This Labor Day, we’ll be having a cookout around the fire ring. That means we’ll be doing foods that can cook on sticks (or at least some of the foods.) Also, since my son and daughter-in-law do not have a garden, I want to incorporate as much as I can from our garden, but also have it be fun! No one wants to come to a cookout where the only sides are sautéed collard greens, steamed Swiss chard, and a kale salad.
Here’s the menu plan:
- Fire-roasted hot dogs and sausages. I went to Walmart Wednesday morning, and I’m glad I did. They were down to the last few packages of the Marketside all-beef, uncured hot dogs that I mentioned yesterday. I see them sell out of these before most summer holidays. Someone else must have discovered them. While on that aisle I picked up some Marketside pork sausages, too. The Marketside all-beef franks are comparable in taste, texture, and overall quality to Hebrew National. However, the Marketside brand is $6.97/lb while the HN brand is $7.65/lb. And the Marketside are uncured.
- Homemade hot dog buns. I use a refrigerator roll dough for the buns. I make the dough a day or two ahead, then bake up how ever many buns I think we’ll need for the cookout on the day of. Soft, fluffy, sometimes still warm from the oven.
- Now for the sides — an apple and celery salad, both from our garden.
- Fresh garden tomatoes, cucumber, and basil in a vinaigrette.
- Watermelon slices (not from our garden, but already purchased).
- Scratch macaroni and cheese, because who doesn’t love some good home-cooking at a cookout?
- Blackberry pie, using our blackberries.
- S’mores — I buy the Great Value dark chocolate and milk chocolate 3.52-oz bars for $1.86 each. The cost is 53 cents per ounce. Compare that to Hershey’s king-size chocolate bars at $1.07/ounce or the Giant size for 55 cents/ounce, which would be more chocolate than we want. By buying the 2 different Great Value bars, we get variety that satisfies everyone at a good price. The Great Value bars are good quality for s’mores, every bit as good as Hershey’s. Each bar breaks up into 5 rows of 3 squares each.
The entire meal was planned with minimal new purchases — the dogs and sausages, and the chocolate bars. While this isn’t strictly made from what was on hand, it’s still a budget-friendly gathering. I spent $16.11 and will use another $9 or $10 worth of foods I have at home, for a grand total of about $26.
To cost compare to average spending for Labor Day BBQs, an average of $7.38 per person will be spent this year by Americans on LD. My family’s total spending (including ingredients I will use from my pantry and fridge) will come to about $4.40 per person. So, yes, I think this is a budget-friendly end-of-summer holiday meal.
What will be on your Labor Day menu plan? Will you get together with others on Monday, or will this be a quiet day for you?
Steamed Swiss chard is one of my favorite veggies, so yes, I would come to a picnic with that on the menu! Your meal sounds tasty. We will be having a quiet weekend. It's been a very active life season for us, so I'm looking forward to some tranquillity.
ReplyDeleteHave a peaceful weekend, Kris.
DeleteIt all sounds delicious, as usual. We're taking things to my FIL's house to have a cookout with him. He is on a very restricted salt diet, so we have to be a bit more creative with what we cook. We're going to have hamburgers and because we can control the seasoning in them. Hot dogs are too salty for this occasion. We're still figuring out the sides, but my husband's family is very meat-centric, so the sides are not important to them. In fact, one cookout when we didn't go, no one thought to bring any veggies, but there were several kinds of meat. :)
ReplyDeleteThat’s funny about the cookout you didn’t attend and all of the meat, Live and Learn! We each have our preferences. We have a mix in our group — some rather meat-centric, some want lots of salads, some focused on the desserts, and some who like a balance of all. Enjoy the cookout at your FIL’s!
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