A Restaurant Dropout Holiday Special

4th of July (or Midsummer) Edition

Happy (almost) Fourth of July!

While I know not everyone necessarily celebrates the 4th, we’ve reached the time of the year when people are itching for something to celebrate. It’s warm out, the days are long, produce is abundant, and we’re about 4-5 months away from the next major holiday.

One thing about me is I will gladly celebrate a holiday that highlights food. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always looked forward to the 4th of July for two very specific reasons: 1. watching people eat a ridiculous amount of hot dogs (i.e. Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest) and 2. eating hot dogs myself.

While it sounds insane, it was never really about the hot dogs. It was mostly about gathering with people, celebrating the summer season, and enjoying food in the outdoors. BTW, I’m (mostly) kidding about the hot dog eating contest.

Whether you plan on going to the lake, taking a trip to the ocean, or just hanging out in your backyard, I hope you savor the moment in time with the people around you. And more importantly, have fun over good food.

I’ve always found a lot of joy in making cohesive menus for special occasions (holidays, birthdays, etc.) and so I wanted to take that joy of making menus and bring it to Restaurant Dropout. Instead of our run-of-the-mill weekly menu, think of this as a cohesive menu for a holiday feast, and while cohesive, it features variety - there’s a little bit of everything for everyone.

While this is a cohesive menu for what will be a total of 1 day (or 2 to 3 if you love leftovers), I don’t expect you to necessarily make everything from the menu. That said, I didn’t get a total cost of everything - recipe testing was spaced out and I had some side dishes that I eliminated earlier this week, making cost difficult to track.

If I were to guess the total cost of everything on the grocery list, I’d think it was in the $75-$80 price range (keep in mind this is serving 4 people, rather than 2).

Now, if you plan on making everything from the holiday menu, the grocery list will be heavy on produce. We also have more than a week’s worth of cheeses and shelf-stable goods, which generally increases the total cost.

However, if you’ve been here for a while, there is a chance you might have a fraction of a block of cotija still in your refrigerator or possibly balsamic glaze from that one week I urged you to buy it rather than make it from scratch. If you do, now’s your chance to use it!