When my daughter crawled into bed with me this Sunday morning, the television was on the cooking channel and she asked that it remain there (yes, she loves to watch cooking shows and then requests we attempt to build what we saw on television).

This morning, the second show we watched was
. It sounded familiar, but I had never seen it so I was anxious to watch.

On this episode, she made
and of course, Buggy wanted that for dinner so here is our take (and tips):

Ingredients:

• Sausage links (we bought Farmer John sausage links, but I do not recommend this brand as they are too greasy)
• 3 cups pancake mix (we use Bisquick)
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• Sprinkle of cinnamon
• 1 whole egg, slightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups water
• Canola oil (for frying)
• Pancake syrup (for dipping)
• Chopsticks or skewers (we tried cake pop sticks, but they were too thick in diameter so we used non sharp metal fondue skewers)

Directions:

1. Cook the breakfast sausage in a frying pan (or as the Pioneer Woman suggests – a cast-iron skillet), turning occasionally until done.

*If your sausage is greasy, I recommend laying the sausage out on paper towels to remove the excess grease. Our sausage was too greasy and made the entire meal greasy.

2. In a large bowl, combine the pancake mix, cornmeal and cinnamon. Stir to combine.

3. Add the eggs, vanilla and 1 cup water. Continue to add more water little by little until the batter is slightly think, but not over “gloopy” (the Pioneer Woman’s term, not mine!). You may need more than the recommended 3 cups.

4. In a large pot or high side frying pan, heat some canola oil over medium-high heat to about 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You can check to see if the oil is hot enough by dropping in a bit of batter. The batter should immediately start to sizzle, but should not immediately brown/burn.

5. While the oil is heating, insert chopsticks or skewers into the cooked breakfast sausage about two-thirds of the way through (ie: hold the sausage link vertical and insert the chopstick/skewer through the bottom).

6. Dip the sausages (on the chopsticks/skewers) into the pancake batter, covering the entire sausage link and allowing the excess to drip off for a couple of seconds.

7. Carefully place the batter covered sausage and chopstick/skewer into the heated oil for 2-3 minutes. Make sure it does not hit the bottom of the pan and stick! Use tongs or a spoon to continuously flip the batter covered sausage to ensure even cooking. (The Pioneer Woman dropped the stick and all into the oil. Our pan was not deep enough and our skewers were longer so we did not need to insert the entire thing. Please be sure to use tongs to remove them from the oil to prevent burns!)

*Again, I recommend laying them out on paper towels when you remove them from the oil.

8. Serve with warm pancake syrup.

We served ours with tator tots. Buggy loved it! Buddy (he is entirely too picky for my liking) wanted nothing to do with it from the get go. Hubby thought they were good. I enjoyed them, but definitely need to remember the paper towel degreasing next time!

If you try them, let me know how you liked them!