I REALLY enjoy summer time cooking, so long as it doesn’t involve too much cooking (ha)!

Summer is all about grilling on the BBQ or cooking over camp fires. There’s nothing quite like a fire-roasted hot dog or hamburger, in my book.

Without a doubt, and with NO exaggeration, our favorite new BBQ find of the summer is Maple Leaf Top Dogs.

In our family, we have 2 people who are sensitive to pork products. That’s a real bummer when it comes to hot dogs!  Most hot dogs are made out pork, or mixtures of pork, beef and chicken.  We just can’t eat those hot dogs. So we do a lot of searching for good quality all beef hot dogs. And our search is finally over! We found Maple Leaf Top Dogs!

Maple Leaf Top Dogs hot dogs come in 6 delicious varieties, one of them being 100% Angus Beef Top Dogs! They also have BBQ size, singles, and less salt varieties. What’s even better is that Top Dogs are made from only the best ingredients – for big taste and even bigger smiles.

 Of course, I went right for the all-beef hot dogs!  And we would need THREE packages to be sure to fill everyone up and decide if we really liked them or not!

<— Yes, that picture is only of 2 packages…

The Case of the Missing Top Dogs:  I forgot to get a picture of my 3 packages of Top Dogs right away, and as soon as I walked in the door with the groceries, one package of Top Dogs DISAPPEARED! Apparently they landed on the BBQ grill because that’s what the family had for lunch that day! So the photo-op included only the other 2 packages that were left, and I snapped that photo as quickly as I could before the rest of the Top Dogs disappeared!  There was no way was I getting any photos of the cooked hot dogs – they were eaten nearly as fast as they were prepared! Obviously, the family really liked them!

One package of 10 Top Dogs, plus hot dog buns and all the fixin’s, veggies and macaroni salad make a perfect sized meal for our family of 5.  Top Dogs are just the right size to fill a regular hot dog bun, end to end, unlike some hot dogs that leave too much bun on the ends!

These 100% Angus Beef Top Dogs cooked faster than I was expecting (read: our 2nd package of Top Dogs, the first package I cooked, were quite crispy when they came off the BBQ, totally due to operator error). Normally Sweetie takes care of the BBQ grilling, and apparently there is a good reason for that! But the 3rd package was fantastic, after I realized that these Top Dogs are best when grilled for about 5 minutes (I won’t tell you how long my first package was on the grill for….).

I found the Top Dogs to be full-flavoured but not overly salty, with a good consistent firm texture.  The kiddos raved about them saying that they were VERY good hot dogs, even good enough to eat without condiments.

That’s what really counts, right, the kiddos opinions! And yes, Top Dogs 100% Angus Beef hot dogs are a hit at my house.  The only thing we haven’t done with them yet is eat them with Kraft Dinner (macaroni and cheese)!  My kiddos will love that.  I bet they’ll say what I often hear then say when hot dogs are involved: “Hot Diggity Dog!”

Maple Leaf Top Dogs are available in the meat aisle of major grocers and mass market retailers.  (The story of my ‘major grocer’ experience while buying these hot dogs should be saved for another post – that was an adventure all its own! haha!)  For more information visit www.mapleleaf.com. Check out the Maple Leaf Foods Facebook Page and the Dempsters Facebook Page too!

WIN IT!

Giveaway: TWO (2) lucky It’s OK to be WEIRD! readers will each win $15 in product coupons from Maple Leaf Foods to sample Maple Leaf Top Dogs for themselves. Thanks Maple Leaf Foods!!

To Enter: Mandatory – Leave a comment telling me about your favorite way to eat hot dogs – grilled, boiled, pan-fried, microwaved, macaroni-ed (lol) or whatever (1 entry).

Bonus Entries:

• Follow this blog on Google Friend Connect (see sidebar).
• Follow @OKtobeWEIRD on Twitter and Tweet this giveaway using this Hot Diggity Top Dogs Giveaway Tweet (you can tweet this once a day for extra entries, and leave a link to each tweet in a separate comment.)
• Like It’s OK to be WEIRD on Facebook. {1 entry}
• Follow It’s OK to be WEIRD on Networked Blogs {1 entry}
• Subscribe to It’s OK to be WEIRD! by RSS Feed or email {1 entry}.
• Blog about this giveaway, with a link to this giveaway post, and my blog title linked back to me {for 3 extra entries}
• Stumble, Digg, +1 or comment on any of my non-giveaway posts;

Leave a comment on this post for EACH entry (1 entry per comment).  Be sure to leave your e-mail address so that I can contact you if you win!

Giveaway closes Wednesday, August 31st at 9:00pm MST! Open to Canada.  The winner will be selected by random.org and notified by email, and will have 48 hours to reply back before a new winner is selected. Good Luck!

Note to contest entrants: if you subscribe via EMAIL, in order to be considered for the giveaway, you MUST verify your email when the confirmation message arrives in your mailbox.

A BIG Thank You to Maple Leaf Foods for sending me complimentary product coupons in hopes that I would share my thoughts regarding this product with them and my readers. No other compensation was received, and my opinions are always my own!