Amy and I met rather by chance; she sat next to me in Business Administration and we bonded over the weirdness of the class, religion, and food! So while we were “studying” for the exam, Amy (a double-Pole) taught me how to make pierogis. They’re delicious little dumplings filled with cheese or some kind of vegetable mixture - we did butternut squash and wild mushroom (porcini and cremini), but you can also do potato - then mixed with caramelized onions and topped with sour cream.

I used twice as much caramelized onion as the recipe calls for. The sour cream really makes the dish; don’t leave it out! Amy served this with a spicy Korean salad - even though it was such a mixture of ethnic foods, the smoothness and creaminess of the pierogies and sour cream went really well with the vinegary-spiciness of the Korean salad. I really recommend this pairing.

We used this recipe for the dough. We rolled it out onto the counter (with plenty of flour), and cut it out with a 3-inch round glass. This is the recipe for the Wild Mushroom filling.

Butternut Squash filling
3 cups butternut squash, diced
1 onion, diced
1 tomato, diced
Cumin, salt, pepper, to taste
Paprika or cayenne, to taste

Caramelize the onion, then add the tomato and squash. Flavor with cumin, salt, and peppers. Resist (or succumb to) the temptation to eat this with a spoon. Mash it up a little so most of the lumps are gone. Stuff inside the pierogies!

Enjoy the pictures! I’m experimenting with a Lightbox plugin. Click on the first picture (first on the left, of the dried porcini mushrooms), and then you should be able to click through the rest like a flowing gallery, complete with captions. As you can see, I had fun taking pictures while Amy was doing all the work. Let me know what you think!

This was actually the first dish I made in my cast iron pan. The shrimp got a savory sear on one side from the high heat, and everything came together perfectly. It’s reminiscent a Hamburger Helper meal, except so much better and less….boxed-pasta-y. This was for two meal-sized servings or 4 side dish servings. It was inspired by Pioneer Woman’s Penne a la Betsy (a lawyer-turned-food blogger, like me! Wonder how much Contracts Law she remembers…..or how much I’ll remember in oh….2 years at Bar Exam time.)
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This has a creamy, earthy feel and taste. The flavors meld deliciously well together in the oven. I made this for a dinner party (and didn’t get any pictures of an individual serving, sorry!), and it was pretty quick to put together - and the meal didn’t require much more. I served it with salad, bread and herb-roasted potatoes. My friend Amani pointed out that this would go well with shredded roasted turkey as well.

Recipe after the link, but first, a picture of the condensation on the pasta pot after boiling the lasagna

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This was my first time making meatballs in a non-Pakistani style, but they turned out well. I loosely got this recipe from my Good Housekeeping cookbook, but I made some changes. The meatballs stay soft and flavorful because of a pureed onion and garlic mixture.

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….. which is just a fancy term for “cook veggies. add pasta.” This is really simple, which is what makes it perfect. There’s no cream sauce or fancy-schmancy stuff. Just veggies, garlic, and pasta. The sauteed veggies give off a broth, too, so this would be great by itself with some crusty bread or scooped over couscous.

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