Pigs in a Blanket

This ain't no fancy thing!

It's what I make the kiddos when they've got friends coming over . . .

Or when we're going to have hot dogs for dinner and there's no chili stored in the freezer . . .

Or when I need to make sure the package of hot dogs is going to stretch for multiple family members . . .

Besides, this is my freezer. I gotta do something with all of them!

Hot dogs freeze well . . . the soft cheap buns my children LOVE don't.

So this keeps me out of the store where I'll quite possibly spend money on sale steak . . .

Lets make buns!

Hot dogs like a soft, sweet rich dough so we're going to start with some warm milk. We're talking body temperature here people! Too hot and your yeast will die.

. . . and a little yeast . . . let it take a dip in it's bath until it dissolves and gets soft!

Now, an egg for richness! Eggs and color, fat, vitamins, and longevity to bread. Who doesn't like longevity?

Now for a little flour so it can start to mix a little . . .

Still pretty soupy! So I'll add a little more flour and the salt . . .

. . . and the sugar . . . Sugar and salt inhibit yeast when they're too close and personal! That's why I always add some of my flour before I add 'em.

. . . it is a hot and steamy day so I'm really having to add a lot of flour!

. . . I let it sit for awhile and after 20 minutes . . . a little more flour was necessary! Egads!

. . . okay, finger test! . . .

It's incredibly soft but it'll do! It's going to sit and rise now. I'm not worried about the egg and milk being at room temperature because the plan is to bake it and kill off anything that might start to grow. I don't let the kiddos eat any of it raw though . . .

ding, ding, ding! It is risen! Now if you're Lutheran you feel the urge to shout IT IS RISEN INDEED!

Divide the dough into pieces for each hot dog. It doesn't have to be perfect! Some people like a little less bread and others like more. It's RUSTIC!!!

To shape 'em plop down a dough . . . patty . . . blob . . . nugget?

Stick the hot dog on the middle . . .

Start to pinch around it . . .

Voila!

Let 'em rise while you preheat the oven for a good 15 minutes.

I demand at least 15 minutes of preheating for baked goods! I know your oven says it's done, but it's NOT! The minute you open that door the hot air just rushes on out. You want to wait until the heat has soaked into the walls.

Now if you're on a timeline you could put the dough around the dogs and throw them in the fridge to wait for an opportune baking time. It's all good!

Bake them till they're brown. About 20 minutes.

When they come out you can throw a small smear of butter on the buns and as they cool the beautiful crust will turn soft and tender just like kiddos like.

Or you can eat them right away and burn your mouth and enjoy a slightly crunchy crust.  These are salty, meaty, and chewy! The mildly sweet bread makes them deliciously substantial. A little mustard and you've hit all the flavor points!

Pigs in a Blanket

3-4 cups flour
1 cup warm milk
1 tsp yeast granules
1 egg
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
8-10 hot dogs

Dissolve yeast in milk. Do not use HOT milk. We're looking for under 100 deg here. Stir in the egg and one cup of the flour until you have a slippery mess. Add another cup of flour, the salt and sugar and mix together thoroughly. Add enough of the remaining flour to achieve a soft somewhat smooth dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Cover and let rest 20 minutes. Knead again and add flour until a clean finger can pat the dough without getting dirty. Allow to rise until doubled, 2-4 hours depending on the weather. Shape dough around hot dogs. Allow to rest while you preheat the oven for 15 minutes. Bake about 20 minutes. Allow to cool.

My Happy Place . . .

So, I've got a few happy places and I relish them. There's the Family Life Center at my church. We play games there, hold banquets, have a contemporary service there, and there's a well lighted kitchen in the corner. What is not to love?

Then of course there's my bed. It's big, it's soft, the cat and the Dear One are there.

My grocery store . . .

I've often thought it would be nice if I could move my bed to one of the little rooms off the FLC and perhaps HyVee could move next door? You know, just for me . . .

But now it's summer time and when I go to the grocery store I have Guitar Boy, Darling Daughter, and Little Buddy with me or at least some combination of them . . .

I do want my house to still be standing when I return! Where would I put the groceries . . .

So now when I go to the store I come home with things like . . .

Exotic and strange fruits that nobody wants to eat . . .

. . . and this thing . . . doesn't it look more like a flotation device than a coconut? I guess coconuts are flotation devices . . .

Oh and this because it has nuts and milk in it so it MUST be good for you . . .

75 days and counting . . .

Please send help . . .

Ugli Chicken . . .

My kids are wanting me to buy all sorts of interesting things at the grocery store lately.

Things like "ugli" fruit. Aptly named isn't it?

It improves slightly upon opening. The aroma is pure sunshine though! Like a tart orange . . . a lemony orange . . .

So I said to myself . . . "Self! Listen up! We are making chicken . . . chicken with citrus . . . and soy . . . and HERBS don't forget the herbs!"

I thought . . . that doesn't really sound like anything I've heard of before . . . Then I heard "Self! That's ridiculous! It will have a small Thai influence! The Thai love salty, sweet, bitter, hot, sour stuff!"

