Nom, nom......winter food.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Perogy how I luuuurve thee. Empty calories all rolled into one delicious little package.
We made and served these little babies to the guests at our back yard wedding reception in Australia 12 years ago. The Aussies loved them, these strange, foreign, delicious pockets of potato. I think it made my hubby proud to share a little something from his native land and have it so well received. He also made his famous creamy mushroom perogy sauce, don't ask for the recipe, it goes to the grave with him.
We've not made them since then.....and now I know why. Because they are a lot of work!!!
Totally worth the effort though, just like homemade ravioli and bread baked from scratch. And what a great opportunity to teach the kids the difference between store bought and good down home cookin'.
There's an art to the forming of them, I was certain that after making 100 or so I'd have it all figure out.......NOPE.

They don't look at all bad and they tasted mighty fine but I absolutely must invite my adopted Ukrainian mother over and have her show me all her secrets.

We decided after returning from our last trip to Australia that every weekend would involve a new family recipe, we either make copious amounts of something we know and love or agree to experiment and hopefully create the next recipe to be added to our family cookbook. The weekend before it was lasagna, this weekend was perogies and next weekend is undecided. Any suggestions?

Anywho, back to the Perogies. So we made potato and cottage cheese, potato and bacon, potato with sauerkraut and bratwurst and my all time favourite...potato and roasted pumpkin...we were literally fighting over these ones, forks in hand.

I have a dough recipe to share, this is a new one that was passed on by my mother in law. I hope she doesn't read this, she really is not a random recipe sharer. Usually you have to marry into the family for her recipes so don't go telling Gramma Le!!!

Perogy Dough

6 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp salt

3/4 cup of oil ( I used a canola/olive oil blend)

1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes

Mix all ingredients together.

Add approximately 2 cups of warm water until texture is soft but not real sticky. I used my kitchen aid stand mixer with the hook attachment and then turned the dough onto a floured surface for a quick knead. If it feels too sticky, add a bit of flour.

For best results let sit covered for 1/2 hour. Dough can be frozen or refrigerated.

If refrigerated, take out 1/2 hour before. If frozen, take out the night before.

I found this dough to be very elastic and to be a bit tricky to work with at first. But after a while (100 or so perogies), you get the hang of things.....trust me.

For those of you who know how to make perogies you can stop reading here..the rest of you still wondering what the heck to put in the dough..follow me.

The recipes below came with the dough recipe, I have to tell you that we did not follow any of these recipes, not because they are bad but simply because the hubby wanted to create his own.

These are simply a guideline. Does that sound like a decent disclaimer??? Done!

Fillings:

Dry cottage cheese: Mash the cottage cheese, add salt and pepper, onion flakes, dill  (optional). Or, add mashed potato which helps keep the perogy together.

Cheddar Cheese: Grated cheddar cheese, mashed potato, salt and pepper, minced onion. Bacon is also welcome here!

Sauerkraut: Drain and fry sauerkraut. Add chopped onion, mashed potato, salt and pepper to taste.

Once you've made your perogies you can boil or fry them and sit down like a piggy and eat them all. Or like we did, you can eat SOME and then freeze the rest on baking trays and later; transfer them to ziploc bags.

From frozen, we like to gently boil them first and then fry them in a hot, oily pan with a little salt and pepper.

Soooooooooooooooooo goooood! Tootles.