Hot Dog Dogs

What You Need:

• Hot dogs
• Pot
• Stove
• Water
• Tongs
• Buns
• Deli-sliced ham
• Olives
• 2 cutting boards
• Plastic knife

 What You Do:

1. Help your young chef put the hot dogs in the pot.
2. Show him how to cover the dogs with a shallow layer of water.
3. Supervise this step since it involves stove top cooking.  Place the pot on the stove and bring the water to a boil.
4. Once the hot dogs have cooked, help your child use tongs to remove them from the pot.
5. Let him use a plastic knife to cut strips of ham on another cutting board. Show him how to make these strips resemble floppy dog ears. He will need two of these ham ears for each hot dog.
6. Have him get out the olives – one per hot dog.  Let him again use the plastic knife to cut each olive in half to make googly dog eyes.
7. Time to assemble those dogs!   Line up the buns on a clean cutting board or platter.  Your child will need to place one hot dog in each bun.  Working at one end of each hot dog, he will need to drape the ears over the dog's head and set up a pair of googly eyes on the end.
8. Optional ingredients include cheese shreds for hair and ketchup for dog slobber.  Encourage your kid to get creative. Can you think of any other yummy foods that would make his hot dog dog look even better?