In an area where four inches of snow creates major problems, it’s never good to have a storm that drops more than two feet of the cold white stuff.

That’s what leads to people eating hot dogs in hamburger buns.

On Super Bowl Sunday I was sitting in the living room with one of my roommates where we lamented on our lack of football worthy foods. Being the daring young men we are, we threw caution to the snowy wind and ventured to the grocery store.

A minute into our trip it was clear we probably should have stayed home. But we were on an important mission, and thus summoned our will to keep going.

We arrived at the grocery store to find most of our needs easily attainable. The only aisle with glaring problems was the bread section. Having both picked out some hot dogs, we were in need of some buns. Curiously though, hot dogs buns appeared to be the only bread product that everyone before us absolutely had to have.

And thus we had to go with the next best option, cutting up the hot dogs and putting them on hamburger buns.

We also picked up a tube of cookie dough and some ice cream to create what may be one of the finest culinary concoctions in the history of the universe. Cut the cookie dough roll into two or three pieces, creating a few giant cookies. Give them a minute to rest and dump each one into a bowl. A few scoops of ice cream on top gives you this masterpiece:

It is a delightful bowl of hot/cold pure sugar action sure to be enjoyed by anyone in its presence.

Before the meal was finished cooking, it was the smell that took me to another place.

I didn’t have to taste it. That smell is so distinct it has a permanent place in my memory.

All of a sudden I was taken from my kitchen in Virginia back to the tiny thing in our Maryland apartment that fit the loose definition of a kitchen. I’m still not sure how more than one of us stood in there at the same time.

The trip back to College Park was made possible by the meal that quite literally got me through grad school — hot dogs. Or more specifically, Bar S hot dogs.

The absolute cheapest hot dogs you can buy

I’m not sure I want to know how many of those things I ate during my time at the University of Maryland. I was working two part time jobs and subsisting on a steady diet of peanut butter & jelly, pasta and Bar S.

The hot dogs — at 10 for 99 cents — were such a staple that I didn’t even write them on my grocery lists. I automatically picked up two packs of hot dogs and two packs of buns. I’d say I easily went through at least a pack a week between lunches and dinners (and snacks).

Since I lived there for a year, that would work out to eating more than 500 of them.

I was at Giant last week and actually had hot dogs on my list. Since none of the quality brands were on sale, I thought I’d take get nostalgic with a nice pack of Bar S (which now come in packs of 8 and cost more like $1.50).

It only took about 20 seconds in the microwave for that very distinct smell to come wafting through the kitchen. I’m sure my roommates at Maryland, Jon and Jason, would immediately recognize it as well.

Though they’ll probably live much longer lives having not ingested so many of the “quality” products. I think I will give Bar S some more time before trying them again. Nostalgia needs a break.

It’s National Hot Dog Month, and also July 4th. Is there a more perfect time to eat six hot dogs in one day? I didn’t think so.

For the record, two were boiled for lunch and the other four were grilled for dinner.

I’m also now unemployed, and about to head to the beach for nine days. Life is good.