keeping things light, here is another one of my favorite SNL skits, just for a laugh. Enjoy!