Hillshire Farms "Go Meat!" Review and Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed--the winners will be announed soon!

The PR company that handled my last review and giveaway contacted me to see it I wanted to do another one, this time for a new Hillshire Farms product, Turkey Lit'l Smokies.

In my review package, I received a package of the Turkey Lit'l Smokies, a bbq apron with the Hillshire Farms "Go Meat!" slogan on it, and a Hillshire Farms 75th Anniversary Cookbook. (I tried to get my husband to model the apron and hold up the cookbook and sausages, but he refused!) The cookbook is 64 pages of recipes and cooking tips, and covers everything from grilling to making kabobs, and has recipes for all kinds of dishes, from soup to pizza to pasta, all made with Hillshire Farms products.

Hillshire Farms is also sponsoring a giveaway in which three lucky readers will receive a prize package with the same items--Turkey Lit'l Smokies, apron, and cookbook.

I cooked these today, and we enjoyed them while watching tv on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Since it was just my husband and me, I asked him earlier how he'd like to try these, and he requested pigs-in-a-blanket and some done "plain"--he is not a big fan of the cocktail wieners in sauce that most of us know and love.

For the pigs-in-blanket, since it was just the two of us, I used one the small cans of crescent rolls, and cut each triangle in 4 pieces.

Wrapped the dough around the sausages...


...and baked at 350 for about 10-15 minutes. (The picture above is how they are supposed to look. I didn't take new pictures of the step-by-step because I knew I had some from when I'd posted this "recipe" before. I did intend to take a new "after" picture, but you will see in a moment what happens when you forget to turn your million-year-old oven down 50 degrees below the temperature you really want it. They were saved in the nick of time, but just barely)


When I was a little girl, I can remember my mother hosting a bridge party where cubes of Velveeta and chunks of pineapple on toothpicks featured heavily in the refreshments. I thought it was so sophisticated to watch these ladies play bridge and eat their bites of food oh-so-delicately from their party picks. Ever since then, anything on a toothpick has always seemed to be the ultimate in Sophisticated Party Food.


So when my husband requested that I do some "plain" (in other words, without the sauce that I usually use), I just knew that sausage-on-a-toothpick would be on our menu.

For the "plain" ones requested by husband, I took the rest of the package and put them on a plate and microwaved them for about 3 minutes, then spread them out on some paper towels to drain while I cut some sharp cheddar and pepper jack cheeses into little cubes, and made a simple party platter. I picked up a pack of party picks at the store to use with these, but you can just as well use pretzel sticks--then you could just eat the evidence of how many of these you've eaten.

We really enjoyed our snack--despite the almost accident with the pigs-in-a-blanket. (They were still delicious, just a tad brown.) My husband thought these were the best little smokies he's ever eaten, he said they weren't as greasy as most cocktail wieners. I would definitely buy these and fix again.

For information on other Hillshire Farm products you can go to http://www.gomeat.com/ , where you can find more recipes, and see how to get a cookbook of your own when you purchase three Hillshire Farms smoked sausage products.

And now to the fun part---remember, there will be three winners, and each will receive a package with the same items--Hillshire Farms Turkey Lit'l Smokies, apron, and cookbook.

To enter, leave your name and email address in my giveaway form--the information will go straight into a spreadsheet that's for my eyes only, and will not be used for any purpose other than this giveaway. The winners will be chosen at random, and notified by email. Once you receive your notification, you'll need to reply with your name and address, which will be passed to a Hillshire Farms representative for the sole purpose of shipping you your prize package.

Would you like to have more than one chance to win?

1. For entry number one, just leave your name, email address, and a comment telling me which recipe you'd like to try, or what you think you might like to make with your prize package goodies.
2. For an additional entry, follow, or subscribe either by email or in a reader; then leave an additional entry telling me so in the comment section. If you already follow or subscribe, just tell me that in the 2nd entry comment.
3. Tweet about or mention this giveaway on your blog for a third entry--just be sure to leave a comment (on the form) telling me so.

