Q. “We constantly make burgers and hot dogs. I’m getting bored with just cheese and the typical condiments. How do we spice them up?” —Emma, Hortonville
A. Some ideas to liven things up might be to play the “replicate” game, where you try to replicate a burger you have enjoyed somewhere else, perhaps in a restaurant. It might take some brainstorming to decide what additional ingredients you will need, but it could be fun, participatory and help push the envelope. I love onions on my burgers, and if you do as well you could change things up to include homemade onion rings or onion strings. Homemade relishes can be made with more than just pickles to suit your tastes from sweet to spicy and could include all kinds of different ingredients like peppers and olives. At our hunting camp, we usually have chili for dinner on opening Saturday, followed by the overwhelmingly popular chili dogs with cheese and onions on Sunday night. Recently we were flying through the Chicago airport and our layover had us enjoying a Chicago hot dog for the first time in years, which was a real treat. Homemade giardiniera is easy to make, lasts forever in the refrigerator, and makes an excellent accompaniment for hot dogs.