Memorial Day Menu and Snacks

For Memorial Day, I like to have a big cookout -it usually goes on all day and covers two meals and a late afternoon snack.

Here is my menu:

Lunch

Grilled Hamburgers

Grilled Hot Dogs

Assorted Chips and Dips (specifics listed later)

Baked Beans

Assorted Soft Drinks

Tea

Bottled Water (plain and flavored)

Cookies (from local bakery)

Brownies

Snack (leftovers from lunch)

Chips/Dips

Cookies

Dinner

Grilled Chicken

Baked Potatoes

All of the leftovers from lunch

To start off, I begin the grilling. I start with the hamburgers. My local grocery store sells the fresh ground beef patties and I use them for convenience. If they are out, they will always take make more. I let the burgers get almost done and then I add the hotdogs to the grill. I add hamburger and hotdog buns, ketchup, mustard, mayo, relish, pickles, sliced onion, sliced tomatoes, lettuce and cheese. In addition, I purchase a few difference kinds of chips: plain potato chips, corn chips, cheese puffs and tortilla chips. To this I add purchased dips: French onion, ranch, salsa, and cheese.

On a good day, the baked beans were started early in the morning. I start with a pound of so of cooked (crumbled) ground beef. Once the beef is cooked and crumbled to my specifications (sometimes I run it through the food processor for a minute or two), I am ready to put everything together. I use 2 of the medium cans of baked beans, the ground beef (cooked and drained), about ½ cup of chopped (very small pieces) onion and about ½ cup of finely chopped green pepper. I mix all of this in my crock pot and then add: ¼ cup of brown sugar, small amounts of ketchup, mustard, and dark corn syrup. Last a put in a dash of hot sauce and mix the beans until everything is together. I then place the lid on the crock pot and turn the thing on high. I let the beans cook from about 7 in the morning until lunch time -1:00 or so.

I purchase several canned drinks (by the 12 pack) and ice them down early in the morning so that they will be nice and cold at lunch. I make sure to have diet versions of most sodas too. I make a large pitcher of tea and add bottled water the ice and we have lunch.

Normally, I purchase all of the desserts already made. I get brownies at my grocery store and cute iced cookies from the local bakery.

We eat and make sure to refrigerate the leftovers.

Usually around 3:30 or 4:00 we break out the chips and dip and the cookies and have a quick snack. During the times we are not eating, we splash in the pool, play volleyball and horseshoes and just generally have fun.

When dinner rolls around, I put some boneless skinless chicken breasts on the grill and pop several potatoes in the over. I put the baked beans (leftover) back in the crock pot and reheat them.

Once it is done, we eat again and then go back to our fun and games.