Sunday Cookout: Veggie Dogs With “Bacon”-Wrapped Asparagus and Baked Beans.

Happy weekend, friends!  We’ve been at the beach since Friday (hence the silence on these blog pages), and rolled back into town just in time to throw food on the grill for tonight’s U.S.-Portugal soccer game.  The fun in the sun was fantastic, but we were both ready for some home-cooked food.  Enter: tonight’s Sunday Cookout!

As you no doubt know by now, veggie dogs are a perennial favorite around Chez Recessionista.  So is asparagus.  So are baked beans!  But I wanted to do something a little different, to jazz up the dish and surprise and delight my fellow diner (that’s LeeLee).  With that in mind, I looked in the freezer and my eyes settled on the new package of vegetarian bacon, just waiting to be used as an inspiration piece.

Aha!

I’ve wrapped Brussels sprouts before and cooked them on the smoker, but I’d never done the same thing with asparagus (and the grill).  No matter!  Tonight, I washed our asparagus (delivered in last week’s Great Country Farms box), cut off the woody ends, and wrapped each stalk in a slice of veggie bacon.  Instead of wrapping them in one even cylinder, as I did with the sprouts, I wrapped the bacon up the stalk, trying to cover as much of the asparagus as possible.  Then I covered them with foil and kept them chilled until their time on the grill began!

Next, I lit up the grill and let it get nice and hot.  Then I placed a pan of baked beans onto the grate and warmed it for 20 minutes or so before placing the aforementioned bacon-wrapped asparagus next to the pan.  After another five minutes, I added the veggie dogs – and after this point there was no space left on the grill!

After about 10 more minutes (and several rotations of our veggie dogs), I took everything up and added two buns to replace them, toasting them on each side for a couple of minutes apiece.  After that, it was time to pile our plates high, crack open a beer, and watch the World Cup while we had dinner atop our trusty TV trays (which are brought out for just such occasions)!

The World Cup may not have gone America’s way tonight (though it could have been worse!), but the dinner was a hit here at home.  We both loved the bacon-wrapped asparagus, and of course as usual devoured the veggie dogs and baked beans.  Both of the latter components are now waiting in the fridge to be used as leftovers tomorrow; I can’t say the same for the asparagus, which was picked clean tonight!  We’ll definitely make that again.

:)