I tried an experiment not too long ago.  A while back I posted what I call “Weiners Wellington” where you wrap crescent roll dough around hot dogs—what’s been called “Pigs in a Blanket” for a long, long time and a simple dinner that kids have always loved.

But have you priced out crescent rolls (even store brand) lately?  No way!  I’m a Cheap Bastid.  I’m not going to pay that much for refrigerated dough—even if it is flaky.

I like my dogs “encased” in dough.  So what am I going to do?  I thought to myself, “Self, make some biscuit dough, then roll it out thin and use that.”  So that’s what I did.

Biscuit dough is quick, easy and cheap.  In fact, I even tried it 2 different ways—regular biscuit dough and then substituting 1/3 of a cup of regular flour with corn flour and corn meal. 

Hey, it worked!  Not as soft and flaky as crescent rolls but a nice “biscuity” blanket.  Kind of like a dough-condom if you will—or based on the shape that several of them ended up having, what Mrs. CB called “Porn Dogs” with just a little bit of a giggle.

What the hell, it’s an inexpensive dinner.  Give it a try sometime—or shell out the extra  money for the crescent rolls if you don’t want to make a mess with flour and lard and buttermilk and make regular old Weiners Wellington.

Cheap Bastid's Porn Dogs
Ingredients: 
1 batch of “Mamaw’s Homemade Biscuits” (link follows:)
http://www.cheap-bastid-cooks.com/homemade-biscuits/
1 package hot dogs (I use the cheap ones)

Directions:
Get out a mixing bowl, pastry board and rolling pin to make your dough.  Get out a cookie sheet.
Follow the recipe for Mamaw’s Homemade Biscuits or use your favorite recipe.

Pre-heat oven to 400.
Roll your biscuit dough out to a large rectangle that’s about 16 x 12
Cut long strips that are about 1”-1 ¼” wide.

Carefully wrap each hotdog its entire length with a strip of dough.
Put on cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Now, these come out a bit “crunchier” than the crescent roll kind but we actually like the texture.  But, as you can see from the photos, if you’ve got just a bit of a naughty mind, these do end up with a certain anatomical resemblance to some other part of the male human anatomy.

Cheap Bastid is all about cooking as inexpensively as possible and making food that’s pretty doggone tasty.  As I said, this was more of an experiment for me to see how they would come out.  I liked the taste of the corn dog version but it’s actually a bit crunchier than the regular dough.  I might make a bit of an adjustment to the recipe perhaps adding a bit of oil—or even substituting oil for the lard and see if that does it. 

The Cheap Bastid Test:  Well, the hot dogs cost $1 a package (and sometimes even less) because I now buy the “cheapie” chicken/turkey/pork variety rather than beef.  (Beef hotdogs now cost between $4 and $5 a pound!  If I’m going to spend that much on beef, I better be able to cook it medium rare and have a baked potato on the side!)  And, the biscuits cost maybe $.50 to make. If I were doing the same thing with crescent rolls, I would end up spending $4.00 or so rather than $1.50.  Now don’t get me wrong, $3.50 isn’t bad for a dinner for 2 but it’s not as good as $1.50.

That's the Cheap Bastid Way:  Eat Good. Eat Cheap. Be Grateful!