Homemade Piggies in a Blanket

I love the convenience of crescent roll dough, especially when I am making Piggies in a Blanket. I remember eating them as a kid but biscuit dough was used instead of crescent roll dough. There is just something about piggies in a blanket that I like. I think it is because it is the one quick meal I can throw together in a flash.

I saw this recipe for Homemade Pigs in a Blanket over at Real Mom Kitchen. At first glance I thought it was a Sausage Kolache, oh how I love those, but no it wasn't It was "Piggies in a Blanket" gone grown up!!!! I think Laura's version makes a old time favorite adult style. Now don't get me wrong I love the quick crescent roll version, but these are way better. They DO take a bit more time to prepare since it is homemade roll dough, so you will need a little patience in that department.

It's mostly rising time for the dough, but in the end you will be so glad you tried this recipe. I thought they turned out awesome! Carson even loved them and that's saying a lot. I put cheese in half of them and left the other half plain since I have some picky eaters. Boy I wont do that again, everyone was so disappointed that not all of them had the cheesy filling inside. Oh well I know next time to add cheese in all of them. You really need to make these.

Start by dissolving the yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in milk and water; let stand for 5 minutes. Add egg, shortening, salt, remaining sugar and enough flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes.

Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. The oven on OFF setting is the perfect place for the dough to rise. I just leave the oven light on perfect!!!!


Doubled in size


Punch dough down



divide into 10 portions.

Cut a 1/4-in.-deep lengthwise slit in each hot dog.


cut cheese slices into five strips; place one strip in a slit of each hot dog.

Roll each into a 5-in. x 2-1/2-in. rectangle

and wrap around prepared hot dogs;

pinch seam and ends to seal, then rolled these on my counter with the hot dog in the dough to even out the dough.

Place seam side down on greased baking sheets;


let rise for 30 minutes


Bake at 350° for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.

Pigs in a Blanket

1 - package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1/3 - cup plus 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, divided
2/3 - cup warm milk (110° to 115°)
1/3 - cup warm water (110° to 115°)
1 - egg, beaten
2 - tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons shortening, melted
1 - teaspoon salt
3 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
10 - hot dogs (I would recommend using jumbo dogs)
2 - slices process American cheese (or more if you'd like)

In a bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in milk and water; let stand for 5 minutes. Add egg, shortening, salt, remaining sugar and enough flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes.

Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Cut a 1/4-in.-deep lengthwise slit in each hot dog. Cut cheese slices into five strips; place one strip in a slit of each hot dog.

Punch dough down; divide into 10 portions. Roll each into a 5-in. x 2-1/2-in. rectangle and wrap around prepared hot dogs; pinch seam and ends to seal. (I then rolled these on my counter with the hot dog in the dough to even out the dough) Place seam side down on greased baking sheets; let rise for 30 minutes. Bake at 350° for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Yield: 10 servings

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Tina, The Mom in Mommy's Kitchen

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"Crafty Kitchen" Pipe Cleaner Flowers

I am adding a new feature to Mommy's Kitchen. We will be dedicating a part of this site for Crafts!!!! It will still be all about cooking & recipes, but a few crafts thrown in from time to time, maybe about once a week. The kids have decided to call it, Crafty Kitchen. This all came about from me trying to find some low cost activities to keep the kids busy for the summer. If your kids are like mine they seem to get bored easily and always want something to do. Well, I did a little brain storming and came up with our very own Craft Supply Box.

Our first task was getting supplies for our box. This started out pretty cheap because we started with things around the house. I had the kids get together all their school supplies that they brought home at the end of the year. (rulers, markers, crayons, glue sticks, glue bottles, scissors, water color paints etc) we tried to utilize anything that they had left over from school that was still in pretty good shape. We also found a few oversized T-shrits to use when we do some painting projects. After we got all that together we made a list and headed to the store. It was really fun bringing the kids along and letting them help out and find some useful supplies.

A few of the things we purchased were pipe cleaners, buttons, colored pom poms, pop sicle sticks, tempura paints, acrylic paints, construction paper, shape sponges, paper plates, paint brushes, googly eyes, stickers, lunch sacks and tissue paper. On the tissue paper I did not have to buy much at all just a color or two. We utilized all that tissue paper from leftover gift bags, you know the ones you have put away in the closet they will come in so handy for crafts. I found a plastic tub that wasn't being used so we could store all of our supplies.

