Happy Labor Day, Friends!

Wishing you a restful holiday today. Do you have anything special planned for the day or evening? We'll be having a cook-out with our son and daughter-in-law. Plus, I'll be using my Mother's Day gift for the first time -- a smoker. (I know, all you ladies are so jealous of my Mother's Day gift, ha ha.)

Here's our menu:

hot dogs cooked over the fire ring

buns and all of the fixings

smoked beef short ribs

rosemary and Parmesan mashed potatoes 

kale, apple, and bacon salad in a sweet and tangy dressing

fresh figs and plums

steamed, buttered sweet peas

s'mores

blackberry pie

The hot dogs are all-beef and uncured. The brand is Marketside, bought at Walmart for $4.98. This is a great price for all-beef and uncured hot dogs. The package size is 16 oz ,and there are 8 in the package.  Here's the link to see what they are. For comparison, Nathan's are $5.96 per pound (package size 12 oz), and Hebrew National are $7.69 per pound (package size 10.3 oz). Although the Marketside hot dogs are not kosher. Nathan's are not kosher, either. But Hebrew Nationals are kosher, if that's a consideration for anyone.

The buns were the only thing that I bought especially for today. I picked them up at Fred Meyer on the way to church yesterday, $1.67 for the package of 8 buns.

I am smoking the beef short ribs along with some chicken breasts (to use later in the week). The aroma is a wonderful mix of meaty with the sweet smell of applewood. The short ribs came in my recent box of beef from the rancher, and the chicken breasts I picked up at WinCo in July or August.

I'm using boxed mashed potatoes as our garden potatoes aren't ready to harvest just yet. I use olive oil in place of butter, and soy milk in place of dairy milk, along with the potatoes, chopped fresh rosemary, shaved Parmesan cheese, and garlic powder. I made these earlier this one night, and the three of us who were home really enjoyed them -- savory, cheesy, and herby combined with silky potatoes.

The kale and apples are from our garden. These apples are sweet with a bit of tang. The bacon bits were from the marked down bacon that I bought in July? at Grocery Outlet, $1.99 per package. I chopped both packages, cooked and froze the bits to add to salads and other dishes. So handy to have at the ready. I will blend together some blackberry jam, vinegar, salt, and oil for a sweet and tangy vinaigrette.

The figs are from our trees, and the plums came from a neighbor's tree. Our neighbor very kindly brought a box of plums to us the other afternoon. She lives alone and hates to see the fruit wasted. So she gifts boxes or bags of plums to neighbors when her tree produces a lot.

The peas are just frozen peas that I bought on sale at WinCo. WinCo uses a green price tag on shelves to indicate temporary markdowns. Their sweet peas are so delicate and small. I bought 10 bags that day. While I like Walmart for a lot of their store brand products, their peas are mealy and overly starchy. WinCo's are the best!

The s'mores are just s'mores. I bought the graham crackers on sale at Grocery Outlet earlier in summer, and the marshmallows and chocolate bars at Walmart recently. The Great Value brand chocolate bars (milk and dark) and really pretty good. They're priced at $1.12 for 3.52 oz bars.

One of my daughters baked 2 blackberry pies last night after dinner. She was taking slices of one pie to a friend for while they watch a movie together today, and left an entire pie for us. I think she's also planning on gifting a few slices of pie to neighbors.

That's it for our menu. Enjoy the rest of your day and evening. I'll be back tomorrow afternoon!