"pierogies" news and stories

Photo: Jennifer Iserloh.

During grad school, when I wasn't busy studying or working my part-time job, I was all about entertaining. My favorite co-host was my cousin Frank, and he always had great ideas, including shortcuts to making complicated recipes without losing a lot of the taste or texture.

I'm sure that the experts from the famous Pierogie Plus, a 10-minute drive from my family's house, would swat me for not making the dough myself. But when I crave my favorite treat, I use wonton wrappers to make them, an idea my clever cousin Frank came up with.

Pierogies are one of the best pieces of Polish fare. But how should one cook them?

• Most coffee-flavored recipes call for that pesky instant stuff, but here is a recipe for espresso cookies that calls for the real thing -- finely ground dark-roast beans.
• You might have heard about the political turmoil up here in Canada, that got the Star thinking about pierogies.
• Holiday baking and butter tarts become the tourist-link to a small town.
• Habitat for Humanity gets into gingerbread houses for a holiday fundraiser.
• More Recipes: Pumpkin Ginger Pillows and Tuscan Bean and Kale Soup

As a devotee of the "more is more" school of sandwich making, this picture of the "Parmageddon" sandwich makes me drool. Two potato and cheese pierogies (Slavic stuffed dumplings), a greasy tangle of grilled onions, sauerkraut, and a slab of cheddar cheese, squeezed between two thick slices of grilled bread.

The photo comes courtesy of writer-photographer David Lay, who captured this beast at Lakewood, Ohio's Melt Bar and Grilled. Melt specializes in a psychedelic variety of grilled cheese sandwiches - smoked turkey, kraut and gouda; beer battered walleye, tartar sauce, American. The Parmageddon was featured as a reader's favorite in Esquire's "Best Sandwiches in America." Now, if I can just get my Polish grandmother to teach me to make her potato pierogies, I'd be all set.

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