LOL..I'm salivating just looking at them!
we never fry ours though - just boil with butter and onion. But always with the kielbasa. I have a polish market right near us and dh is always in charge of getting kielbasa for his family.

Those look AMAZING, catmom.

DD#2 loves pierogi, I'll have to attempt making them from scratch someday ~ fess up, how much work are they?

A homemade what? Never heard of them. I think you are making them up.

Well Paulines, if my extremely painful neck is any indication.....lol! I have made other things that involve rolling out dough, including a recipe for homemade chruscik that makes a gajillion of them, and I don't recall ever being in so much pain afterward (and I lift weights!). Either the rolling or other repetetive motions involved did a number on me. The results were totally worth it, though!

kk--you are just being fresh, so no pierogi for you! :-)

I had never heard of pierogies growing up in eastern Kentucky, but when my husband was transferred to Cleveland we found that they were liked sliced bread there. Everyone prized them. Yours look particularly tasty.

Those look yummy!!

Fine, fine, fine. I just googled both of them. (I really thought you were making up chruscik and had to check. Wikipedia had pierogi, but no chruscik.)

So, I guess I believe you. I would believe you more if you sent me some :-o

OMG kk! I really thought you were kidding!

My mom used to make us the frozen ones (Mrs.T's?) when I was a kid, but she'd just boil them and serve them with sour cream, no onions (maybe that's the Jewish way to prepare/serve them?).

DH's grandparents came from Poland and Ukraine. The first Christmas Eve I spent with his family, I think I ate about 8 of his mom's pierogi, I swear!

Chruscik has numerous spellings, BTW (sometimes w/a K). A former co-worker used to make them with her grandmother, and she'd bring some in to share at work. Luckily I got the recipe from her (she wasn't around too long!). I used to make them every Christmas but haven't in a few years. They are one of my downfalls (at least that version of them), and I will literally eat them 'til they're gone! The recipe makes a ton of them, so besides not needing the calories, the smell of fried foods/cooking oil (from them and from the gajillion latkes we'd make) stuck around 'til spring it seemed!

You are welcome to come over here and I would be glad to fry up a few of the pierogi for you, kk!

They look great. It's tough to make the dough thin enough. Every year my Polish MIL makes 3 kinds of pierogi for Christmas Eve dinner: sauerkraut, prune, & potato. I keep hoping she'll try making mushroom filled ones.

I made some for Christmas, 100 of them! I used my Polish aunt's recipe.. very tender dough!

I used to make them by hand, one at a time. But with a pierogi maker, you make 18 at once. It goes much faster.

Tell me more about this wonderous pierogi maker that makes 18 at once......

(I made ~38)

So....Cat_Mom, are they gluten-free? *sigh* I'm sure they're not, but they look great! All the good stuff seems to have gluten :-( ....pizza, pies, cookies, turkey dressing, pierogi's (??)....

They look delish CatMom. You cook them just the way we do. Boil first then fry in butter. There was always extra melted butter to drizzle on top. Yum! My husband used to form them all by hand too. I bought a box of appetizer makers years ago. The process of cutting the dough, filling, and forming the pierogies goes much faster now. They are white plastic hinged gadgets. When laying flat the bottom of the A. maker forms a circle for cutting the dough. Place the cut dough circle on top of the A. maker, put in your filling in the middle of the dough and flip one side over to the other and press. It seals the dough and makes a decorative edge. NancyLouise

oh my - a challenge for me! They look so yummy I might have to try sometime. I'm always trying something in the kitchen much to the dismay of my little guinea pigs! He he.

(So do you hot sauce on them? HA!)

Who ever asked about mushroom - we had cabbage and mushroom on christmas eve (never had that before). Most of us never make them from scratch - they ARE a lot of work. You have to really be dedicated. But it's not much more work than making ravioli by hand - it's essentially the same thing, dough with filling. DH and I will eat frozen ones (bakers dozen taste more homemade) but depending on where you live you can usually get good fresh ones - or maybe only if you're in big polish areas? Just look around.

I have a large round "tart" maker that I got from Pampered Chef years ago. This is how my dh's grandmother taught me to make them - cut the round circle then fold it by hand and use the tart maker to seal it (you only use half the tart maker).

No buehl, I used reg flour, so not gluten-free, but I'll bet there is some way to adapt them using a gluten-free "flour." Is there a gluten-free pasta dough recipe that you already use? Maybe you can modify or combine ingredients? (the pierogi dough has few ingred: 4 cups flour, 4 eggs, beaten, 1 cup sour cream, and 2 tsp salt, that's it).

nancylouise--Oh, I have seen those. I think my MIL's pierogi are much wider/longer and flatter than than the gadget would allow, and when you're making a "mom" recipe, and want it to come out just like hers....... :-)

No plum, it was one of the few things DH did NOT dunk in hot sauce this week! I'm surprised he didn't dunk the kielbasa in it though! I think he even skipped the "hot" horseradish, too. Hmmmmm, wonder if he's feeling ok? lol!

