The Great Pierogi Adventure

Oh, how I wish I'd been there.

My intrepid daughter had to give a demonstration speech at school this week-- some sort of "how-to" presentation. She had been going to talk about her flute: care and maintenance, assembly and playing. But someone else in the class beat her to it.

So instead, she decided to teach the class how to make pierogis. (Pierogis, for the uninitiated, are a type of boiled Polish dumpling; usually with a potato-based filling, though there are meat pierogis, too.) How she came up with the idea, I don't know; neither Bruce nor I are big pierogi makers. We're not even little Pierogi makers. Never tried it. Not once.

But this did not stop Intrepid Daughter. And when she couldn't get the promised recipe from her friend, she rooted around online until she found a likely set of instructions, and forged ahead.

Now the fun began-- because the recipe Intrepid Daughter found called for beginning with 8 cups of flour for the dough. So she had a sizeable amount of dough. But she may have added a little too much liquid, because the dough was very sticky. Supportive Dad suggested she knead in more flour.

Six (yes, I said six) cups later, she has enough flour.

So picture this: Flour is EVERYWHERE-- covering the counter, the floor, and Intrepid Daughter, who is now gamely kneading a veritable Jabba the Hutt of pierogi dough. And she is concerned (read, panic-stricken) that the 4 pounds of mashed potatoes will not be enough to fill the number of pierogis that ol' Jabba is likely to produce. Supportive Dad gently observes that, rather than running out in the middle of the night for more potatoes, he has no particular emotional bond with Jabba; and that, while we normally do not encourage waste, in this case an exception might be made.

So Jabba was pruned, and pierogis were boiled, and both Intrepid Daughter and Supportive Dad managed to get a few hours sleep.

Apparently the speech the next day went well, and a few brave students even tried the pierogis-- though Intrepid Daughter did make them sign a waiver.

Nope; never a dull moment at our house.