Besides ice cream, there are few foods that scream “summer” more than hot dogs, right? So on this summer weather weekend, we wanted to share this adorable hot dog bar from one of our favorite food bloggers, Jessica Merchant of How Sweet Eats. Mom to Max, 4 and Emilia, 18 months, she’s also the author of two gorgeous cookbooks, Seriously Delish (2014) and Pretty Dish (2018), and is hard at work on her next book, Everyday Dinners (out in 2021).
Jessica is known for her comfort food with a twist (what she calls “trashed up”), but this time, she’s sticking to the basics. “All the salads with fruit—I love a spring greens salad with berries and goat cheese!—and tons of vegetables on the grill. We get fantastic sweet corn and tomatoes here in PA come July. They are unbeatable! I think almost every dinner I make in mid-late summer consists of those.”
We’ll be making this hot dog bar that’s, fun, easy and guaranteed to please adults and kids. Jessica includes all the classic—like a Chicago Dog and Carmelized Onion and Cheese Dog—as well as unexpected ones. We’ve definitely never had a Hawaiian Dog or Mexican Street Food Dog, but we’re pretty sure they’re going to be fast favorites. Jessica says her kids love making their own creations as much as she did. “I find that when my kids can help or choose their own toppings, they enjoy their food more and are more inclined to try new foods. It sparks creativity!”
For the instructions for this hot dog bar, visit How Sweet Eats.
Originally published on The Local Mom’s Network
Vegan & Gluten-Free Berry Basil Rhubarb Crisp
If you loved the recent basil recipe roundup from Megan Sullivan of The Local Moms Network, here is one more for your list—this time paired with another favorite summer garden/farmer’s market ingredient, rhubarb! Not only is this crisp a delicious...
Vacation Sleep Tips
It’s family vacay season, and while making memories is fun, the sleep disruptions that kids (and as a result, parents) encounter while away are not as enjoyable. We spoke to Craig Canapari, MD, a Yale Medicine pediatric sleep expert and author of It's...
How I Practice Self-Care: New Ideas from The Local Moms Network
We’ve all heard that taking care of yourself as a mom—aka self-care—is important. You can’t pour from an empty cup…you have to put your oxygen mask on first…etc., etc. The thing is, this is so much easier said than done. It’s almost as if when you give...