After my column last week about angel food cupcakes, though they were really good, I’d like to issue a mea culpa. The cupcake “trend” is now bordering on cliche. Trendy chefs have moved onward, if not exactly upward.
Today everyone’s buzzing about — roll eyes here — the hot dog.
Yes. That gourmet cookout food you’ve been unknowingly been screwing up for years.
Luckily, chefs are here to save us just in time for Memorial Day.
At "The Perfect Hot Dog Slideshow" you can find expert, yes, expert, advice on cooking dogs just the right way.
In a town that survives each summer on Smith’s Natural Casing Wieners with mustard and Greek sauce, I don’t think any chef anywhere is going to make much of a dent in tradition.
But the tips are kind of funny.
My favorite is to look for hot dogs made out of crazy meats, like alligator, veal or boar.
I can just see the procurement guys at Smith’s wringing their hands trying to figure out where to find alligator.
Then there’s the commandments about pan frying before grilling to crisp the casing. OK.
Then there’s a long description of the right way to deep fry and boil. You know, if you’re deep frying your hot dogs, you might not live long enough to see the slideshow.
How about this one:
“Joshua Sharkey likes to finish his hot dogs with ‘Bark butter,’ which is ‘basically smoked lard.’”
They can’t be serious.
Step 10? Wrap them in bacon. Talk about a trend that’s seen its day.
So, as you dust off your grill this month, remember that somebody, somewhere thinks he can do it better. Prove him wrong.

As soon as afternoon temps climb past 70 degrees, I start craving lighter fare. By lighter, though, I don’t always mean healthier. It’s more a question of texture, like lime fluff over brownies, olive oil over butter.
I’ll stop here for a second to complain that advertisers are teaching us to spell the word “lite,” when we mean lower in fat and calories. It’s only a matter of time until we language types give up that particular ghost. Webster’s already has an entry for the bastard “word.” And it counts for 5 points in my Scramble phone app.
OK, I’m off my soapbox. Back to yumminess:
The words “lime” and “fluff,” can tempt me off the dietary straight and narrow, and not just by impulse. When I find the right recipe, my cravings for fluffy lime stuff will outlast hours of premeditated culinary sin.
And so it will be this with this lite-ified one for
Key Lime Pie. The good news is that it will call for a lot less penance.

Thanks to all who entered the drawing last week for “Cooking with Quinoa,” by Rena Patten. The winner is Diane Wisinski. I’ll pop it in the mail today.

If you are not Diane Wisinski, throw your name in the hat for "The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook: Recipes Featuring Homemade and egg-free raw cookie dough,” by Lindsay Landis. " The pretty, spiral-bound text, wrapped in a durable cover features recipes for cookies, cakes, candies “and more.”

To enter, send an e-mail to jennie.geisler@timesnews.com. Include your NAME, MAILING ADDRESS and NAME OF THE BOOK. Your address will not be shared online.

For those just here for the food:
EGGLESS CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons milk or cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mini-semisweet chocolate chips
1. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in milk and vanilla. Stir in flour and salt and mix on low speed (or by hand) until incorporated. Stir in choco0late chips.
2. Dough can be enjoyed immediately or stored, covered or in an airtight container, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
– “The Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook”

It’s hard to screw up shrimp, as far as I’m concerned. I can’t think of one time I’ve made something with shrimp and said, “You know, this just doesn’t do it for me.” Shrimp always does it for me.
Then there’s baked pasta: Noodles that soak up cooking liquids instead of boiling water. Instead, here, the orzo absorbs the flavors of the dish, and takes on an even, internal heat that’s just, somehow, better than steaming in a pot.
I’m big on even temperatures these days. I like to mix my spaghetti up with the sauce in the pot before serving. Keep all the salad ingredients in the fridge for a while so they’re all the same temperature when I eat them. I like a beverage to already be cold before I put ice in it.
It’s not always possible or convenient, so it’s not like I refuse to eat it if the temps are off. I’m not neurotic or anything. At least not about food temperature.
But I digress.
The baked pasta concept is what made Skillet Shrimp and Orzo jump out of Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food this month.

