Smokey Cuisine

Little Smokies are legend in our family. Well, legend may be the wrong word...how about notorious? Actually, they started out very popular. It all began a really long time ago near Christmas. We were going to decorate the tree one evening, and I thought it would be fun to have a buffet-supper so that we could nosh as we trimmed. I bought a bunch of cool things I'd never normally purchase: ready-made hors d'oeuvres and appetizers and then I made a punch bowl of something yummy. NOT the normal, frugal, made-from-scratch type of meal I usually served. One of the menu items was Little Smokies in barbecue sauce, eaten by jabbing one with a toothpick and plopping in the mouth. Cool! And we had cups for the punch bowl--it was exotic. It was pretty fun, too. So we did it again for most of the years that we had children living at home. Somehow, Little Smokies became a ridiculed item on this menu, yet, it was strangely required. I no longer know if they were actually despised all along, or if people secretly like them, but are too embarrassed to admit it.

Anyway, I found a new way to serve them! It's a recipe from Sunset Magazine, of all places, so that gives it the imprimatur of coolness. But they were also tasty and attractive. Here's photo to show them off:

Here they are "plated" with a little mustard, a little sweet relish and a sprinkle of grated cheese:

I served them with fruit salad (pears, mango, pomegrante seeds, banana) and baked beans. They were really terrific and also good again today with lunch after we re-heated them in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

The recipe has you make creme-puff dough and then squeeze it out onto a parchment paper in two tiny strips, side by side, not quite touching. Next, plop a little piece in the center, so you've formed an "H". Then you nestle the sausage onto the center piece. Bake them about 20 minutes, and serve them with mustard, sweet relish and grated cheese. They were attractive and delicious. Seriously.