I thought . . . okay . . . why am I always so rude to myself?

I need a doctor . . .

Let's go ahead and get started on a marinade!

I used a whole tablespoon of coriander seed that I crushed up a little with the handle of my citrus reamer. In the end I wished I had just used the ground stuff. Those hulls are a little . . . chewy . . . to eat.

Copious amounts of garlic are always good!

Soy sauce!

Now to juice that ugli fruit . . . it was amazingly easy!

It was so squishable!

Look at the juice that came out of it! I had to switch bowls!

New bowl! No wonder I now run the dishwasher twice a day.

Chop up some green onion! I recommend you do it smaller than this. Then you don't have to rinse off the marinade before you grill the chicken.

Mince up some cilantro! The tinier it is the more the flavor will soak in.

A little basil . . .

Some mint for freshness!

Toss 'em all in! Now I'll tell you. This stuff is tasty just like it is! You could skip that whole marinade thing and just grill some chicken breasts or whatever your normal way and just toss the chicken in this after it was cooked and really please people! In fact I plan to do that with some chicken breasts soon! It's herbaceous, garlicky, salty, sweet, and sour in one big bowl!

Or, be like me, and get yourself a nice pan full of chicken thighs . . .

 . . . and throw your marinade on. Let it sit in it for several hours. Please disregard the chunky greenery. It's much better if you make it smaller if you're using it as a marinade.

Cook it over "indirect" heat. After 45 minutes it'll look like this. The juice and soy make for some good color! But what if you want an orangey crust? Then you'll want a little glaze for the end.

I took some orange marmalade.

Added a little complexity . . .

Then I made it spreadable with some soy sauce.

Mix it together until its sort of syrupy.

Glaze your chicken and cook it another 10 minutes or so. If you didn't have carmelization before . . . you will now!

Oh, it's too pretty to eat!

Maybe not . . . It's salty and sweet. There's a gentle undercurrent of citrus with a pop or orange on the crispy skin. The herbs add a gentle complexity to the interior meat.

The herbs would of been stronger if I had minced them tinier so they could cling to the chicken through the grilling! You might want to save some and toss them on the chicken after it's cooked.

Ugli Chicken

8 chicken thighs

for the marinade/dipping sauce*
1/2 cup ugli fruit juice, from 1 ugli fruit**
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 large cloves garlic
1 tsp ground coriander
3 green onions, chopped finely
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped finely
1/4 cup basil leaves, chopped finely
2 Tbsp mint leaves, chopped finely

for the glaze, mix together
2 Tbsp orange marmalade
1/4 tsp Asian 5-spice powder
1 Tbsp soy sauce

Mix marinade ingredients together and pour over chicken. Marinade covered in refrigerator for 4-6 hours. Grill chicken over indirect heat for 40-45 minutes and then glaze and cook for 10-15 more minutes.

To make glaze, mix marmalade and spice powder together. Thin with soy sauce until you get a syrupy mixture you can spread with a brush.

*if you wish you can skip marinating the chicken and just use the marinade as a sauce for the chicken after it's cooked. This would be ideal for chicken breasts. For safety reasons you can't use the marinade for both!

**if you don't have an ugli fruit mix orange juice and lemon juice together until you have something that pleases your palate.

I Spy With My Little Eye . . .

The kids have been home from school for one day and this is what EVERY surface of my house looks like!

When I opened up my desk this morning I thought, Wow! I am such a mess . . .

Then I observed that the baseball cap isn't mine. The Bionicle arm isn't mine. The popsicle stick isn't . . . oh wait I did eat a popsicle last night . . . never mind.

Seriously though, every surface! One Day! Will I ever cook again?

The mess reminds me of something though . . .

When I was but a wee lass and my family would go to visit my passle of 8 cousins occasionally the adults would find us annoying. Eleven children under the age of 17 and they found us annoying, imagine? If it was dark or raining they'd organize an activity for us called "I Spy . . ."

My Dad would grab some tiny innocuous object, usually a beer cap. Show it to us and then send us all off to the bedroom. He'd have one of the teenagers hide it "in plain sight." Then he'd yell and we'd all come barreling out and start to look for it. Just with our eyes . . . you couldn't touch anything because the tiny object might slip out of sight or become covered. After a few minutes he'd start telling us how we were doing . . . Sam is cold . . . Barb is getting warmer . . . Dennis you are on fire! Open your eyes boy!

It was soooo much fun!

Much better than Nintendo or X-Box.

Evidently somebody else's Dad also played this game with him because we have this iteration of the game played in a books!

You've played with these before! You know it! Admit it! You've spent a few minutes beside a cousin, mother, friend trying to find the man in the glasses and dorky hat! They are cool because of all the little funny things going on. They are great distractions.

These are the newer take on an old game. The photography is beautiful . . .

Yes, my children have checked every hidden object book available at the library. I had to go to some place with clean tables! I needed it!

They even have hidden object games on the internet now! I've seen them advertised on Facebook. I haven't tried any of them but it reminded me of this.

Which brings me back to this picture . . .

Has anyone seen my glasses?