Happy Fourth! I'm making Grilled Shrimp with Firecracker Sauce and good-old fashioned hot dogs with a barbecue-cherry sauce. I love a good dog and generally purchase Hebrew National Beef Franks. For a regular hot dog, they have a far less undecipherable ingredient list than my other options. ( I'm also grilling vegetarian Apple and Sage Field Sausages, which are available at People's Coop and are particularly wonderful with this barbecue-cherry sauce!)

The Hebrew National Hot Dog site has a section entitled "Dogs Across America", which includes descriptions of The Windy City Wonder, New York's Finest Franks, the Big Easy Frank, the Steel City Surprise and the Hotlanta Dog.

They all sound delicious, but I'm going to make my own invention--a Great Lakes Cherry Dog using a Michigan-Made Cherry Barbecue Sauce (Brownwood Farms's Cherry Barbecue Sauce purchased at Hillers), with the addition of fresh chopped pitted cherries. This dog is similar to the "Big Easy" dog ,but includes a fruity Michigan twist.

Yield: 6 dogs
Time: 30 minutes
Cost: apx. $12.00

Ingredients

3 cups cherry barbecue sauce
3 cups pitted, halved sweet cherries
6 hot dogs
1 large red onion, papery skin removed and cut into 1/3-inch slices*
6 hot dog buns

*Skewer slices together with a toothpick so the onion doesn't fall apart while grilling.

Directions

1. Prepare gas or charcoal grill to high heat.
2. Combine barbecue sauce and cherries.
3. Grill onion slices and dogs, about 5-7 minutes, occasionally turning, or until hot dog skin and onion slices are browned. Toast interior of hot dog buns, if desired.
4. Serve hot dogs in buns topped with grilled onions and cherry-barbecue sauce.