(upbeat music)
- What's up guys?
Happy Fourth of July.
I only have a few days left in this awesome apartment,
so it's only right for me to throw an amazing
Fourth of July dinner party.
I just picked up a ton of groceries all for $30,
so let's do it.
(upbeat music)
So I have some friends coming over in a little bit
to celebrate America's birthday with me,
and what I want to do today is
I want to do a fresh take on a classic Fourth of July barbecue.
So if you don't have hot dogs are your Fourth of July
cookout, I'm not gonna attend.
But if you do have hot dogs at your Fourth of July barbecue,
might I suggest Oscar Mayer hot dogs.
We're gonna do a classic hot dog with some parsley
aioli, pepperoncini peppers, and some pickled shallot.
A little spice, a little bite, they're gonna be delicious,
you're gonna want to eat 100 of them.
Go ahead, Fourth of July, knock yourself out.
Let's get started.
We're gonna start with our pickled shallots, because
we want these guys to hang out and break down
a little bit while we're cooking everything else.
So I have some white vinegar, and I'm gonna add
some white sugar and give that a whisk.
You want to keep whisking it until the sugar is
completely dissolved.
Now we're gonna add our thinly sliced shallot --
kind of mix them around in there a little bit.
So we want to let these hang out for at least 15 minutes,
and that way, the flavor really mellows out.
So we're gonna put them down here for now.
So to balance out those super-briney shallots,
we're going to make this really creamy herby aioli.
We're gonna start with mayo.
Next I'm gonna add some flat-leaf parsley.
Season with a little salt and pepper.
And we're gonna blitz it up.
OK, our aioli looks just about done -- set that aside.
All right friends, it's time to grill these dogs.
Now, If you want to be a grill master, Oscar Mayer hot dogs
are a great way to start.
Because you're really just looking for grill marks
and then they're ready to go.
All right, these look done.
Nothing left to do but build some dogs, let's go.
Got our bun.
We're gonna get in there with a little bit of our
parsley aioli, nice and herby,
a dog, gonna do some pepperoncinis.
Look at that color.
And a little bit of pickled shallot.
Whoo, look at that color.
One dog down.
We're doing something a little bit different,
and aioli's a really nice way to go.
The parsley is nice and fresh, and then you have
the creaminess of the aioli and then also the
brightness of the shallot and then a nice bite
with the pepper.
It's really a well-balanced flavor.
And for such little money we're making eight hot dogs.
So I have four friends coming over;
everybody gets two hot dogs -- that's plenty.
And I had room enough in the budget for this really cool
sweet treat that I'm gonna show you guys later on.
So our dogs are done, now it's time to move on to
our grilled corn, one of the best parts about summertime.
So you can remove the husk completely -- most people do that.
What I like to do is keep it on, tie it back with a little
bit of twine, and that way you have a built-in handle
for you to eat.
So it makes it super-simple to carry around with you,
you know, at a party.
Give him a little haircut.
Pull back the husk and tie it back.
And we're gonna brush them with a little bit of oil
just to encourage the char.
Corn doesn't really get grill marks;
it kind of just darkens, and that's definitely what
we want, that's where all the flavor is.
We're gonna season with a little salt and pepper.
And now they're ready for the fire.
So if you're a beginner griller, don't think you have to
go out and drop a ton of cash on a really expensive
fancy grill.
These little guys are very affordable,
and they totally do the trick.
So start out with this, and I promise you're gonna be happy.
Some people might say, "Grilled corn, plain?
Stop right there, totally delicious."
Me, I say let's go a step further.
We're gonna make a nice little butter
to go along with our corn.
So I have one clove of garlic, I have some chives,
I have butter, salt and pepper.
That's it, that's all you need.
I'm gonna take my microplane, and I'm gonna grate
my garlic into my butter.
I'm gonna add my chives, a little salt,
a little pepper, and then just a fork, mash it up.
Just make sure that when you're making it you start with
room temperature butter, 'cause if you start with
the stuff that's chilled in the fridge,
it's not gonna get soft like this.
