Sunday is Fun Day. And also Pierogi Day.

So we've been making pierogies for about 6 hours now.
It seems to be a day long event, but the good news is they are very freezable, so we can enjoy them for the next few months. It's also a good lazy Sunday afternoon event for a small group of friends. And since you're making the mess, you might as well make a few dozen. You should have a large clean table or prep space available for the dough rolling and filling process, preferably with seats, since they do take awhile. And don't wear nice clothing, as you'll be flour covered in no time.

We found a recipe for the dough for 2 dozen, so we quadrupled it.
Then we needed more dough so we made it again and doubled it.
So we should have 144 according to the recipe, but I think we used a bigger glass to cut them with than they did, so we probably only have about 100. And some of ours were *huge* (ahem, AK), and our figure has been adjusted for 4 or 5 casualties, a surprisingly small number, given our completely novice pierogi making abilities at the start, and initial rejection percentages during pierogi inspection. The first few may not be so pretty, but trust us, you'll get better after making a few.

We're doing potato and onion, potato onion and ricotta cheese, potato onion and sauerkraut, and blueberry for dessert.

For the basic potato fillings:
For our 100 or so, we used a 10 lb bag of potatoes. It cost $1.50.
But we didn't need that many potatoes. Buy the bug bag anyway. It's only $1.50.
2 large sweet yellow onions
1 large container ricotta cheese
1 regular16 oz. jar of sauerkraut

Peel potatoes
In a large pot(s), boil whole peeled potatoes until soft when pierced with knife.
Drain water.
In the same pot(s), mash potatoes, add salt & pepper. (Don't bother with butter, as the onions will be cooked with a lot.)

In a small saucepan, warm the sauerkraut.

Dice onions and fry over medium to high heat with a stick of butter until soft and not yet brown.
Dump onion butter mixture into potatoes and
Divide potato mixture into 3 large mixing bowls. Or however many fillings you are preparing.

In bowl # 1 - just potato onion mixture
In bowl # 2- potato onion mixture, add sauerkraut
In bowl # 3 - potato onions. Wait for it to cool. Add cheese. mix to blend

For the dough:
for 2 dozen

2 cups flour
1/2 cup water
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
(multiply recipe as desired)

In a large mixing bowl,
blend dough ingredients together lightly with wooden spoon.
Then knead for a few minutes until blended very well .
Add flour if dough is sticky and continue kneading.

Rip a big chunk of dough off to roll out.
Roll dough out onto floured surface to about 1/8 inch thick, adding flour as you need to.
(It shouldn't be be as thick as a pancake, but don't make it too thin, or filling will tear through)
Dough should not be sticky. If it is, add some more flour.
Using a wide mouthed glass, press the top surface down into the dough to cut out pierogi circles.
Rest them on a floured surface while you prepare the other batches.
Don't leave them too long, as they will start to dry out.

Return the cutout dough part to the rest of the batch and knead it together to reuse.

In a small bowl, beat an egg with a teaspoon of water, for sealing pierogies.

Filling the pierogies:
**While you are filling the pierogies, boil a large pot of water.

Working on a floured surface, take one dough circle, smooth it out, stretch it a bit, and brush off any excess flour.
Fold it loosely like a taco in your palm.
Take a heaping tablespoon of filling and put it
in MIDDLE of dough.
Leave a small area clear around the outer seam of dough. Don't let filling get into seam area or it will not seal properly.
Press filling into smooth, air bubble free lump in middle of dough.
Pull dough over filling (it will have some room to stretch) and make preliminary edges, smoothing out any remaining air bubbles.
Open pierogi, and spread a fingertip full of egg mixture around inside seam of pierogi dough and seal edges together firmly.
Smush dough edges between your fingertips so the 2 sides of the dough become one.
Using your fingers, get rid of any holes around the seam and make the edges look pretty.
Also make sure there are no air bubbles, and that the dough over the filling is not too thin.
Have napkins nearby, it gets messy.

Boil pierogies, about 8 to a pot.
They are done when they float at the top.
Cool them off on a plate,
Spacing them out so they don't stick to each other.
Flip them over after a few minutes so they dry better.
Remove any exploded pierogies / rejects from the batch.