SKILLET SHRIMP AND ORZO
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups halved grape tomatoes, about 1 pound
Coarse salt and ground pepper
3/4 pound orzo
3 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, with rack in top position. In a large broilerproof skillet, heat 5 teaspoons oil over medium. Add garlic and cook until just beginning to brown, 1 minute. Increase heat to high and add tomatoes; season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 6 minutes. Add orzo and broth and bring to a simmer. Cover, transfer to oven and bake until liquid is mostly absorbed, 10 to 12 minutes.
2. Toss shrimp with 1 teaspoon oil and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Remove skillet from oven and place shrimp on top of orzo. Heat broiler. Broil until shrimp are opaque throughout, 4 minutes. Sprinkle with basil and serve.
– Everyday Food

One of my favorite summer (or anytime really) desserts is for Strawberry Pretzel Salad. I stumbled over a good recipe for it today and, while it’s in no way Weight Watcher friendly, I can experience it vicariously through you.
STRAWBERRY PRETZEL SALAD
2 cups pretzels, crushed
1 cup, plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 8-ounce brick cream cheese, softened
1 8-ounce container frozen whipped topping, thawed
2 3-ounce packages strawberry gelatin mix
2 cups boiling water
2 10-ounce packages frozen strawberries
1. In a bowl, combine crushed pretzels, 1 tablespoon sugar and butter; press mixture into an ungreased 13-by-9-inch baking pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool.
2. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, remaining sugar and whipped topping. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until mixed through; spread on top of pretzel layer.
3. In a separate bowl, combine gelatin mix with boiling water; stir in frozen strawberries. Freeze just until mixture starts to set; pour over cream cheese layer. Cover and chill until ready to serve. Serves 10 to 12.
– “Simple Shortcut Recipes,” Gooseberry Patch

Thanks to everyone who wrote in for a copy of “Eating Light, Done Right,” by Tania N. Boughton. I have two copies to give away. The winners are Rosalie Tellers and Darcie Rzomp. I’ll pop them in the mail today.

If you are not Rosalie or Darcie, you can enter this week’s drawing for "Cooking With Quinoa," by Rena Patten. I know I’m blanketing the world in quinoa lately. Blame the media. Meaning, the cookbook publishing industry. It’s good stuff, at least.
If you want to enter the drawing, send an email to jennie.geisler@timesnews.com. Include your NAME, MAILING ADDRESS and the NAME OF THE BOOK you want.

For those who are just here for the food, I like the look of this recipe.
RATATOUILLE WITH QUINOA
1 large eggplant
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium zucchini, diced
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
1 cup hot water
Small handful chopped flatleaf parsley
1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Cut the eggplant into thick slices lengthways and cube. Drizzle and coat with 2 tablespoons olive oil, place on the baking tray and bake in the heated oven for about 20 minutes, turning over once, until browned. Remove from the oven and set aside.
3. Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil in a large saucepan and cook the onion until soft and golden. Add the zucchini and pepper and cook about 5 minutes, until the vegetables start to go golden. Stir in the garlic and tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Add the quinoa to the pan with the water. Stir and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Then add the eggplant and cook for a further 5 minutes. Stir in the parsley and serve.
– “Cooking With Quinoa,” by Rena Patten
▀  Per serving: 341 calories, 16 grams fat, 9.4 grams fiber, 8.1 grams protein, 45 grams carbohydrate, 73 milligrams sodium, 0 cholesterol
Values are approximate.

The whole concept of “superfoods,” is starting to wear on me. Not because the information isn’t useful, or that it’s not great to shine a spotlight on nutrition-rich foods. But this has been going on for quite a while now, at least 10 years in my estimation. Every food and health website, every magazine, every newspaper, every food channel. And the lists are all the same: blueberries, salmon, quinoa, beans, sweet potoatos, walnuts, we all know them by heart at this point.
Not only have these lists ceased to qualify as news, they reveal a fundamental disconnect between the list keepers and the real world.
Have these people seen the price of salmon? Walnuts? Blueberries? I can’t afford to put these on the table even once a week.
Have they heard of overfishing, fish farming, mercury contamination? There’s so much conflicting information out there about eating fish at all, I see no reason to attempt to untangle it. Salmon goes on our grill once or twice a summer. We love it, but it’s a splurge.
While the foodie world might look down on this suggestion, there is an economic option to wild-caught, gluten-free, sustainably fileted, wind-powered-boat-fished, non-pink-slimed black Angus salmon steak.
It comes in a can.
No, it’s not what we see on magazine pages. Few celebrity chefs would stoop to using it in prime time.
But it’s salmon. And it brings with it all the same nutrients as a fillet you might serve on a cedar blank with a Dijon dill sauce.
I’m not suggesting you can always swap one for the other. What I am suggesting is a Salmon Salad, a delightful change of pace from your average tuna salad.