Pierogies!!

Since we've lived in Louisiana, we've been blessed to spend most holidays with family, whether in Michigan or here.  Thanksgiving was our first holiday alone as a family of four and we'll be flying solo again this Easter.  Don't feel sorry for us, though!  While we miss our family, we'll have a nice quiet holiday at home (after spending Good Friday and Holy Saturday with friends at a couple of crawfish boils... so really, don't feel sorry for us!).

A few weeks ago, I started thinking about our Easter brunch menu.  Yes, even with four people (two of whom don't eat much), I'll cook a full holiday meal... it wouldn't feel right without it.  My family has always had a Polish brunch and Dave's family has more of the American classics.  So I figured I'd make ham, deviled eggs, three bean salad and pierogies... they best of both worlds.  But where to get the pierogies from?!  There's no Polish market in Louisiana (everything is French here, after all!).  There's no Grandma in Louisiana.  So what to do?  Make my own!

I've never made pierogies before, but I grew up sitting at my Grandma Irene's kitchen table watching her assemble dozens of tasty morsels.  She would even let me make the fork marks around the edges of the dough.  So combining family tips with Martha Stewart's recipe, I set to work.  I started around noon today and finished a little after 5... whew!  I made one filling... potato!  And just think if I'd set out to do more!

Step one was to make the cheesy potato filling.  This was nothing more than glorified mashed potatoes, but the fun part was rolling it into balls to fill the dough.

The cheesy potato balls ready to stuff the dough.  I have about a dozen left (ran out of dough).  I'm thinking potato fritters!

Step two was to make the dough.  What a sticky mess!  It's supposed to start out as a very loose dough and I had to knead in another 1 1/2 cups of flour, so it eventually came together, but whoa!  I've made dough before, but not like that, so it was a challenge.  But as Martha Stewart said, it should feel like baby's skin when it's ready and it did, so I figured I was golden. 

Then roll it out and cut out dozens and dozens of circles with a drinking glass!

And they were ready to fill!  The next couple of hours were consumed by stuffing a potato ball into the dough, pinching it closed and boiling the finished dumplings.  But not before adding the little fork marks!!

My perfect little dumplings ready to be boiled and eaten!

Here's how my first batch of potato pierogies looked coming out of the boiling water.  Not bad, huh?

But this is how I like to eat them.  Fried to perfection in a little butter.  What an amazing dinner!

Yes, I saved some for Easter!  There's another 5 dozen in the freezer now!

So how did they taste?  Like I was sitting in my Grandma's kitchen.  Not exactly the same... no one can do it quite like Grandma.  But pretty darn close and it's a taste of home even when we're so far away!  I think Easter brunch will taste just fine at the Smith house this year.