Potato & Cheddar Pierogies

Back in my restaurant days my friend Kate and I rented a house across the street from work. If you've ever seen any of the 'reality' shows on the glamours of the food service industry you know it involves lots of late nights bellied up to a bar bitching about the 13 percent tip you got off table four or the ignorant ass who sent his perfectly cooked med-rare steak back to have it thrown on the grill for a few more minutes; If you wanted it medium then you should have ordered it that way. Ahem. Anyway, we spent a lot of a late nights closing down the tavern and then the whole crew would stumble back to our house to continue the festivities until someone would notice it was light outside. We all have our limits. When we finally woke up, if it happened to be a Sunday, our only day off together, we would all gather again at someones home and prepare a meal. One of my favorite Sunday meals was Homemade Pierogies. Kate is from Pittsburgh, the pierogie capital of America (not really but they do eat a lot of pierogies in Pittsburgh). Over holiday when her family gathers the ladies storm the kitchen and make a variety of pierogies. I imagine the room is filled with wonderful smells, a lot of chatter and laughter as floured hands knead dough and clink wine glasses. On one particular occasion, that I recall, Kate smuggled some frozen pierogies across the Mason Dixon and they made their way to our table for Sunday lunch.

Well they were delicious. A diabetics dream. But my family doesn't have this particular tradition. Though ours is similar, we gather around the dart board or pool table and clink aluminum cans. There is no flour but we eat cheese and crackers and chips and dip.
I digress.
Because I was never formally trained in the art of pierogie making I'm going to share with you a FOOL PROOF recipe for delightful pierogies.

"Low Fat, Home Cooking in Minutes!"
Seriously if you can't follow this recipe there is something wrong with you.
This particular pierogie is potato and cheddar. Simply match the pattern in your grocers freezer.

Open the box and remove desired quantity. There are multiple ways to prepare the pierogie for consumption. The method we will focus on today is Saute. I find that sauteing them in olive oil keeps the dough from becoming mushy and gives them a nice brown sear.

Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a heavy bottom saute pan set to medium heat. Once your pan gets hot add your frozen pierogies.

While the pierogies are working you can prepare your vegetables. I chose asparagus and grape tomato. About a handful of each serves two. I sliced my tomatoes in half and chopped the asparagus to a similar size to ensure even cooking.

Check your pierogies, once they have achieved a nice golden brown color on both sides add your vegetables to the pan and salt and pepper to taste.

If you're feeling adventurous adding some chopped basil or hot sauce now would give another dimension of flavor. Allow vegetables to saute until soft, about 5 minutes.

For a nice touch serve with a dollop of sour cream and chive, I'm watching my waistline so I used my ever selective will power to pass on the sour cream.

All kidding aside, Mrs T's makes a great pierogie. I highly recommend.

(Serving Suggestion)