When we were at home in California, my mother worked late into the night — often until 4 a.m. — on nebulous busy-work, obsessively re-editing her personal correspondence, transcribing secretly-recorded phone conversations, or tinkering with the book on capital punishment she’d sold to a publisher, but never finished. She did not arise daily until noonish, so it fell to my typically unemployed actor father to make breakfast for his daughter. He always asked, with unsinkable hope, what I would like.

“Weenie-and-Egg, dad!” I’d yell. Every. Single. Day.

This closeness was precious to me; an entire secret world existed between me and my father in that time before mother emerged and seized control of the day. I would spend the rest of my father’s life yearning for a return of those Weenie-and-Egg moments. Here’s my 60s approach to my childhood delicacy.

Slightly adapted from Rottenkid: A Succulent Story of Survival, Sibylline Press, March 5, 2024.

Weenie n’ Egg

INGREDIENTS

1 hotdog

1 cage-free brown egg

½ to 1 teaspoon tamari sauce

PREPARATION

Place one Hebe-Nat (hotdog) into a medium sauce-pan that’s ¾ full of cold water. Bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, warm a small, pretty bowl in oven at low heat. Place cutting board and folded kitchen towel aside stovetop. When water has been simmering for one minute, carefully use small spoon to lower one large egg into water next to hotdog. Remove pan from heat, cover and let stand undisturbed for 3 minutes. With tongs or fork, retrieve hotdog and slice crosswise about ⅓-inch thick. Quickly transfer slices to warm bowl. Use spoon to transfer egg to a kitchen towel to allow it to shed its exterior water for a few seconds. Crack egg in half with edge of spoon and scoop warm jelly-like egg into bowl over weenie slices. Top with tamari sauce, to taste. Gently stir the contents of the bowl. Serve and immediately return to childhood.