Hot dogs. You say their name and your mind is instantly flooded with thoughts of baseball games and cookouts. Although cooking a more expensive or beautiful pieces of meat on the grill can be fun, it's not always easy on the pocketbooks. Hot dogs can be a quick and thrifty meal and stretching them into a full out gourmet buffet can be a great way to make something meager feel very posh (plus is a great way to clean out leftovers!). Make sure to add your favorite topping to our list...
Stretching A Hot Dog Into A Gourmet Buffet
Making a hot dog buffet can be a great way to rid your fridge of left overs and use up little bits of sauces or dips you might have lying around from other dishes or snacks. There isn't much that can't go on a hot dog, we've even tried mac and cheese on them before and you'd probably judge us if we expressed our true love for that flavor combination.
Here's a few of the things we set out on our picnic tables for our own hot dog buffets, make sure to add your favorites in the comments below!:
• Tomato Slices (cut in half)
• Pickle Wedges
• Relish
• Cucumbers
• Diced Onion
• Caramelized Onion
• Cole Slaw
• Compound Butters (we always have one or two hiding in the freezer somewhere)
• Fresh Herbs
• Crumbled Bacon
• Assorted Cheeses
• Potato Salad (don't knock it until you try it!)
• Baked Beans (it's like beans and weenies on a bun!)
• Thinly sliced Apple
• Sauerkraut
Related: How To Prepare Chicago Style Hot Dogs
(Image: 1959 Better Homes & Gardens Barbecue Book)
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Ingredients - Meat, grilling, inexpensive, buffet, thrifty, outdoors, economical, hot dogRelated Links
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celery salt!
view travers's profile
YUM
Hot dogs are probably the most perfect food. Great idea. This summer, I'm totally hosting a "Sausage Party" with hot dogs as the main course...
view clampers's profile
I sort of like hot dogs as a guilty pleasure, but they're packed with stupid amounts of sodium, not to mention the other bits, like fat and whatever else might fit in there. If I'm gonna have that much fat and salt it better be a chorizo or andouille :)
view Plaid Ninja's profile
kim chee!!!!!!!!
Kim chee hot dogs are the best drunk food ever: greasy, tasty, salty, spicy AND sour!
view FromTheFuture's profile
that's the most disco-tastic 70's food shot I've seen in a long while! love the carmelized onions idea - how about banana peppers and spicy mustards on tofu dogs!
view berkeleydaisy's profile
On the hot dog subject, which ones do people recommend? I used to get the Niman Ranch uncured franks at Trader Joes but they no longer carry them and have switched to their own private label (they are doing this more often I've noticed-a pet peeve but I digress..). What other dogs do posters recommend?
view rosebud's profile
Vegetarians and carnivores alike should try Morningstar's veggie dogs. I'm not a vegetarian, but I'm not fond of the calorie/fat count in a regular hot dog. The veggie dogs have really low calorie counts, but taste EXACTLY like regular hot dogs. So much so that a good vegetarian friend of mine said she bought them, started to eat it, then went to re-check the package because she was sure she had just bitten into a regular hot dog.
view Kelseyjean85's profile