I come from a strong Polish background on one side, hence my love of pierogies and all other things starchy. I would die on a no-carb diet. I love a good pierogy and good ones are very hard to find. Mrs. T’s are not good ones. Good ones are also a ton of work and hardly anyone does it anymore, only little old ladies in basement church kitchens in the Polish Catholic churches in the coal region….and they are a dying breed. On the 22nd, I am heading down to the Polish Festival in Wilmington, with my cousin from my Polish side. We are *that* dedicated to searching for good pierogies.
A few years ago, my stepmother got a recipe for lazy man pierogies. Really the next best thing. I don’t make it often because my hubby doesn’t like them. But with the big game coming up in a few weeks, thought I’d post it. If you are grilling brats or something similar, this is a nice, complementary side dish, and it can be made ahead of time and feeds a lot of people. I’m going to post my stepmother’s recipe, and add my comments/alterations behind it, because I have altered her recipe a bit.
So yummy and buttery…..and carb loaded, oh well.
- 1lb of lasagne (I still do this with the lasagne you boil, have never tried the no-boil kind)
- 5lbs of potatoes
- 1lb Velveeta (I use cheddar, or substitute 8 oz of sour cream, so it’s 8 oz cheese, 8 oz sour cream, not a fan of Velveeta)
- 2 med onions, diced (my parents love onions, I use like half of one small onion, I don’t like mine as oniony as they do, blech. Or I use green onions.)
- 4-5 sticks of margarine (seriously? No wonder my dad is on Lipitor. I use one, and I use butter, not margarine.)
- Sautee onions in margarine.( Now there’s a picture–2 onions sizzling away in 5 sticks of margarine. Blech. ) Peel, cut and boil potatoes for mashed potatoes. Make mashed potatoes (it is best to peel the potatoes, don’t short cut here and do them with skins on) and mix in the cheese. I sautee my little half onion in a half stick of butter, and I put the other half a stick in my mashed potatoes. Do not use milk when you mash your potatoes, or use very little. (This is why I sometimes use sour cream.) Cook and drain your lasagne noodles.
- Layer and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
- Basically, you’re making a ‘lasagne’ but you’re using your potato mixture as your filling.
- Only my parents do their layers this way–noodles, potatoes, onion/margarine mixture.
- I do mine very similar, but I mix some onions in with the mashed potatoes, and then do a small layer.
- Their’s is a bit too oniony and greasy for me.
- Use chives, salt, pepper to taste.
- Try to end your layers so that you can do a bit of melted butter on top to prevent drying out.
