Hot dogs and creamy, mayo-heavy picnic sides like potato and macaroni salad are quintessential warm weather eats because they're both cheap and easy to pull together on short notice.

But no one can blame you if you want to stretch beyond the basics with dishes that are a little bolder — but still within the general framework of what we consider breezy "summer" food.

One easy way to shake things up without breaking the bank or driving yourself crazy in the kitchen is to substitute a hearty bratwurst for that all-beef hot dog and craft your potato salad the German way, with vinegar and bacon instead of mixing the cooked spuds with Hellmann's, chopped pickles and slices of hard-boiled eggs.

I'm of German heritage on both my parents' sides, spent a semester at Kiel University in Schleswig-Holstein during college and made my daughters dance in the Alpen Schuhplattler dance group at Teutonia Mannerchor in Pittsburgh's Deutschtown neighborhood all through middle and high school. So I not only grew up eating many of the foods my great-grandparents would have enjoyed a century ago in Southern Germany — and continued to make once they immigrated to Oil City, Venango County — but also made them many times for my own family.

Two favorite dishes everyone agrees should be included on a "best of" list include a warm, vinegar-based kartoffelsalat infused with bacon, and bratwurst cooked with onions in one of my favorite beverages — beer.

A versatile sausage that can be grilled, boiled or pan-fried, bratwurst is typically made with pork and mildly spiced with marjoram, nutmeg, pepper and other warm spices. Because it's more coarsely ground than your average hot dog, it's got more texture and a meatier bite. Thanks to the seasonings, brats also have a lot more flavor.

The same goes for German potato salad. The vinegar that gets mixed with bacon drippings to create the sauce is tangy instead of sweet and creamy, and seriously, what meat eater doesn't love bacon bits?

Just as great for the cook: The ingredients required to make both dishes are extremely affordable, which make them a perfect fit for this ongoing series featuring budget-friendly meals for a family of four.

At $4.29, the potato salad worked out to just a little over $1 a serving. (Compare that to the $2.99 you'll pay for a small order of fries at McDonald's!) The brats, which are served with sauerkraut and sauteed onions in a bun, were about twice that at $8.88, or $2.20 per sandwich.

I wish I could say the very non-German (but very summery) key lime pie I made to close out the meal was also economical, but it ended up being the most expensive dessert I've made for this series to date thanks to an ingredient list that totaled almost $10. Along with heavy cream, sweetened condensed cream, eggs and butter, it required an entire bag of fresh limes. But when tallied with the two other dishes, it still fell comfortably within my $25 budget for four.

In fact, I came in about 10% under budget for the three-course meal.

As always, I scoured my fridge and pantry while making my shopping list so I didn't add anything I didn't need (vinegar, spices and mustard). And once in the grocery store, I chose generic products over store brands and looked for sales.

The breakdown of cost was adjusted to reflect just what I used from the package or box. For instance, the key lime pie called for only one sleeve of graham crackers and the potato salad used a 1/4 package of bacon.

This week also served as a humbling reminder one should read a recipe at least twice before getting started, especially if you're making several dishes at one time, so you reach for the correct ingredients at the right time.

German Potato Salad

PG tested

German potato salad hangs its hat on a tangy vinaigrette made with vinegar and fat rendered from bacon. It's best served warm.

I used baby Dutch yellow potatoes because they were on super sale (and so cute!) but any waxy potato that holds its shape during cooking works well in this recipe.

1 1/2 pounds baby Dutch yellow potatoes, quartered

1/4 pound bacon

1 small onion, diced

1/4 cup white vinegar

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon white sugar, or more to taste

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Place potatoes in a large pot and add water to cover by at least 1 or 2 inches; bring to a boil. Cook until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork, about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.

While the potatoes are cooking, place bacon in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Fry until browned and crisp, 10-12 minutes, turning as needed. Transfer bacon to a paper towel-lined plate until cool enough to handle, then crumble into bite-sized pieces. Leave bacon grease in the skillet.

Cook onion in the bacon grease over medium heat until browned, 6-8 minutes. Add vinegar, sugar, water, salt, and pepper to the pan and bring to a boil.

Once boiling, add potatoes, and 1/2 of the crumbled bacon. Cook until heated through, 3-4 minutes.

Transfer warm potato salad to a serving dish and sprinkle remaining crumbled bacon over top. Garnish with parsley and serve warm.

Serves 4.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

Easy Beer Brats

PG tested

Bratwurst is a German pork sausage that is often grilled or fried. Here, it's simmered in beer, and then stuffed into a bun with onions and sauerkraut. Pickles and spicy mustard optional.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 bratwurst

2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 12-ounce bottle or can lager beer

6 hoagie rolls or hot dog buns

Coarse grain or spicy mustard, for serving

Warm sauerkraut, for serving

Spicy pickles, optional

In a large cast-iron skillet or nonstick pan with a tight-fitting lid, heat oil over medium-high heat.

Add bratwurst and sear until nicely browned, 2-3 minutes per side. Using tongs, transfer the sausage to a plate; set aside. Add onions and salt to the skillet and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are softened and golden brown, about 5 minutes (do not burn; reduce the heat if necessary).

Place the bratwurst back in the pan on top of the onions, add beer and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to low, cover with the lid, and simmer for 10 minutes (at this point the sausages will be partially cooked through).

Remove the cover, increase the heat to medium, and continue cooking until the bratwurst are cooked through and the beer is reduced by about three quarters, 10-12 minutes more.

Serve bratwurst and onions on rolls with mustard, pickles and sauerkraut, if desired.

Serves 6.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

Key Lime Pie

PG tested

Nothing shouts "summer" more vibrantly than a tangy key lime pie. You can make it in a single pie pan or divvy the crust and filling up into individual dishes. I used a combination of 4-ounce jars and 5-inch ramekins. If you don't want to make the whipped cream from scratch, the canned stuff is OK!

For crust

9 graham crackers, crushed into crumbs

5 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

1/3 cup sugar

For filling

3 teaspoons grated lime zest

3 egg yolks

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

2/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (about 6 limes)

1 cup heavy or whipping cream chilled, for garnish

Lime slices, for garnish

Mix graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar together with a rubber spatula in a medium bowl until well-combined. It will be coarse and sandy.

Press the crust mixture into the bottom of a pie pan dish and slightly up the sides.

Bake crust for 8 minutes; remove and allow to cool slightly.

To prepare filling, whisk the lime zest and egg yolks together in a medium bowl until creamy and well-blended. Whisk in sweetened condensed milk, then lime juice. Pour into crust.

Bake pie until the center is set but still jiggles a little, about 15-17 minutes. Cool to room temperature, then chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

When ready to serve, whip heavy or whipping cream with a mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer outfitted with a whisk until stiff peaks form. Spoon whipped cream into a plastic zip-top bag, and snip off a corner.

Pipe the whipped cream on the edges of the pie, zigzag it evenly across the top or simply serve it alongside the pie in a pretty bowl. You also can cover the pie completely so you get whipped cream with every bite.

If you like, you also can garnish the pie with thin lime slices.

Makes 1 pie.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

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