January 4th

I am Polish

This is the type of meal that reminds me...yep, I am Polish.  I haven't really ever attempted to make any traditional Polish foods besides these pierogis, so I'll have to start working on fixing that this year.

Pierogis and Smoked Kielbasa

Pierogi recipe from Donna Konieczny (my grandmother)...but sorry, it's a top secret family recipe, so I can't share it on here.  However, I'm sure that you can get good recipes online.

Cooking time: a long time. I didn't time it, but these are pretty labor intensive.  I made them in the summer and made a huge batch of them.  In my opinion they are worth the time.  Especially since you can make a million of them at once and then freeze them so they are ready to eat whenever you want.

If you have never had a pierogi, you need to try them right now.  The store-bought ones are good, but they are NOTHING in comparison to homemade.  The store-bought tend to have thick dough, while these homemade ones have paper thin dough (No matter what recipe you use, if you make them yourself be sure to roll the dough super thin).  Also when you make them yourself, you can add more flavor into the filling than the store-bought. 
I made three different flavors; cheese, potato and onion, and cabbage.  I topped them with bacon crumbles, sauteed onions, and some sour cream.  The sausage was store bought and I just sauteed it in a pan.  This is not a meal for those on a diet (and I am on a diet...oops).

Grades:

Megan - Pierogis = A+, Polish Sausage = C (I love, love, love pierogis.  Especially my grandma's and these taste almost as good as hers.  There was nothing wrong with the sausage.  I just don't particularly like Polish sausage.)

Doug - A- (Doug said it was "a real stick-to-your-ribs dinner")

Noelle - A- (Noelle loved the potato pierogis and asked for more.  She tolerated the cabbage ones and did not really like the cheese.  Noelle seems to be like me and not be the biggest fan of Polish sausage. She ate some of it, but mostly just liked commenting on what the shapes of the sausage I cut looked like to her...she really liked one she found that looked like a chair.)