More pierogi fillings

Well, here are some of the new fillings for the pierogi I found:

• 6 apples



• 1/2 cup sugar



• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Peel and put apples through coarse blade of grinder. Mix with cinnamon and sugar and add to pierogi.

It's Friday

Well, today is Friday. What to make to eat? Pierogi take time to make, so we go with grandma's other recipe for Fridays.
Here it is:

• 1 box of Farfalle (bow tie pasta) (1 lb)
• 1 small onion diced finely
• 1 eight ounce container of cottage cheese (low fat or regular)
• salt and pepper to taste
• margarine

In a large pot cook pasta as per directions on box. Drain. While pasta is cooking, melt about two Tablespoons of margarine or butter in a saute pan. Add and saute onion until transparent. Remove from heat. After pasta is drained, return to pot, add cooked onion and the cottage cheese. Mix together. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with your favorite tuna fish salad, fish fillet, salad. Just enjoy. It's quick and easy and tastes pretty good, too.

In going through mom's stuff, I found a cookbook first printed in 1948. A Polish cookbook - it really is quite interesting. It lists a lot of different fillings for pierogi. Cheese with currants and cinnamon and sugar, cottage cheese with lemon juice, cabbage and mushroom, mushroom, sauerkraut, mushroom and meat, prune, ripe plum, fresh berries, cooked fruit, & apple. If anyone's interested in these other fillings, let me know and I'll print them.

I'll try and find more stories and recipes later. Have fun. Keep warm. We're supposed to get snow flurries again. The robins were out in the yard yesterday, now they need to go get their winter coats on again. Til the next sunrise.

This is a pierogi?

Hi there. Today was quite a change from yesterday. I thought our weather would be warmer, but winter still wants to hang on.
As promised, I'll tell you my pierogi story. In our household, a pierogi was about 3-4 inches wide and 5-6 inches long. As a child, you could barely eat one. We did have a lot of leftovers. My grandmother made them filled with prunes or with cottage cheese. Our pierogi were coated in breadcrumbs and lightly toasted in butter/margarine in the frying pan. Then kept warm in the oven until supper. When I left home and lived in Brunswick, I worked at Parma General. On the menu were pierogi. My co-workers were so excited and I was looking forward to them as I had not had any in a while. I went up to the counter and placed my order---mmmmm pierogi, I thought. I was handed a plastic plate with three small, pale white doughy things covered in slices of onions. I looked at them and said "What the heck is this?" the girls replied "Pierogi!"
As I took my tray to the table, dismayed, I sat down looked at these poor, pale white doughy things and cut one open. "You're gonna love them!" I was told. Well, I ended up giving them away as I did not love them and never bought them again. I did, however, learn to like pierogies like this as well as the way grandma made them, but that first time--it was memorable.
Here's a great recipe for pierogi dough--easy to work with:
Makes approximately 40 pierogi

• 4 cups flour
• 5 Tablespoons sour cream or half n half
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tablespoons of oil

Mix all ingredients in order given in bowl or food processor till moistened. Remove from bowl and place in plastic wrap or bag and place in refrigerator for 10 mins. Take out and bring to room temperature. Cut into 4 pieces. Roll each piece on floured surface and cut with large biscuit cutter. Place filling in center and fold in half pinch edges togeter and place on cookie sheet covered with floured towel in single layer (You can slide this in the freezer now and freeze them for later) or set aside. Boil water in large pot with salt. Place pierogi in. Let pierogi float up to top of water and start timing for 5 mins. Take out and place on cookie rack. Now you can roll in plain breadcrumbs and coat them on both sides and replace on cookie rack until all are coated and then melt butter in heavy skillet and add pierogi and lightly brown on both sides OR you can cook them however you're used to cooking them.

Filling:

• 1 container of dry cottage cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 small finely diced onion
• margarine
• l egg

Saute onion in butter, cool. Mix together cottage cheese, salt, pepper, egg, onion. Set aside. Fill pierogi.

You can use whatever filling you want--they have prune filling (in the baking section) or use mashed potatoes and cheese or mashed potatoes with onions and cheese, or whatever you desire.

Hope you enjoy this recipe. I know you won't have bad luck like I did with my first pierogi dough because this one is great. Have fun! Happy Pierogi Eating! See what I cook up next.

A new way

Well, today I learned about blogging. It is a new experience and as of late I am really trying to absorb more about computers.
This blog is going to be about a lot of things. Some are life experiences, some are learning experinces, and some are fun experiences.
Please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions as they are appreciated.
When I was growing up, my mother's mother lived with us. Both my mom and dad worked and grandma was always there. She made sure we went to school and got home safely. And boy could she cook. Her mother (my great grandmother who was 95 when she died & I did know her) was from Polish decent. We did have some very unusual food to eat. In this blog, I'll share some of the recipes that I remember. I do hope you will enjoy them. Next time I'll share the experience of my first pierogi at Parma Hospital cafeteria and give you my recipe for our pierogi.
Til the next sunrise.

My first post on this blog

Wow, I have a blog set up and can actually go to a site. How about that--I'm finally getting to be a little more computer savvy. Who would've thought it? Not me for sure.