Perogies

Today it was raining, so I thought I would make perogies. This is working well, cause i am trying to use up the food we have without buying anything new (except milk and bread and fruit) till we eat up our freezer stuff before we get our next beef butchered. In November probly.

So perogies. First I had to decide what kind. I have lots of potatoes, so I mashed up a bunch and i like cheese, so I grated a bunch, and I like bacon, so I cooked and cut up a package, and I like onions, so I cut up and fried (in bacon grease) a bunch, and my favorite perogy is prune, so I unthawed them ready to go (cut in half and pitted)

First comes the dough, 2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, and 3/4 cup really warm water.

Mix flour and salt together, make well, pour in warm water slowly while mixing together with wooden spoon. Knead at least 5 minutes then let rest for 15 minutes.
Don't worry if your dough looks like this after mixing with the wooden spoon, just pour onto floured surface and start kneading

It turns out like this after 3-5 minutes, I usually have to add more flour to the board cause it gets sticky

Then you have to decide on topping, I mixed a bowl of mashed potatoes (try to leave kinda dry or perogy gets soggy)

With a package of bacon and 4 cut up and fried onions

or you can mix a bowl/pot of mashed potatoes (made with cheese Whiz)

And grate up some Cheddar cheese, I used medium, but old has more flavor.

Or of course my favorite just pull out from freezer, plums

Back to the dough, after its rested 15 minutes, roll it out on lightly floured surface until its is about 1/8 inch thick. Cut it into circles, I prefer using this biscuit cutter

But you can also use a glass about 2 1/2 to 3 inches across

Take a spoonful of filling

Or half a plum

Fold the dough over and seal together very well, sometimes it doesn't want to stick, and that is usually because your hands are sticky or the dough is to floury, but just keep squishing it together. On the plum ones, don't squish the plum too much, or the juice starts coming out

Lay out individually on a cookie sheet and freeze till hard (about half hour) then put in freezer bag to keep. Freezing seperatly keeps them from sticking together in the freezer.

or you can cook and eat right away. Enjoy!