All you need is love -- homemade pierogi

If you spend enough time in a kitchen, especially if you're baking, you know about making food with love. LOVE, apparently, is very important -- it keeps the pie sweet, and the dough rising and the flavors proportionate.

Well, last night I made dinner without love, and it showed! It tasted good.. but, it sure wasn't pretty. That's why this picture of perfect little pierogi isn't mine. I'm ashamed to say it, but I had to put SOME picture up, this page just looks so blank without one.

I really don't know how anyone got them to look so pretty... probably they didn't have to work in a 199-degree kitchen the size of a closet while battling a migraine headache.

I served mine with onions sauteed in butter, sour cream, and fried kielbasa, because if you don't have any love left, you can at least add yummy sausage. This would probably be awesome with sauerkraut, too, but I didn't make any because my 'fella hates it. Either way, here's the recipe... just don't forget to add the LOVE!

Pierogi dough
Ingredients:

2 cups flour, plus extra for rolling dough
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream, plus extra for serving
1/4 cup softened butter
Pierogi filling

Stir together the flour and salt. Beat the egg separately, and add to the flour mixture. Stir in the sour cream, and the softened butter. Knead the dough together until smooth. Wrap in plastic, or store in plastic bags or storage containers, and leave in the fridge for at least 20 minutes (it can be stored for a couple days).

Pierogi filling
Ingredients:

4-5 red potatoes
1/2 large onion, diced
Butter, for sauteing
1/2 - 1 cup shredded cheese
Salt and pepper, to taste

Peel and boil the potatoes. Saute the diced onion in butter. Mash the potatoes (you can add a spoonful of sour cream to soften it), and stir in the sauteed onions. Add a few sprinkles of salt and pepper, and let cool.

Once the dough has set and the filling has cooled, roll the dough onto a floured surface, leaving about 1/8-inch thick. Cut circles out of the dough with a biscuit cutter (I just use an old tin can, or a drinking glass). Roll these a little flatter, and fill with the Pierogi filling. Pin together the edges of the dough, making a half-moon shape, and seal along the edges with a fork.

Add the pierogi to a pot of boiling water, cooking them for a few minutes after they have risen to the top of the water. Saute them in butter, with more diced onions, and serve with cold sour cream.