HDC for the HBD

It’s that time of year again. You guessed it, it’s Hot Dog Casserole (HDC) time!

Which can only mean one thing: it’s Sly’s birthday!

c’mon, you know you want the recipe

Sly’s birthday snuck up on me again this year, and I’m going to blame my so-called “pregnancy brain” (I blame pregnancy brain for everything, why stop now?) for things like forgetting to buy a gift, not planning a party, and not making a cake. It was practically a miracle I even remembered to get the supplies for Sly’s yearly HDC. In fact, Sly actually made ME a delicious chocolate cake earlier this week! Luckily there were a few slices left yesterday to celebrate Sly’s birthday.

But, I did get around to making HDC, because what would Sly’s birthday be without it? Of all the things he could request me to make him for his birthday dinner, every year he wants the same meal. And, after we eat it, we realize why we only make it one time a year. Over time, the HDC has evolved to be a slightly more gourmet, ever so slightly healthier version of the original recipe with the addition of lots of veggies and, if I’m feeling extra crazy, homemade cream of mushroom soup, because of course a dish like this uses cream of mushroom soup. One of these days, I’m going to go all out and make as much as I can from scratch, including my own pasta and hot dogs.

However, yesterday was not that day.

Sly took the day off work and we celebrated with a quiet day at home. I tackled a few more chores from my “things to do before babies arrive” list while Sly treated himself to an anime binge. Our bed that we ordered a million years ago finally arrived and I pretended like it was all part of the plan. “Look, Sly, your birthday gift arrived!” We put everything together and just laid in bed with the kitties, wondering why it took us 10 years to buy a real bed (another long and boring story for another time). We discussed baby names again – we’re 90% certain of the names, but are still a little iffy on middle names, spelling, and versions of the names (like if we prefer the traditional German versions/spellings or the more English versions). Just before noon, I summoned what energy I had (cooking — or doing anything — these days is no small feat for me) to make the HDC. After popping it in the oven to bake for an hour or so, we watched our new favorite Netflix show, Babylon Berlin. Once the HDC was done, we munched on it throughout the day. And then ate chocolate cake with ice cream. See that big pyrex dish full of HDC? Yeah, it’s almost gone. Like I said, there’s a reason I only make this/we only eat this dish once a year…

In the past few years, we have snorkeled in the Philippines (was that really a year ago?) and hiked through Japan to celebrate Sly’s bday. This year, we spent Sly’s bday at home. I felt bad that Sly spent his last birthday before the twins arrive watching anime, playing with the kitties on our new bed, and eating loads of HDC, but Sly said it was actually the perfect birthday. Knowing Sly, that’s probably the truth.

HBD SLY! ❤ Next year, I’ll make quadruple the HDC for you and the twins! And maybe even a cake.