Pierogis.

One of the foods my husband introduced me to, back when we first started dating, was the pierogi.  (My mom probably had made them at some point, but I just don't recall.)  My first memory of them was being over at a mutual friend's home, and his dad making them for all of us.  I was so disappointed to only get three!  They were large, and very filling, but so good I just wanted more.  Since then, we've bought the frozen variety at wal-mart, and have been satisfied, but when I came across this recipe for Quick Potato Pierogis, I knew we had to try it.  We varied it slightly, and will change it more in the future, but as for now, here's how it goes together.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks (we used about 2 pounds)
4 to 5 tablespoons unsalted butter + a little extra to melt and drizzle over the dumplings
3 onions, finely chopped (food processors are great for this, or else it takes forever)
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 to 2 packages of gyoza (pot sticker) wrappers (we didn't even use a full package, but it had 60 wrappers in it)
3 to 5 green onions, thinly sliced or 1/4 cup chopped chives or 2 tablespoons chopped parsley or additional fried onions, to serve (we did butter and parsley)

Put a pot of salt water on to boil, and prepare your potatoes while it heats.

When the potatoes are tender, (stick a fork in one, and if it goes in very easily, it's ready), strain the water out and set aside.

Chop your onions while the potatoes are boiling.  You can either mince them by hand, or employ the use of a food processor.

The food processor is completely worth it.

When the onions are all minced, melt the butter in a large saucepan.  Once it is completely melted, add the onions and sauté until they are tender and begin to turn brown.

Don't forget to grab a bit of refreshment for yourself during cooking.  The kitchen gets hot enough without crabby hungry cooks! (You're looking at sweet tea...I can't stand lipton, as a rule, and sugar makes it ok.)

Once the onions are sautéed to your liking, pour them, butter and all, into a mixing bowl with the potatoes.  Mash them all together, and season with salt and pepper.  Hubby and I decided to add a bit of cheese in as well. (The last of what we had in the fridge, a bit of shredded Co-Jack, and a bit of shredded Mozzerella.)

You are now ready to start filling your wrappers.

Give yourself a generous supply of water to help with this process.  Normally at this point you'd take a cookie cutter or something along those lines to cut the wrappers into nice circular shapes.  Unfortunately, my cookie cutters are still lost with the mysterious missing kitchen box, the only box we lost in our move at the beginning of summer.  Suffice it to say, Hubby and I made geometrically-shaped pierogis.

Dip your finger in the water and run it along the outer edge of the wrapper.

Spoon some of your filling onto the center of the wrapper.  Be careful not to put too much!

You'll figure out the perfect amount, but it is best to err on the side of too little filling, as too much keeps the pierogi from sealing completely.

Fold the corners, (or edges, if you cut yours into a circle) together.

Press your finger firmly along the edges, to seal it.  Try to expel any air that you can from the inside as you do this.

Your pierogi is complete!  Rinse, repeat, until all filling is used up.

See? Pretty shapes! 

Once the pierogis are complete, you can either freeze them for later use, refridgerate them for later that day, or you can cook them immediately.  If you're going to freeze them, do so in a single layer, as if you do not, they will form a giant frozen ball of pierogi.  

If you want to cook them, you can either boil them in a single layer in a pot of boiling salt water for 2-3 minutes per batch, or you can sauté them in butter (still single layer batches,) until they begin to brown, then add 1/4-1/2 in. of water in the pan, cover, and cook for 3-4 minutes. When the water evaporates, the pierogis are tender and not mushy, they are done.

When they are cooked, you can garnish with what you will. (See above ingredient list.)  We chose to garnish ours with melted butter and parsley. MMMMM!

Cornish Hens

Last night my Hubby and I had Crockpot Cornish Hens.  The recipe warned to "Be careful removing them from the crockpot, as they tend to fall off the bone."  Delicious sounding, right?  Wrong.  As tender as the meat was, it was also terribly bland.  We could have made do with some salt and pepper, but that was so monumentally disapointing after the wonderful buildup of cooking them for eight hours and our apartment smelling so heavenly.  We had a pummelo with our meal, which was also disappointing, mainly because it was slightly overripe.  Oh well.  Better luck next time!

Pseudo-Bento Lunch, and Step-by-Step Tetrazzini.

For lunch today, I was inspired by a website I recently came across, adventuresinbentomaking.com.  Bentos are packed lunches, and mine was clearly not, but the goal of making a beautiful meal is the same.  This is my first attempt, but it was fun to do, and fairly easy, so expect to see more.

Dinner tonight was chicken tetrazzini.  It was a favorite from my childhood, published in a cookbook from my grandma's hometown the year that I was born.  It's even better when you take the time to cook the chicken, but I generally use a large can of chicken instead.  I know, it's sad to see some of the flavor go, but it's neglible when compared to the time gained, at least for me. Here's how you put it together.

CHICKEN TETRAZZINI

Preheat your oven to 375°, and pull out a 1 1/2 qt. casserole dish.

Ingredients:

4 oz. spaghetti, broken (approx. 1 cup broken up)

1 can cream of celery soup

1/2 c. milk

1 c. diced, cooked chicken (or one large can chicken, drained)

1/4 c. chopped pimientos

1/4 c. green pepper

1 T. minced onion

1 c. shredded cheese

1/4 t. black pepper

Chop all vegetables, and drain the pimientos (and chicken, if needed) before beginning assembly.

I prefer to mix the soup and spaghetti first, with the chopped vegetables.  This way the spaghetti is nicely broken up by the time everything else is mixed in.

Add the milk next.

When you add the chicken and pimientos, be sure that you break up any large pieces of chicken so that it blends well with the rest of the dish.

Finally, add the shredded cheese and pepper, reserving some of the cheese for sprinkling on top.

Mix everything well and place in the oven.  Cook for 30 minutes.If you care to make cleanup easier on yourself, be sure to wipe the casserole dish around the top with a paper towel before cooking.  Enjoy!

Great Aunt Mary's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Alright, I am willing to make these cookies for anyone, but I consider them one of my few family recipes that stays with me.  I love to make them, and they're fairly quick, but they call for a lot of ingredients.  Thankfully, I keep most of them on hand, so it's not difficult to whip them up in a pinch.

Because the recipe is so large, (it calls for a pound of butter, among other things,) I always make a half recipe.  Even then, I have to place my hands over the edges of the bowl when the mixer's on to keep it from overflowing.

I made these for the women's retreat I went to this weekend, and they were a hit.  I brought fifty cookies, and came home with the broken pieces of about five cookies.There were around thirty women at the retreat, so I figure that was pretty good.

Now, I am definitely cookied out.  Maybe some bread next?  

P.S. My hubby is fantastic.  Tonight he made me a salami sandwich, when I was perfectly able to make one myself, because he's sweet and I was being lazy.  MMM...hubby sandwich...

Brunch.

[caption id="attachment_7" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Grilled PB&J"][/caption]

This was my brunch.  Pan-seared creamy peanut butter with strawberry preserves on wheat bread.  Delicious, and super-sticky.