Perogathon!

Puzzle me this, Batman: If you eat diet cheese and drink diet milk, but go bat shit crazy when confronted with ice cream and snarf as much of it as possible as quickly as possible, wouldn't it make sense to perhaps try moderating small amounts of full-fat dairy in your diet (like, say, a bit of cream in Butternut Squash soup) on a regular basis instead of binging on it whenever confronted with a sweet snack? Well? Hmmm?


TODAY'S COOKING
Butternut Squash Soup: While waiting for the first batch of perogie dough to set in the fridge, knocked this out for B and her mom and bro, who were coming over for lunch. Sauteed an onion, garlic, sauteed an apple with it, added the cubed peeled squash and covered with vegetable broth. Simmered to soft, blended, seasoned with salt, cinnamon and cayenne. Put it back on the simmer to thicken up. The three of them snarfed the whole thing before I got to have any! I guess it was good.


Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream: Wowzers, this came out kinda perfect. Smooth and silky, mildly chocolaty so the hazelnut really works a nice bass tone of savory nuttiness.

Spinach/Kraut/Kasha/Potato/Cheese Perogies: I've been eating perogies my entire life, but never actually made them. I got a recipe for the dough and cheese filling from my friend K, who grew up in a Polish household (the other 4 fillings I just winged, based on my schooling.)

Spinach was sauteed with olive oil, garlic, caramelized onion and a dash of cayenne. Kraut was store-bought, then fried in a dry pan with a bit of the oily caramelized onions until it turned color and got really dry - tasted surprisingly mild. Kasha was cooked with chicken stock, salted to taste. Potato was simple red potatoes skinned and boiled, passed through a ricer, seasoned with shredded Gouda, salt and pepper. The cheese filling was something to behold, so delicious. Farmer's cheese, eggs, raw grated onion, sour cream, salt, pepper, so incredibly punchy and grabbing, the best of the bunch.

The dough was very rich, no water, just egg, sour cream and butter for liquids. It was a very stiff dough, and even though I made a double batch, I quickly realized I needed much more dough to cut out enough 2" rounds. Ended up making another triple batch, about 150 two-bite dumplings. About half are coming with me to the stupidbowl party, the other half will be for giveaway and eating on for the next few weeks. Pretty much spent the whole day rolling, filling, pinching with fork tines, boiling, shocking, drying, freezing.


AM SNACK: 10:15am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 11:30am, a spoonful of chocolate hazelnut ice cream


PM SNACKING: 12noon-6pm, various failed perogies, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Whenever they'd open up, I'd open up and gobble them down. A bit watery, but quite good.


DINNER: 8pm, hot dog with fried kraut and whole wheat potatonik, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Just too tired of cooking all day to make anything more involved.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, cashews and chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5