The Absurdly Easy Trick for Bringing Hot Dogs to the Beach

While I technically live just a handful of minutes from the beach, sometimes I like to make my life more difficult and pack up the kids and the car and head to the beach an hour away for a day in the sun. This requires a fair amount of prep and leaving the house early to ensure a parking spot. Making sure I’ve packed enough lunch, drinks, snacks, and water to keep everyone satisfied for most of the day is no small feat. (Not to mention the non-food checklist.)

Sandwiches seem like an easy go-to for this, but I actually find making several sandwiches at once fairly annoying. Having the counter space for laying out all the bread and the many packages and bottles of meats and cheeses and condiments, slicing avocados, debating on if tomatoes will make it all too soggy, wondering if anyone care about lettuce. And then wrapping them all up and making sure there is space in the cooler? It’s a lot.

So, I started packing hot dogs in a Thermos.

Hot dogs are the ultimate low-stress, low-prep beach lunch. I just heat them up and transfer them to a large Thermos with hot water — no additional prep or customization needed. They’ll stay nice and hot in their hot water bath until you’re ready to eat. They don’t require a cooler or extra ice. While they do require a single pot, that’s the beginning and end of cleanup. (And, let’s be honest, I’m probably leaving that pot on the stove to deal with when I get home.) And most of all, it’s summer! What summer day isn’t made better by a hot dog?

1. Preheat the Thermos. Fill a large Thermos with boiling water. Screw on the lid and set aside while you warm the hot dogs.
2. Cook the hot dogs. Bring a medium pot of water to boil on the stovetop. Add the hot dogs and cook until heated through. 
3. Refresh the water. Dump the water out of the Thermos. In order to keep the hot dogs as warm as possible for as long as possible, I err on the side of caution and pack them up with the hottest water available — what it just cooked in.
4. Add the hot dogs and seal tightly. Use tongs to add the heated hot dogs to the Thermos. Carefully pour over the hot water until full. (A canning funnel works great for this.) Immediately screw on the lid. 

Toss in a tote with the buns. Ketchup and mustard packets from the bag of takeout condiments you probably have are perfect for this. Nothing needs to take up space in the cooler!

• Be sure to “preheat” the Thermos with hot water. This is a key step anytime you use a Thermos for hot food.
• Plan on serving everyone at once. Once the Thermos is opened, a lot of the heat will be lost. 
• Warm your buns in the sun! I like to put the bag of buns in the sun for a bit before serving lunch. They’ll steam and get nice and soft — a pillowy landing pad for your hot dog.