Refried Beanies

As any 4-year-old can tell you, you’re not going to acquire a set of the highly collectible Teenie Beanie Babies without logging a lot of mileage in the drive-thru lane at McDonald’s, which currently throws in one of the toys with each Happy Meal. But what do grown-up Teenie Beanie Baby collectors do with all the surplus burgers and McNuggets? Many, of course, eat the food on the spot, some say they freeze them for later meals, and a good many throw the food away. But buried at the end of a Wall Street Journal story on “Beaniemania” was a refried recipe of sorts credited to Jody Hibbert of Liberal, Kan. “She cuts [the fries] up into one-inch pieces, sautes them in a skillet with onion and green peppers, and makes a nifty cheesey potatoes dish. Her husband, she says, is ‘nuts over it.’ ”