Now we just need to keep it stocked and that's it. The point of it all is keeping it low cost and fun. I told the kids that they could have access to the craft box at any time as long as they got permission first. That way I could keep a eye on them and make sure they were not wasting any supplies or using something that required adult supervision (especially the paints). I hope everyone finds Crafty Kitchen a useful additon to Mommy's Kitchen. We will be doing a lot of summer craft activities, so I would love to share them with all of you. A lot of items can be found right outside of your house. All you have to do is use your imagination. Hopefully you will find some ideas to keep your little ones busy this summer.

Here is a picture of our supplies we will add to it slowly.

find a plastic tub for storage.

Then off for a visit to our local library to find some craft books. We also found a lot of fun ideas online. Here are a few links. All Free Crafts.com, DLTK Crafts for Kids, Kaboose Crafts, My Craftbook, Creative Kids at Home. The kids dove right in on a project as soon as we got home from the library.


So for our first craft we made Pipe Cleaner Flowers. I think they turned out so cute. Mackenzie even put a few googly eyes on some of her flowers.


These are the supplies you will need:
Colored Pipe Cleaners, Buttons, Markers and Construction Paper.

have the kids draw and color their flowers and then cut out their flowers with scissors.


place a button of their choice in the middle of the flower.


push the pipe cleaner through the backside of the colored flower and through the front guiding the pipe cleaner to go through on of the button holes.


like this, the pull a little bit of the pipe cleaner through and pass it through another button whole so the pipe cleaner is now on the back side of the flower.



twist to secure behind the flower so it will not be seen. And bend the step back.



Pretty Flowers!!!! You can add glitter or googly eyes if you like. We added our flowers to a vase on the table.

Tina, The Mom in Mommy's Kitchen

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Homemade Soft Pretzels: Brings Back Great Childhood Memories

One of my favorite treats is Soft Pretzels. I remember as a little girl my parents would take us kids to Solvang, California. It was a little Danish Town that we loved to visit. I don't remember to much about it because it was so long ago (back in the early 70's). But I can still picture the windmills in my head and their wonderful soft pretzels. They were simply the best! I couldn't wait to get my hands on one of the soft pretzels with cheese and just walk around with my brothers and sister and eat those pretzels. What a great childhood memory. I guess that is where I learned to love pretzels so much. Well my kids love them to, especially the Auntie Anne's Pretzels. They are my daughters absolute favorite. She loves to get the cinnamon sugar sticks and Carson likes the pretzel dogs. Isn't it funny how things just pass on in families. I wanted to try my hand at recreating one of my favorite treats. So off I went hunting and searching for a good recipe. Well I came across a Copy Cat Recipe for Auntie Anne’s Pretzels. I really wanted to try this recipe to see if they came at all close to the real deal.

I do have to say one thing, this was the most challenging recipe I have ever tried to make. Making the dough was a snap, but trying to roll the dough into a rope was very time consuming. Shaping the pretzels was pretty easy, but picking them back up and getting them into the baking soda bath was really tricky. Then getting them back out in the same shape was another story. Whew it wore me out and was a lot more difficult than I initially thought it would be. I ended up doing some in the shapes of sticks because I kept messing up trying to keep the pretzel shape. In the end the pretzels tasted really good, we brushed some melted butter on the pretzels and sprinkled coarse salt on some and a cinnamon sugar mixture on the others. In the end my daughter Mackenzie said the pretzels were really really good. I thought they tasted just like a soft pretzel, but not exact to Auntie Anne's. So I guess I am still on my quest of finding a Auntie Anne's clone recipe. Next time I will be making mini pretzels or just pretzel sticks I think it will be so much easier. Do you have a favorite treat that brings back a great childhood memory? I would love to hear all about it.

use your hands to form dough into a ball. Knead the dough for 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface. (Dough will be nice and smooth when ready). Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover it, store in a warm place for about 45 minutes or until dough rises to double in size.

Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into 8 even portions. Roll each portion on a flat non-floured surface until it is about 3 ft long

Pick up both ends of the dough and give it a little spin so the middle of the dough spins around once. Lay the dough down with the loop nearest to you. Fold the ends down toward you and pinch to attach them to the bottom of the loop. The twist should be in the middle. See diagram below.
This is the diagram I used to shape the pretzels. (Very Helpful)



Holding the pinched ends, dip each pretzel into the bath solution. Put each pretzel on a paper towel for a moment to blot the excess liquid. Arrange the pretzels on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. If you want salt, sprinkle pretzels with kosher salt or pretzel salt. DON'T salt any pretzels you plan to coat with cinnamon sugar. You will likely have to use two baking sheets and bake them separately. Bake the pretzels for 4 minutes and then spin the pan around and bake for another 4-5 minutes or until the pretzels are golden brown.



Remove the pretzels from the oven and let them cool for a couple of minutes. If you want to eat some now, brush them with melted butter first before serving.

Very pretty and very yummy. The pretzels are best if eaten the same day.

Homemade Soft Pretzels


Dough
1 1/4 cup warm water
1 TB plus 1/4 teaspoon yeast
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 2TB powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Bath:
2 cups water
1/4 cup baking soda

Toppings:
1/4 cup butter, melted
Salted: Kosher or pretzel salt
Cinnamon Topping: 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water in bread machine loaf pan. Let sit for a few minutes. Combine flour, powdered sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add to water with yeast. Add vegetable oil. Set bread machine to dough setting and do something else. 20 minutes before dough cycle is complete, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Make a bath for the pretzels by combining the baking soda with the warm water and stir until baking soda is mostly dissolved. Remove the dough from bread pan and let set 15 minutes. Divide it into 8 even portions. Roll each portion on a flat non-floured surface until it is about 3 ft long. Pick up both ends of the dough and give it a little spin so the middle of the dough spins around once. Lay the dough down with the loop nearest to you. Fold the ends down toward you and pinch to attach them to the bottom of the loop. The twist should be in the middle. Holding the pinched ends, dip each pretzel into the bath solution. Put each pretzel on a paper towel for a moment to blot the excess liquid. Arrange the pretzels on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. If you want salt, sprinkle pretzels with kosher salt or pretzel salt. DON'T salt any pretzels you plan to coat with cinnamon sugar. You will likely have to use two baking sheets and bake them separately. Bake the pretzels for 3 minutes and then spin the pan around and bake for another 3-4 minutes or until the pretzels are golden brown. Remove the pretzels from the oven and let them cool for a couple of minutes. If you want to eat some now, brush them with melted butter first before serving.

If you want the cinnamon sugar coating, make it by combining the 1/2 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon in a small bowl. Brush the unsalted pretzels with melted butter. Sprinkle a heavy coating of the cinnamon sugar on the pretzels over a large plate.
Makes 8 pretzels. Pretzels taste best if eaten the same day.


Non Bread Machine Version:
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, let sit for a few minutes. Combine flour, powdered sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add to water with yeast then add vegetable oil. Mix the ingriedient with a wooden spoon until it is well combined. Using your hands to form dough into a ball. Knead the dough for 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface. (Dough will be nice and smooth when ready). Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover it, store in a warm place for about 45 minutes or until dough rises to double in size. Divide it into 8 even portions. Roll each portion on a flat non-floured surface until it is about 3 ft long. Pick up both ends of the dough and give it a little spin so the middle of the dough spins around once. Lay the dough down with the loop nearest to you. Fold the ends down toward you and pinch to attach them to the bottom of the loop. The twist should be in the middle. Continue with the remaining directions of the recipe for the baking soda bath then bake.


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Baked Spaghetti "My Girl Paula Challenge"

This weeks selection for My Girl Paula, is Baked Spaghetti. I was really excited about this weeks challenge, I love one dish meals and casseroles. Spaghetti just so happens to be my favorite meal so I was really up for this weeks challenge. This dish was really easy to throw together. The only time consuming thing was making the homemade spaghetti sauce. It took a little over a hour to cook after that there is pretty much nothing to it. I really liked the change of using cheddar and Monterrey jack cheese instead of mozzarella cheese.