After they have cooled. you need to fry them with some onions.
Cut an onion into large slivers (they are going to shrink) and out into a large skillet with butter.
Fry them up for a while over medium heat until they become a bit translucent.
Add pierogies to pan and cook for a few minutes on each side.
Season with some salt and pepper.

Don't forget the sour cream when serving, it makes theme extra specially delicious.

Comments on the pierogies and pierogi experience in a nutshell
Fulfilling - brandy
crowderific- AK
Rewarding - Rita, Alex
Painstaking - Steve

Tips to Aspiring Pierogi Makers:
Bring as much help as possible - Brandy
And provide ample free food and drink for aforementioned help - Rita.
Roll the dough well, and get someone to do the dishes - Steve
Get there 7 hours late. Then you only have to do the dishes, and eat the food. - Alex & Rachel
a power nap afterward is a great way to top off the day - AK

Dziękuję! Jedzenie! Wyśmienity! Przemyślany! Śniadanie! Ziemniak! Obiad! Żywy inwentarz! Szczęśliwy! Bawcie sie Niedziela!

Aren't online dictionaries fun?! (polish uses a lot of z's eh?)
It says something like happy delicious breakfast dinner thankful potato have fun Sunday. And a few other things I forget.

Photos to follow...

Turkey Carcass Soup

Mmm sounds appetizing, no?
So the Fallones sent me home with the turkey carcass in a plastic garbage bag this Thanksgiving. I figured I could attempt to make some sort of soup out of it, but have never attempted something involving bones, so I stuck it in my freezer until tonight, and then made Steve rip it into pieces for me so it would fit nicely into 2 pots.
I checked the interweb for recipes, and ended up combining a few of them.
Basically, here's how it went....

Chuck carcass into large pot, or 2 if it doesn't fit into one.
Cover carcass with water and a cup or 2 of chicken or vegetable broth
Add some salt pepper, and about 4 mashed garlic cloves.
Chuck in a small handful of parsley and cilantro.
If there isn't a lot of meat on the carcass, add about 6 extra turkey breasts, and some dark meat if you're into it.
Bring to a boil and skim the white foam crap off the top as it forms.
Reduce heat to simmer and leave it for half hour to an hour.

Meanwhile, cut up your veggies into chunks (they'll be cooking awhile)
I added about...
6-8 carrots
4-6 celery stalks
4 turnips
2 parsnips
1 large red onion
1 decent sized leek

and then some seasoning...
about 4 more garlic cloves
cup plus of chopped parsley (Add more as you go to season to taste)
cup plus of chopped cilantro (Add more as you go to season to taste)
about 1/4 cup chopped lemongrass if you have any (Add more as you go to season to taste)
a bay leaf or two
and more salt and pepper
veggie or chicken bullion cubes don't hurt either, but you'll be fine without one

You can do the turkey removal part 2 ways...
1) I just chucked all the veggies into the pot and let the whole thing simmer for about 2 hours, and then picked through to remove bones, skin etc. It makes straining out the bones a bit more challenging, but I wanted to get as much turkey flavor as i could out of mr carcass.

2) you can strain the broth, remove the carcass and bones, and then put the veggies into the broth and cook for another hour or so.

Regardless, the meat will mostly fall off the bones as it cooks. You can use tongs to pull off any remaining nice meat pieces from the carcass and put them back into your soup.

The whole thing should simmer for at least an hour, and 3 if you have them. Make sure you taste as you go, and season to your liking.

When there are about 15-20 minutes left, get a pair of tongs and a big spoon and take out the carcass. Then go through the pots to strain out any remaining bones / huge floating flabs of skin / nasty looking rubbery parts. (You can do this with a strainer too, but I saw a huge opportunity to either make a complete mess or burn myself. So I just stirred through the pot. It was quite soothing.)

After you think you've gotten out the stray nasty parts, add your uncooked noodles to the soup and let them cook, according to package directions, probably 5-10 minutes.

Let the soup cool a bit so you don't burn your tongue.

You can freeze this stuff too, and break it out when the sniffles hit.