3rd of July Cookout

After an aggressive week of celebrating our Nation's birthday, a few of my friends and I decided that it might be nice to spend Saturday night doing something low key and fun. After our friends spent all day at various pools (including the VERY nice above ground pool at my house), I wanted to serve a pretty easy and effortless dinner. Besides, what is more American than hot dogs, chips, and macaroni salad? You don't need to have a grill or even a backyard to invite people over and have a fun summer meal of hot dogs and mac salad, and everyone does enjoy a couple of dogs in the summer months. We went one step further since we were celebrating 4th of July and had an angel food cake with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and whipped cream (red white and blue, get it?) but it is an easy dessert you can serve any time.

When you shop for groceries, grab a pack of hot dogs (I got ball park bun size) and a pack of hot dog buns. Make sure to buy ketchup, mustard, and relish if you don't have them at home. Get a couple bags of potato chips- I like Cape Cod potato chips and the salt and vinegar ones are especially tasty with the dogs. For the macaroni salad, buy a box of elbow macaroni noodles, carrots, celery, a red onion, 2 bottles of Kraft Zesty Italian dressing, and eggs (you will need one if you don't have any at home). If you want to serve an angel food cake then pick up one of those as well as some fresh berries and some whipped cream. Colleen was over so she helped me with everything, including whipping the cream (which we did with a whisk) but Reddi-Whip is far easier to use. DO NOT forget to get a lot of Bud Light. Cans don't go bad and running out of beer is way worse than having some left over.

Total preparation of the entire meal takes less than an hour, and it took us even less time since I had Colleen and Nick helping. And by helping I mean that Colleen actually helped chop vegetables and Nick helped drink the bud lights (just kidding, he was a trooper at the grocery store and then did all of the grilling...my least favorite part). Bottom line, everything is easier, faster, and more fun when you get your friends to help out and mine are always more than happy to do so!

The first thing you should prepare is the macaroni salad, since it takes a few minutes to cook the noodles and then you want to put it in the fridge to cool down before you serve it. After that, wash the berries/fruit, cut it up if it needs to be, and then stick it in a serving dish in the fridge with the whipped cream.


Macaroni Salad:
-While waiting for the pot of water to boil, chop finely 3 carrots, 3 celery stalks, and half of a red onion. Save the other half of the red onion to chop and serve with the dogs.
-Boil a pot of water, put an egg in to hard boil it. It takes 10 min for an egg to hard boil so time it so that the egg goes in about 3-4 minutes before the pasta and then finished hard boiling while the pasta is in there.
-Cook the entire box of noodles according to the directions (usually 7-8 min).
-After draining the noodles, take the egg out and set it aside. Transfer noodles to a big serving or salad bowl, and add one bottle of the Italian dressing. Toss. The warm noodles will absorb the flavors of the dressing and after the salad has been in the fridge for 30-60 min, you will want to add the other bottle and re-toss.
-Chop the hard boiled egg and add that along with the vegetables.

Hot Dogs:
-If you don't have a grill, you can microwave the hot dogs (which I do all the time when I am in the mood for one) and they will be pretty good. However, I like mine a little crispy from the grill so that is ideal.
-Put them on the grill, cook until they are heated through. They are VERY easy to make, obviously. Don't forget to put the buns on the grill at the last minute so those are toasty too.
-Serve with ketchup, mustard, relish, chopped red onion, and a cold Bud Light.

This is definitely a paper plates, plastic forks kind of meal so don't feel like it needs to be elaborate in ANY way. Like I have said before, it is not necessary to always have a fancy or work intensive dinner party in order for it to be fun!


Love and Happy Hostessing!