Super Tuber Review

Senator Larry Craig has endured a lot of ribbing for, among other things, coming up with a recipe involving sticking a weiner into a potato. We here at Nuclear Toast Laboratories like to look past the controversy and examine ideas on their own merits. Especially where food is involved. So I deliberately set out to recreate the Craigs' infamous recipe.

I prepared the meal several times, both in the microwave and conventional oven. Here is a pictorial progression of the most successful experiment.

First, cut both ends off the potato and use a corer to remove a hotdog-sized plug from the center.


Select your weiner. I used only the finest vegetarian soy dogs, but you can use whatever strikes your fancy.


Insert your weiner in the hole. Heh heh.


Insertion complete! (Sometimes you might have to carve out the hole a bit here and there.) Use toothpicks to re-attach the ends to the potato.


Put the potatoes on a cookie sheet and spray with Pam. (I was too lazy to coat them with shortening or butter; I figured this was an acceptable compromise. I was right.) The oven is set to 375.


This is the boring part.


While they're cooking, prepare an acceptable topping. Mine was Safeway brand "Santa Fe Recipe" beans with some Tabasco Chipotle sauce.


When the super tubers are done, slice 'em up.


Spoon/pour your topping over the potatoes and serve. Nummy!


Things I learned:

• I first tried dipping slices or pieces in mustard like the recipe says. The potatoes are too dry to eat with just a little mustard. Or even a lot. That's when I switched to beans. They have tasty juice and add some nutrition to the mix.


• Cutting off the ends of the potato and re-attaching them with toothpicks worked better than just making a hole. The potatoes were moister that way, and then you get rid of the usually icky ends.


• Microwaving is definitely faster. There was no discernable difference between the two methods, although the conventional oven might be easier for larger batches.

Would I do it again? Probably not. I like hotdogs and all, but it's not really worth the effort to cook them inside the potato when you can just add them to the beans for the same final effect. But it might be worthwhile stuffing a hollowed potato with other suitable fillers!