The verdict................... I cant believe I am going to say this, Y'all know how much I love Paula she is definitely my girl, but this dish was just OK to me. Over all I loved the concept of it being a one dish wonder. All in all it was pretty good and my husband liked more than me. It wasn't bad by all means, I just felt that the sauce was kind of bland and needed something. I just couldn't put my finger on it. I will definitely make this dish again, I would just tweak the sauce a bit or use a different homemade spaghetti sauce recipe other than that it was good.

The kids were kind of picky about it, but they are that way with a lot of new things. I do think this is the perfect type of dish to take to a family reunion or a church potluck it is very convenient. If you have a love for Paula Deen and her recipes and you would like to be a part of the fun. Click here and you can join our group, My Girl Paula and start cooking up all her great recipes.

These are the ingredients you will need:
diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, onion, bell pepper, garlic, Italian seasoning, house seasoning, seasoning salt, sugar, bay leaves, ground beef, thin or angel hair pasta, cheddar and Monterrey jack cheese.

adding all the ingredient to make the homemade spaghetti sauce.

cooing the pasta while the sauce is in it's last 20 minutes off simmering.

Cover the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan with sauce.


Add a layer of pasta and then a little less than 1/2 of each cheese;


repeat the layers, ending with the sauce.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Top the casserole with the remaining cheese, return it to the oven, and continue to cook until the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 5 more minutes.

Cut into squares before serving.

Paula Deens Baked Spaghetti

2 cups canned diced tomatoes
2 cups tomato sauce
1 cup water
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons House Seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons seasoning salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 small bay leaves
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
8 ounces uncooked angel hair pasta
1 cup grated cheddar
1 cup grated Monterrey Jack

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

In a stockpot, combine the tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, onions, peppers, garlic, parsley, seasoning mixtures, sugar, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil over high heat, and then reduce the heat and let simmer, covered, for 1 hour. Crumble the ground beef in a large skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until fully cooked, with no pink color remaining. Drain the fat from the meat, and then add the ground beef to the stockpot. Simmer for 20 more minutes. Cook the pasta according to the package directions.

Cover the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan with sauce. Add a layer of pasta and then a little less than 1/2 of each cheese; repeat the layers, ending with the sauce. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Top the casserole with the remaining cheese, return it to the oven, and continue to cook until the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 5 more minutes. Cut into squares before serving.


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Fathers Day Ideas and a Giveaway Winner!

I thought I would pop on the computer to do a quick note. I wanted to post a few Meal Ideas for Fathers Day. Instead of going out for dinner why not just stay home and treat dad to a good home cooked meal. Dont forget a dessert or two to top it off. At our house we will be grilling out and making homemade ice cream that's always a hit. Below I have posted some recipes to keep in mind for dad. Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there! Moms, lets treat them to something yummy on their special day.


Breakfast in Bed for Dad
Grandma Mack’s Breakfast Delight
Sausage Cream Cheese Crescents
Biscuits & Bacon Gravy
IHops French Toast
Kick Butt Gorilla Bread

Dinner Ideas:
Fall Off the Bone Ribs
Beer in the Rear Chicken
Honey Lime Grilled Chicken

Salads, Sides & Breads:
Potato Salad
Grilled Corn on the Cob
Grilled Vegetable Medley
Cheddar Biscuits
Old Fashioned Beer Bread

Dessert Ideas:
German Chocolate Cheesecake
Strawberry Soda Pop Cake
So papilla Cheesecake
The Neelys Strawberry Shortcut Cake
Homemade Buttermilk Peach Ice Cream
Tres Leche Cake
Chocolate Éclair’ Cake

Also, I am sorry that I am a day late on posting the winner for The Hamilton Beach Blender Giveaway. My mother in law and sister are coming to visit for the weekend, so I have been busy trying to throw together some meal ideas for the next couple days. I am so excited we always have so much fun together. I wont delay this anymore by babbling so.......
The winner of the Single Serve Blender is...........

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Comment Number 9
Jennifer H.
How stinkin cool is that!? I love a good berry smoothie myself. Frozen berry mix, yogurt, honey and ice. Yum!

Timestamp: 2009-06-19 20:33:04 UTC

I will be contacting the winner very soon to get your mailing address. Thank you to everyone who entered the Hamiliton Beach Giveaway. It was a lot of fun reading all the recipe ideas you posted. I found a lot of new ones.

The Mom in Mommy's Kitchen

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