Ha...Buffetgirl! Try finding fresh anything in the DC suburbs! When I moved here I couldn't believe I had to go to the grocery store to buy my meats and baked goods....no butchers or bakeries to speak of around here! And pizza......chains only!!! I grew up in western NY (Buffalo area) and we always had "mom & pop" pizzerias (Pizza Hut et al were for emergencies only and were dreaded!) as well as wonderful bakeries and butchers. We had fairly large Polish, Italian, and German populations in our area...so food was wonderful and I learned to like all kinds of things!

I really miss it...of course now that I'm gluten intolerant I guess it doesn't matter any more for most of them *sigh*

I often forget that being up here in MA that we have so many ethnic neighborhood with shops and restaurants that not everyone has that. (probably like what you had in Buffalo) I am surprised that in DC you don't have more local foods. I feel the same about Italian food as s you do about chain pizza - Olive Garden - BARF...when I could go to a real Italian restaurant run by real Italians and I really also can't think of when I've ever gone to a chain pizza place.

I've never had Pierogi! Sounds delish.

But I really came here to say that I love your plate. The colours are so modern looking. What brand?

Oh, you should feel really proud of yourself! I'm drooling. Thank you so much for the photos. My grandmothers weren't great cooks, but their neighbor ladies would share their pierogies, etc. However, NO ONE would share their recipes. After over 30 years in the Chicago area, I'm out here near San Jose, and there is only one "real" polish sausage maker around here...he is 10 miles away...it is very stormy today...I can only dream...and lick my lips!

-Babka (translation: Polish Grandma)

Mari--the plate is just one of my everyday dishes--Mikasa High Spirit(s). That particular style was around forever and I'd always liked it. We got them about 7 or 8 years ago, and some time within the past few years, Mikasa discontinued them.

One of the reasons why we were glad we ended up with a black granite vs. the Tropical Brown we were considering, is that the black went better with our dishes!

babka--we are very lucky; there is a Polish deli about 10 minutes from us at most. They smoke their own kielbasa (and hams too). Really great stuff!

They look just like the verenikas my grandmothers both made! In yiddish, that's what perogi were called in Poland and the Yukraine. I remeember helping my grandmother cut the circles of dough with a glass. We kids then would devour them in our hands, right out of the pan.

Oh, catmom, you have just brought back some great memories!! When I was a young girl, perhaps once or twice a year my grandma and her niece would come to our house to make pierogies. My mom and I would round out the foursome for this process. I was always given some easy job, like mix the filling, but I never got to work with the dough. They were always so wonderful to eat for supper those evenings.

Fast forward about 15 years, and I am a new bride living across the continent from my family. I want to treat my husband to a special dinner, something he has never tried but I am sure he will love. I attempt to prepare pierogies myself, and the whole effort was a failure. I made them too big, the dough was tearing in the water, I had filling floating...I threw everything out and cried over my disaster. Can't quite remember what we did have for dinner, but I was sooo looking forward to the taste treat I had remembered.

I never tried to make them again. Thanks to your luscious pictures, I will do so soon. After all, my cooking talents have undoubtedly improved in 25 years. Thank you, catmom!!

Anyone care to share their recipes? I can't believe I'm hungry at 5:48 AM!

If you check over in the cooking forum, I posted a thread there as well. If you scroll down, you can find my MIL's recipe, as well as some that others have posted.

*Note; I found the dough to be pretty sticky, so my MIL said to add more flour and knead it more next time, as necessary.

Thank you for all the kind words! It's so nice to see the responses this thread has generated (here and in cooking), and my MIL is just tickled! :-)

Thanks for sharing pictures of your pierogis...I used to make them years ago for DH, who is Polish, and grew up in western Pennsylvania. Maybe I'll try making them again.

I'll check the cooking forum for the recipe. Did you also include the recipe for chrusiki? I tried making them years ago, but just used a recipe found in one of my cookbooks. Would love to have an "authentic" recipe.

Oh great. I can't make it tonight. How about tomorrow morning? Let's say about 10:00ish. I assume those pierogis can be made breakfast style.

I'll bring the beverages. (I make a mean bloody mary mix. But if you have any left over eggnog mix :-o)

And since you invited me with such short notice I am sure I can't find a sitter so the hounds are coming too.

kk

kk--LOL! I'm thinking Wodka or Slivovitz would be more appropriate with the 'rogi! It's 10:15 anyway--where are you? LOL! (not sure if the cats would like your pups--I saw what they did to that body in the morgue drawer...!!!).

ahslander--I'll dig out the chruscik recipe for you, and try to type it in later (maybe DH will do it if I promise that he can have the comlputer for awhile today!).

Of course, now that I'm on such a roll, I'm gonna have to make my MIL's borscht and my grandmother's Jewish-Hungarian style stuffed cabbage one day soon........

Cat mom: I know you are mentioning all these foods just to make the rest of us envious....that we should be cooking these wonderful foods, instead of 'hanging out' at this virtual kitchen.

Borscht and stuffed cabbage happen to be DH's favorites.
If he knew how to find you, I think he would camp out in your kitchen.

Yes, sorry about that cat mom. We will need to reschedule.

(Off to google slivovitz.)

Sorry Ashlander! I think it's just my own guilt at hanging out here so much combined with some forays over to the cooking forum (very dangerous place that is BTW!) inspiring me to get back into cooking again and to really use my new kitchen!

kk--I think it's a plum brandy (and no, I've never had it before, just know it's Polish/Eastern European liquor!).