Guess What Are These?

    I first had something similar to this at Eat 'n Park, and they were called Half Moon, or something like that. These stuff are filled with mashed potato and cheese mixture. Hmm... what are these? They are Baked Breaded Potato Pierogies. The one I had at Eat 'n Park was deep fried, but that's just too much hassle, especially when these were frozen before I baked them. You didn't think I actually made everything from scratch, did you? Well, not today at least, but I did actually make these Pierogies from scratch some weeks ago. Yes, I had that much time. Traditionally, from what I read, the Polish (and other eastern european) make Pierogies for Christmas Eve dinner, and they usually employ a lot of people, usually relatives, to make these. But, as a good homemaker, I did it all on my own :-) Luckily, uncooked or boiled Pierogies is one of those stuff that can be made ahead and stored in the freezer until you need it. Here's the link to the Pierogi dough, and the Potato Cheese Filling.

    For the first batch that I made, I went the Pittsburghers way of preparing them by pan frying the Pierogies and serving them with caramelized onion. They were not bad. The plain ones were addicting even with the bland tasting dough. However, I really really love today's baked Pierogies; crispy on the outside and gooey goodness in the inside. Heaven!!! Needless to say, they were gone in a blink. They reminded me of Mozzarella Sticks or other Fried Italian goodness, I even ate them with Marinara Sauce. Aside from Pierogies, I also made some chicken broth—another recipe that takes all day to make. After saving most of the broth for future purposes, I added more ingredients to the soup and made a hearty Chicken Vegetable Soup. It's one of my favorite soups because it has a lot of vegetables which makes me not feel bad eating a whole lot of them. Oh yeah, homemade Chicken Broth tastes so much better than the packed chicken broth or the chicken bullions. And it’s fairly easy to make too, it just takes a long time to simmer. But if you are at home, you can just let it simmer and check the broth every now and then while you’re doing something else altogether.