It's not gonna be easy to work with, so just start
with room temperature butter and add pretty much
whatever you want.
OK, let's take a peek.
All right, yeah, this is what we want.
Starting to get a little bit of color.
And this requires a little bit of patience --
you want it to hang out for a while, but it's worth it.
OK, so our corn has a beautiful color on it,
and now let's add our butter.
And you want to add your butter right after you take it
off the heat, that way the butter melts even more.
OK, so our corn is all done.
We only have one more step, I have to make my favorite
potato salad.
My friends are gonna be here soon,
so let's get on it.
This potato salad we're making is not your average
typical potato salad that usually is really creamy
with a lot of mayonnaise -- it tends to be pretty heavy.
My potato salad is a nice, bright, herby potato salad
with a vinaigrette.
Bear with me, it's a little bit different,
but it's so delicious and it's also one of those things
that's fantastic fresh, but if you let it sit
in the fridge for a few days, it gets really really good.
I make this over the weekend, and then I'm putting it
in my lunches to go all week long.
So let's get started with our vinaigrette.
We're starting with some shallot,
and you can use lemon juice or vinegar,
that works great.
But because we're on a budget, we're stretching our
ingredients, I have the juice from our pepperoncini jar --
I'm gonna put that in there as our acid.
Next I have some grainy mustard.
We have some sugar, and olive oil.
We're gonna add some salt, we're gonna add some pepper.
Beautiful, set that aside.
I have some halved potatoes right here, and I'm gonna add
a little bit more salt, because potatoes really tend
to suck up flavor, so we want to make sure
that they're properly seasoned.
A lot of times, we don't realized we're not adding
enough salt to our potatoes.
Get a little bit more pepper in there,
just because we can.
We're adding chives, parsley, and dill.
So let's get our dressing, and we're gonna pour it on top.
And we want to mix thoroughly, but gently,
because we don't want to mash up our potatoes.
This is not your typical potato salad,
but it's a totally new take on potato salad;
I think my friends are gonna like it just fine.
And that's it: Our menu is complete.
I just have to go check on our dessert that's in
the freezer that may or may not have alcohol in it.
- Oh wow.
Looks really nice.
All we're missing is Lee.
- Hi, guys. - Hey.
- How you doing? - Good.
Happy Fourth!
- Happy Fourth! I hope you're hungry.
- Wow. - We are, looks good.
- What do we got here, Lee?
- We have some grilled corn with a garlic-chive
compound butter.
We have Oscar Mayer hot dogs, which have a parsley aioli
and pepperoncini peppers and pickled shallots.
And then we have our herby potato salad.
And we have a little surprise treat for dessert,
which you guys will see in a minute.
Dig in.
- All right.
- Don't have to tell me twice.
- Lee, what kind of hot dogs are these?
They're really good.
- These are original, classic Oscar Mayer wieners.
Only the finest for you guys.
- The hot dog was like nothing else I've had in my life.
I'm gonna go for seconds, is that cool?
- Go for seconds, absolutely.
- The combination of flavors was wonderful,
and I kind of want to go back and get a third one.
(chuckles)
- You ever seen that movie with the hot dog?
- Which one?
- It was an Oscar wiener.
- Oh!
A hot dog joke?
- How long did it take you to put this together?
- Not even an hour, really simple.
No, for real.
- I'm not a big cook at home,
but I think that for 30 bucks and an hour,
I could probably get this together for a couple
friends for a barbecue.
I love the decorations, too.
- You know what, all of this cost me $30,
and I even had a bit of budget leftover
for my decorations.
- Nice.
- All of it for $30.
All right guys, for dessert we have some boozy popsicles.
They have strawberries and blueberries
and homemade lemonade with vodka.
Go for it.
- Don't mind if I do.
- Thank you so much, Lee, this was amazing.
- Great. - You're so welcome.
- I can't wait for next year.
- Happy Fourth of July, you guys,
and happy birthday America.
(upbeat music)