I Love Pierogi...

This past Sunday we celebrated what is probably my most favorite day of the year...Pierogi Night.  For those of you that don't know, I'm half Polish and therefore eat pierogi on Christmas Eve every year as part of our traditional half-Polish, half-Italian dinner.  Probably one of my most earliest cooking memories as a kid was every year making pierogi with my Mom and grandmother MeMe.  MeMe would mix the dough by hand using a wooden board that would come out once a year for this purpose only and would be able to just feel the dough and know if it was the right texture and consistency.  She would then roll out the dough by hand using a rolling pin and then my brother and I would have the job of cutting out the circles using a special metal cutter that was crafted by my grandfather probably 50 years ago.  Then my mother would fill them and pinch their edges together since she has always had the magic touch or fingers to do the job.  With what I believe was over 15 years ago when we moved into our new house, our friend Marc wanted to come over to learn the art of pierogi and with him he brought some modern day cooking techniques to the process.  We now mix the dough in a KitchenAid mixer and the dough gets rolled out using a pasta machine which gives you perfect long strips for cutting out the circles.  MeMe still always gave her final approval on the feel of the dough before it went into the rollers and my mother continued to take up her roll as the filler/pincher.  That first year there was a small amount of dough left over and Marc suggested that we make some homemade pasta with it and from there the "Pierogi Party" was born.  This tradition has continued every year and has grown in size and caliber because as you all know by now, we do nothing small in our house and  embody Jane Austen's quote when it comes to entertaining that "one can never have too large a party".  Some years we have broke out the accordion and sang rousing renditions of Christmas carols, usually the bottle of limoncello comes out, people have come and gone but the same things hold true that its so many of my favorite people, great food, lots to drink and what always feels like is the kickoff to Christmas week.  Some people refer to it as a scam party because we don't actually eat pierogi but instead loads of homemade pasta and meatballs.  And while MeMe is no longer with us, it kind of acts as this wonderful memorial to her every year because you can always remember her standing over the stove and the pots of pierogi, handing them out to whoever endeared themselves to her (Greg you were always the chosen one!) and she would just take in all the hoopla well into her eighties. 

Aaron showing off our new aprons while rolling dough

I couldn't wait for this year's  Pierogi Party to come along because I knew that I would no longer have to be running from New York to get here on time and that I would really be able to celebrate and enjoy it.  And now that another year's party is behind us and pretty much all of the flour has been cleaned up I can truly say that it was truly an amazing evening!!!  We started in the afternoon with our core group of pierogi workers that includes my Mom, Aunts Monica and Sandy, my cousin Aaron and Greg and Cathy Russo and this year we even had the added surprise of these FABULOUS aprons that Aaron had made up that stated "I love Pierogi" with the Polish eagle and all.  From there the pasta making continued with the pasta team who by that point totally took over which was great so I could run around playing host making sure everyone was having a good of a time as I was.  I wish I could tell you how much pasta we actually made but as you can see from the pictures it was a lot and at 44 guests strong we went through a sleuth of wine, 50-60 homemade meatballs made courtesy of the Soda's, porchetta from Marc and many bowls of pasta.  And all I could keep thinking to myself through the entire night was "how lucky am I" that I get to be surrounded by all of my favorite people, get to help prepare this amazing meal and host this phenomenal party that everyone looks forward to every year.  You realize all of the things that are so important to you, that you get to carry on this tradition in your family that continues to grow and evolve every year and I know MeMe would be so proud of what great pierogi makers we have all become. 

the infamous falconette cookbook that gets referenced every year

the dough recipe hand written in

 tossing the pasta

ready to hit the pot