It's a family tradition (on my mother's side) to make pierogi for Christmas Eve.
How cute is this apron? My oldest daughter gave it to me for Christmas a couple of years ago. You can find it on Etsy.
My grandparents immigrated from Poland near the Russian border. That said, I've never had a pierogi filled with mashed potatoes.
Here is a pic of me with my babcia, and of course, my siblings. This is how I remember her.
The two fillings my babcia made were:
1) ground beef with onion and hard boiled egg
2) farmer's cheese with onion and raw egg
We've adapted the recipe over the years, including following the ravioli dough recipe in the Fanny Farmer cookbook, using ground chuck and ricotti cheese.
This afternoon I managed to get 3 dozen made (3 batches of dough, 1 lb chuck and 1 container cheese; dough rolled, filled, boiled) in two hours.
Then comes the delish part, frying them in butter (Kerry Gold, of course) and dollaping with sour cream.
I like to serve them with spinach salad and cranberry sauce.
I'd like to serve pickled beets, but I'd be the only one eating them. However, my nephew has a great recipe that doctors them up with balsamic vinegar, feta cheese and pecans. I think I just talked myself into that for next year!
Whatever your holiday traditions, I hope they are memorable!
And just to throw in some papercrafting.... this is a Gecko Galz design team make from last year.