This giveaway will be open until next Sunday night, January 24th, at 6:00 pm. If all goes well, you'll be able to get your package in time for Super Bowl snacking!

Are you ready?

Giveaway Now Closed

(Disclosure: I received the articles I listed above for free, but have not received any additional compensation for this review. The opinions stated are those of my own.)

Until next time...

Happy New Year!

Here we come down to the final countdown of the holiday season. We'll have a family gathering tomorrow at my parent's house; then my brother and family will be heading back to Cincinnati on Friday, and my husband and I will start our final prep and frantic activity before leaving on Monday to go back to Georgia.

In the meantime, I'm making some "hoovy doovies" (as we say at my house) for my family tonight, along with some goodies for the family dinner tomorrow.

Tonight we'll be having cocktail wieners in "secret sauce", the best queso dip with chips, and either pastrami sandwiches on sub-buns or beef fajitas, not sure which. I also have some chocolate peanut butter chip cookies I made last night (just the standard recipe from the back of the Reeses' peanut butter chip package, no secret to this one!) and some snow-drop cookies I made this afternoon. We'll probably toast the New Year in with eggless eggnog, if we're still awake.

Tomorrow's menu will include black-eyed peas with rice; Mexican cornbread; coleslaw; and a variety of chips and dips and desserts. For my contribution, I've already made a pot of black-eyed peas--my Mom makes hers with the leftover ham bone from Christmas, I make mine just like I do 10-bean soup, with chicken and ground meat. I have poppy seed cakes in the oven as we speak--one to take to family dinner tomorrow, one made as two loaves to gift to a couple of people. I'll also be making spinach dip and crab spread, (made with a combination of crab and shrimp this time) and will probably take a plate of leftover cookies.


I love the smells going on in my kitchen right now--peas are simmering, cocktail wieners are parboiling, cakes are baking...Ummmm, makes me want to bottle this up and give it away!

Hoping you and yours will have a happy and safe New Year!

Good cooking, and good eating!

The Secret's in the Sauce

With New Years coming up, the last of the parties and family gatherings will be bringing this holiday season to a close. But whether you're hosting a cocktail party of just snoozing in the new year at home, one of everyone's favorite party foods is the ubiquitous cocktail wiener. I know it seems a little, how shall I say this--Un-fancy--but face it, they're always the first to go at any gathering that has them--partly, I think, because of the recognition factor, and partly because they're actually good if done well.

While the simplest way to serve these is just heated up and then put on a plate with toothpicks stuck in them, the most popular way to do these is probably swimming in barbeque sauce.

I've discovered a secret, though, to a sauce that looks and tastes similar to bbq sauce, but tastes better, somehow, without anyone being able to put their finger on the difference. Unless they're in the Secret Southern Society of Cocktail Wiener Servers, of course.

My secret? Don't use barbeque sauce, use chili sauce. No, not chili, chili sauce. It comes in a bottle, right next to the cocktail sauce and the tartar sauce, between the ketchup and the worchestershire. Buy one bottle of chili sauce for every package or cocktail wieners you're planning to serve.

My next secret? Parboil the wieners first, before you put them in the sauce. Just put them in a pan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Simmer for just a minute or two, then drain the water off. This gets out some of the excess fat.

Next, add one bottle of chili sauce and a couple of tablespoons of grape jelly to your pan, and heat on low to medium heat, stirring until the jelly is dissolved. Add the cocktail wieners, bring to a bubble, and simmer on the lowest possible heat.

Another secret? Don't just pour sauce on them, heat, and serve. Let them simmer for a while in the sauce, and let the sauce darken and reduce just a little bit. You don't want syrup, but you do want it to thicken just slightly. If you have one of those little crock-pots, put wieners and sauce and all in it and let them cook on low for awhile. Take the lid off for the last 30 minutes or so to allow some evaporation and the sauce will thicken right up.

Try this one out, without telling anyone that you're using a different sauce. They won't be able to tell what's different, they'll just be able to taste a subtle something that I think sets these apart.

Good cooking, and good eating!