Pigs in a Blanket Wreath -- A Celebration Wrapped Up Tight

The offer came on Tuesday, Memorial Day week. Sarah Olenick sent it by email — a proper contract with a publication date of May 2024, a small advance, and an editorial timeline that would require me to deliver the full manuscript by November. I sat with it for two days before I called anyone.

I called Tom first. He was quiet for a long moment and then said "well, it's about time." I could hear him smiling through the phone. We talked for two hours about what I'd learned from watching him write the mule book — the patience of it, the way he kept returning to the same scenes until they told the truth — and at the end he said, "you're going to be better at this than I am." I told him that wasn't the point. He said he knew, but it was still true.

I called Margaret next. She cried, which surprised me; she doesn't cry easily. She said she'd been waiting for me to do something like this since I was twelve years old and used to fill composition notebooks with what I was pretty sure was going to be the most important writing in history. I don't remember the notebooks but I believe her about the certainty.

Patrick found out when I showed him the contract. He read the whole thing twice, slowly, with the glasses he pretends he doesn't need. When he finished he handed it back to me and said, "sign it." No ceremony, no speech. That was enough.

Memorial Day weekend we did the usual — drove out to the cemetery to put flowers on the graves, came home, grilled burgers on the back porch. Cole and June drove up from Lewistown. June has started pulling herself up on furniture, this determined little effort to get vertical. We watched her work at it for about twenty minutes and nobody said anything because we all understood we were watching something important.

I signed the contract that evening and emailed it back. Then I sat on the porch until the stars came out and thought about the fact that a book called "What the Seasons Do" was going to be published in May, which is a season doing exactly what I would have asked it to do.

After I emailed the signed contract back and settled onto the porch to watch the stars, I kept thinking about how the whole weekend had already felt like a celebration before I’d even made it official — the cemetery, the burgers, Cole and June pulling herself upright against the furniture like she had somewhere important to be. We needed something for the table that matched that mood: festive without being fussy, something you could pull apart with your hands while everybody talked. This Pigs in a Blanket Wreath was exactly that — a little bit of ceremony, a little bit of joy, the kind of thing that disappears fast when the people around you are happy.

Pigs in a Blanket Wreath

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 10–12

Ingredients

• 2 cans (8 oz each) refrigerated crescent roll dough
• 1 package (14 oz) cocktail sausages or little smokies
• 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
• 1 tablespoon everything bagel seasoning or sesame seeds (optional)
• Mustard and ketchup, for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat your oven to 375°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set a small oven-safe ramekin or round cookie cutter in the center to use as a guide for the wreath shape.
2. Prep the dough. Unroll both cans of crescent dough and separate into triangles along the perforations.
3. Wrap the sausages. Starting at the wide end of each triangle, place one cocktail sausage and roll it up snugly toward the narrow tip. Pinch the tip to seal.
4. Arrange the wreath. Place the wrapped sausages in a circle around the ramekin on the prepared baking sheet, tips pointing inward, nestling each one close to the next to form a full wreath ring. Remove the ramekin before baking.
5. Add egg wash. Brush the tops of the rolls lightly with the beaten egg. Sprinkle with everything bagel seasoning or sesame seeds if using.
6. Bake. Bake for 18–22 minutes, until the crescent rolls are deep golden brown and cooked through.
7. Serve. Transfer to a serving platter. Place small bowls of mustard and ketchup in the center of the wreath for dipping. Serve warm.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 280 | Protein: 8g | Fat: 17g | Carbs: 22g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 620mg