Pierogies

One of the easiest side dishes I have made for 10+ years that everyone enjoys. I recently shared the recipe with my sister who loves to cook (not bake) and she's made pierogies for me several times. I  got the recipe from a blog friend, and shared the link below.  Last evening we had a Zoom business meeting at 6:00, so I grilled some chicken and served the frozen pierogies as a side dish with salad. I love a quick meal.    

Picture Tutorial from Thibeaultstable

This is one of those recipes where exact measurements aren’t that important. Just adjust to suit your own taste.

Dough

3 cups flour

1 egg

teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sour cream

water

Place ingredients in food processor pulse to mix.  Add a little water and process until dough comes together.  Should be a soft dough, but not sticky.

Wrap in plastic and let rest for at least 30 minutes.

Filling

2 Russet potatoes (Cooked and mashed and butter)

butter

1 large onion chopped

2 cups grated cheddar cheese (more or less to taste)

salt

pepper

Saute the onions in butter until golden.

Add onions to mashed potatoes.  Mix in the cheese and season with salt and pepper.  Make sure the potatoes are hot so that the cheese melts.

Assemble

Roll the dough out and use a 2 or 3 inch biscuit cutter to cut the rounds. Gather up the scrapes and reroll. Brush the edges of the dough with a bit of beaten egg white, add a teaspoon or so of potato cheese filling and seal. Use a fork to seal the edges. I put them on cookie sheets lined with parchment and freeze. Once frozen place in freezer containers. To cook, just bring a pot of water, seasoned with salt to a boil and simmer the perogies until they float. Only takes a few minutes to cook.

April is Garlic Month

Mountain Breaths is celebrating National Garlic Month by sharing our love of garlic. We use a lot of garlic, and we recently exhausted Joe's harvest so I've resorted to buying organic garlic from the market while looking forward to our next harvest in July. These photos are from prior years, but the garlic is doing great this spring.  

The catbird doesn't mind the garlic surrounding the bird bath :-)  I can't wait for the birds to start visiting our garden again. They keep me company while I am harvesting and weeding. 

Feel free to reach out to me if you would like to plant garlic. (Joe made a garlic bracelet for me one year) I have taught my friends and co-workers how to plant garlic. It's so easy to grow, and very rewarding if you enjoy garlic. Garlic has been used medicinally since the Greek and Roman times. It promotes the well-being of the heart and immune system with antioxidant properties and helps maintain healthy blood circulation. 

One of my favorite recipes is the Chicken with Lemon Garlic Sauce from the Beekman "Have A Seat" cookbook. 

And of course I love garlic with my home grown tomatoes. One of our favorite side dishes this winter was to roast 1/2" diced potatoes with olive oil, minced garlic, dried thyme, salt and pepper and bake at 450 degrees for 25 minutes. Nice and crispy! 

Thanks for stopping by.

Deb 

Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding

I finally made the famous Magnolia Bakery banana pudding for Easter. You may recall that I love the cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery in NYC, and the pudding is a heavenly dessert made up of layers of creamy vanilla pudding, condensed milk, bananas and Nilla Wafers. It's the very recipe that the famous New York City bakery uses! This delicious and easy recipe is sure to become a family favorite!

The children enjoyed being outdoors on Easter since the weather was in our favor. The egg hunt was a big it, and I was tempted to participate LOL. I have always enjoyed egg hunts. 

Sending you glorious Tuesday Vibes on this beautiful spring week. 

xo

Deb

Spring has Sprung

I love decorating for Easter, and we feel so blessed that we are going to my sisters for a buffet. I've had both of my Pfizer shots and was so impressed with the organization and administering of the vaccine where I went. Lately I have been crafting with paper products, and found that cutting with the right scissors can actually be enjoyable. Took me 60 years to learn this. My grandson Xavier enjoys cutting with scissors too, so we have some projects lined up.

If you ever owe a favor, you can't go wrong with these Cadbury Egg & Milk Chocolate "Levain Style" Cookies. You've probably heard of the amazing chocolate chip cookies at Levain in NYC. The recipe from Salted Sugared Spice blog makes 12 HUGE cookies. Just when I thought I could not eat a whole cookie by myself, it disappeared. I did have an iced coffee with it as they are very decadent. 

Monique @ La Table de Nana alerted us to this recipe :-) :-)

Then Knock....Knock. While I was baking the cookies. Our neighbor had a bouquet of pussy willows from their backyard. I made the cookies just in time. 

Happy Spring!

Bringing out the Green

We're not Irish, but it's fun bringing out the green each March. One year I was the "Keeper of the Cloth" which you will see in the photo above. It has traveled happily around blogland for many years, and Life and Linda set a beautiful table with it this year. 

Spring is just around the corner, so hopefully my next blog post will include some flowers!

Thanks for stopping by.

Deb