Need to make hot dogs for a crowd? Use the crock pot!

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Super simple.  Yummy.  Feeds a crowd.

You are going to want to hold on to this one.

We hosted our second and final graduation party last weekend. (One week after we geniusly decided to hold a yard sale…not the best decision!)

My eldest son had requested jambalaya for his grad party.  It was delish, but when my currently graduating son requested hot dogs and chips for his party, I was not disappointed at the ease of this menu.

Easy Party Menu

My son once said that Cheetohs were his favorite food.  He would be thrilled to survive on chicken nuggets, frozen pizzas, chips and cereal. (No, by the way, he does not survive on that menu).  This kid has a metabolism that allows him to eat whatever he wants, and he works a physically demanding job, so we don’t worry too much about his food choices… but he does eat healthy meals as well as the chips in case you were worried.  😉

Anyway, this menu choice made momma happy.  We decided to do hot dogs and a chip bar, putting out a number of different varieties.  And to balance things out a bit, we also did watermelon and veggie trays.

Grandpa does the watermelon year for all the grandkids when they graduate.  Pretty cool!

His dessert of choice was cookies (and mom was even allowed one ‘smart cookie’ pun) and we had soda and water for beverages.  It was a fun day of family, friends, games and visiting.

And eating of course.  I still have cookies on my counter, and in the freezer.  And I think we’ll have enough chips to last us a few months.  (I tend to overbuy when shopping for parties).

People First Hospitality

Speaking of entertaining, can I give you one piece of advice before I share this recipe/method with you?

Here it is:  invite people over.  Your house may not look perfect..invite them over anyway.  A generally clean but imperfect, messy, unfinished house is not a reason to avoid entertaining.

We had intended on repairing and repainting our deck for the graduation party (and by we I mean my husband).   Between the yard sale, rain, and other mishaps my husband came to me on Thursday and told me it would not be done for the party.  Zero stress.  I can honestly say, I felt absolutely zero stress about this.

We did decide that we wouldn’t ignore the in-progress project, so I made some signs to put up.

I had a friend offer me a lovely compliment when she saw the signs.

“Your example of being comfortable inviting us over to your home even when it was kind of messy or in flux modeled to me the importance of putting people first, and now I do that too.”

My heart is happy just thinking of that.  Putting people first, that is what it’s all about.

I got to share with her that it was a friend of mine who modeled that principle to me by inviting me over when her living room was literally covered in laundry.  Covered.  As we sat among the clothes and visited while she folded and stacked, she told me that she trusted me with her mess.

And you know, I would much rather have a visit like than than one in a perfectly clean house that I will never attain and go home feeling guilty about my inadequacies.  Anyone else?

How to make hot dogs in the crock pot

OK, the hot dogs.  Friends, it’s not much of a recipe.

Put the hot dogs in the crock pot.  Fill that baby up.

Turn it on low to heat the dogs for about 4 hours.  (I read that you could heat on high for about 2 hours, but I did not try that).

Be sure to turn the crock pot down to warm after the hot dogs are heated through if you’re going to have them out for awhile.

Do not add anything.  No water, no nothing.  Just the hot dogs and turn it on.

They were delicious!  Steamed and juicy.

A couple of things to note:

I moved the hot dogs around with tongs at about the 3 hour mark, the ones on the edges could get a little dark in spots.  (Not that that’s a horrible thing)

Also, some of the hot dogs got discolored spots from where other hot dogs had been laying on them, like they heated slightly differently.  I’m telling you that just so you don’t freak out if that happens to you.  They all tasted the same.

We served ours with classic fixin’s … ketchup, mustard, onions and relish.  I thought a chili-dog bar would be fun, but my picky eating son does not do chili, so we skipped it for this party.

I know our relish looks different than you might be used to.  It’s my grandma’s recipe for a sweet pickle relish that I grew up on.  I’ll have to share it with you later this summer.  It’s kind of awesomely delicious.

Have you made hot dogs in the crock pot before?  I will definitely be doing this again when cooking for a crowd.  I was so pleased with the results!

This recipe, like all my recipes, is shared in the Meal Plan Monday link up.  You can find the link in my sidebar – or right here!