Piggies in a Blanket

I feel so bad that I have not been cooking much lately. I guess you can say I'm in a bit of a funk. And yes, my friends, the rumors are true: my husband left me and my daughter so these past 19 months have been quite a roller-coaster ride, but in the end me and my baby girl have survived. And now that my daughter is almost 2 years old I'm beginning to notice in her how much she likes helping me in the kitchen and she specially loves baking.

My daughter's daycare has potlucks every 3 months or so to gather all the families and hang out and just have a good time. The theme last week's potluck was "camping food." And since I'm not a big camper I decided to make pigs in a blanket from scratch. Perhaps this is not typical camping food, but I figured since they were "mini" pigs in a blanket the kids would just love to pick them up and eat them. And they sure did! I used turkey lil' smokies for my recipe, but you can use pretty much any type of hot dog and just cut them down to size. I'm thinking next time I may have to try them with some Fenway Franks because those are truly my favorite hot dogs!

Ingredients (makes about 18 - 22 pigs in a blanket)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 18 miniature hot dogs, such as lil' smokies or cut down regular-sized hotdogs

DIRECTIONS

Pre-heat oven to 400ºF.

Grease a large baking sheet.

Sift the dry ingredients (flour through salt) into a mixing bowl. Rub the butter pieces into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly. Stir in cheese until evenly distributed.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the buttermilk. Stir well with a wooden spoon. Let the dough sit for 3 minutes.

Sprinkle the dough with flour and stir once or twice then turn out onto a well floured counter.

With floured hands, pat the dough into a 15 by 7 inch rectangle, trimming the sides if necessary to get a true rectangle.

Using a pizza cutter, slice the rectangle into thirds horizontally then slice each third into thirds vertically, this will give you 9 small rectangles. Slice each rectangle diagonally into two thin triangles.

One at a time, roll up the sausages in the triangles. Place pointy side down on greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 12 to 13 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on the sheet for 3 minutes then tranfer to a wire rack. *Note: mine took 15 - 18 minutes to fully cook through, but that is because I don't have a very good oven. Just an FYI to check for doneness before serving.