Hot Dog Toes

You know what's awesome? People whose way of playing with their food involves artistic presentation. The Gargoyle is not likely to join their ranks, but has great admiration of them.

Therefore the Gargoyle was particularly delighted when the obligatory seasonal internet shares included an item by Ghoul at Heart , whose thing seems to be creating spectacularly spooky spreads.

These were all far too involved to replicate, but one item that caught the eye was a chili featuring toes constructed of tiny hot dogs with onions for toenails, noting in passing that dog digits were a "classic".

Further search provided a few variations.

Sizes varied from entire dogs (perhaps served in regular buns) to cutting the dogs in half to using cocktail weiners.

A few different approaches created fingernails; the full-dog options also added knuckles

• fingernails and knuckles sliced into the hot dog. This seemed simplest, but far too easy to mess up on the carving of the nail bed.

• nails carved perhaps a little less carefully and then"painted" with ketchup or mustard, which would certainly disguise any clumsiness, but seemed a bit messy.

• Nails crafted from any number of materials, from onions as above to sliced almonds

In addition to this, a number of "toes in blankets" applications suggested wrapping the base or the middle in some manner of dough. Most of these took carve or condiment-manicure approach to nail beds.

• tortilla strips wrapped like bandages

• a little taco shape of biscuit dough

• crescent roll dough in several different wrapping styles (like this, or this, or this )

Garnishes ranged from a basic ketchup for the "bloody stump" to making them peek out of chili to setting up entire dioramas involving various non-food crafts.

In addition to this one got any number of helpful hints for preventing one's dogs' toes from getting burned on hot pavements as well as other manners of unwelcome heat that unfortunate canines may suffer from.

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The Gargoyle emphatically does not recommend googling the word combination of toes and cocktails. The result is exactly what it sounds like, and on your own head be it if you are curious enough to look up the details.

The fascination with the fact that you could do that, though, made a platter of toes a fitting tribute for Favorite Alien's birthday.

The last link above (courtesy of Autodesk Instructables) used turnip nails and offered the most specific steps for applying them, so it was the methodology selected.

The Gargoyle happened to have adorable little baby turnips about the size of a radish with a mild, sweet flavor profile.

Tasty toesies

• Hot dogs were cut into thirds for ease of transportation and consumption as finger foods

• Hot dogs thirds were then microwaved

• The turnips were cut into thin slices, and then each slice trimmed into a vaguely nail-like shape

• The hot dogs were totally not grabbed while still too hot to handle, because that would have been unpleasant. Ow.

• To create the nail bed, a shallow slice was made parallel to the dog from one end. Then, a vertical cut was made just short of the end of the slit

• The turnip toenail was tucked into the resulting bed, as secure as the slit would allow it to be

Verdict: a cute and easy party snack for the spooky set. Slightly overcooked wrinkled texture was deemed preferable by the Birthday Being.

Dropping them into cocktails is optional. Very, very optional.