Limited Time Only!

Isn't it so sad that the soda companies give us "limited time only" bottles of soda made with REAL sugar, instead of the high fructuse corn syrup? Isn't that so sad? I LOVE the kind made with REAL sugar - so, so, so yummy! Yesterday I was in the Pharmacy and saw it so I grabbed a bottle and mmm it was yummy! Just crazy though huh? Can't the give us the REAL sugar all the time? I mean they have already put extra taxes on soda because people are too obease - why not cut the crap and give us the real sugar instead of the artificial junk! I mean soda isn't the best for you in general, really but why not make it better instead of just taxing extra for the junk its made with!?

LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE

WHAT YOU THINK OF MY ARTISTIC CREATION?

The Teacher

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires."

(William Arthur Ward)

Do you or did you ever have a great teacher who has or does inspire you?

Who Wants to Make Pierogies?!?

I DO! So, I am! I have been thinking about coming home all morning and making them. So far I have the dough made and chilling and am preping the filling... yes, I am blogging and making pierogies! I am sooo excited to make them and hope that they turn out right and taste good! I want to be able to find a good recipe and make some in bulk so I can freeze some (I do that when I make meatballs as well and pizza dough). It makes life easier every now and then...and easier for nights you don't feel like doing (or have the time) all the prep thats involved in some meals but makes it better than just store bought frozen food (which I dis-like, most of the time). So, this is the story of my day - making pierogies and going to share the process with you! A lot of people I have talked to say its so hard or not necessarily hard but time consuming to make them and I want to see where the time consuming part comes in... I hope to find that it isn't hard or time consuming... Also, (I have a lot of hopes today! :) hehe I am just a hopeful person I guess!) I hope to maybe incorporate it into a tradition for my family to have the pierogies on Christmas Eve and the Eve of Easter. We didn't do it this year but I did think of it - actually, we DID have pierogi's on Christmas Eve - that were homemade by a friend of ours. I forgot about that...anyway, but I didn't make them - which isn't a big deal either way but... Regardless, I have Easter to look forward to making them and hopefully I will find that this recipe that I am using now will be a winner!

The Process:

In a mixing bowl, or mixer (which is what I used), take 2 cups of flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Beat one large egg and add to the flour mixture. Add 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/4 cup butter (which has been cut up into small pieces). Mix ingredients together making sure not to mix too much (not sure what too much is...but thats what the original recipe said).

(the beaten egg, sour cream and chopped butter)

Just mix until the ingredients are incorporated - dough will still have a slight stickieness to it. Wrap in plastic wrap and refridgerate for 30 minutes (Or overnight and can be stored up to 2 days). While the dough is chilling you can prepare the filling. You need 5 potatoes peeled, boiled and mashed. I had a container of leftover mashed potatoes (about 3 cups) which I am using. I love finding new ways to use leftovers besides just re-heating (how boring is that! lol).

(Me :) wanted to make an appearance while cooking up some onions!)

Sautee up some onions (I took about 1/4 of a large onion) in some butter. Add to the potatoes with a pinch of salt (to taste), a dash of pepper (to your liking), and any other ingredients you would like to be creative with. You could add some bacon bits and chives. I was considering using some hamburger meat to hearty up the pierogies but decided against it - just because. Oh and don't forget the cheese! I added four different cheeses, just because we had some bits here and there and thought it would add a nice flavor to the traditional cheese flavor.

There's Cabot's Tuscan Cheese (mmmm its soooo delicious!), a bit of orange cheddar (I believe its a sharp one), a smidge of a smoked cheese (thought it might add a very subtle flavor of smokieness), and there was a small handfull of a colby jack we had left lonely in a bag.

Add it all together and mix - I put it in the fridge while I rolled out the dough and got everything else ready.

NEXT:

Roll out the dough on a floured surface and use a cookie cutter or the bottom of a glass and make circle cut outs. It should be about 2 inches in diameter or so. It makes about 12-15 pierogie - I think I cut out 22. It varies depending on how thin your dough is, how far you stretch it, etc. Use your own judgement. (I actually rolled out the circles a little bigger after they were cut out. This helped a little since the circles were on the smaller side. I also found that I needed to rub a little water on the edge to keep it closed a little better. They sealed OK without doing this but MUCH better once I got them a little wet.)

All cut out!

Then add your filling, fold circle in half and use a fork to krimp the edges! OOOO LOook how pretty!!!

After you are finished making all the pierogies, boil a pot of water and drop the pierogies in. They should cook for about 6-10 minutes depending. You will know they are done once they float on top of the water. Take out, rinse with cold water (to prevent them sticking together), and let dry. Then fry up in some butter with some onions and serve with some yummy sour cream. Enjoy! I will share a picture once they had been fried... have to wait till dinner to fry them up, as I made them ahead of time. Hope you like the recipe and enjoy making it as much as I did!

UPDATE: Here they are plated with some veggies and some sour cream! YUM!!! They were DELICIOUS!

Da,da-da, dum. Da, da-da, dum...

"...merry, merry, christmas!" "Christmas is here..."

Two days before Christmas Dom and I ventured to Kansas City and saw the Trans Siberian Orchastra. It was a sold out show and let me tell you...there were a TON of people there!

We had seats on the floor (which we decided next time it wasn't worth the extra couple dollars cause everyone one the floor is at the same level so ....if your' short like me then its not that cool!) We were cozily sandwhiched between some folks in our row - the seats on the floor were veery close together and seamed smaller than your normal sized floding chair. lol Anyway, the show beagn and we were awed (well I wasn't so much but everyone else seemed to be) with lights and long haired musicians (yes, guys and girls with very long hair)! They are known for thier light show - I wasn't too into crazy laser lights but it was an interesting spin on thier...group. Personally, I thought they went a little over board with the lights but thats just my opinion! I wasn't so keen on the constant hair flipping (by both guys and girls) while playing but again just a little off the scale for me... They music was good, for the most part - definitely A LOT heavier in person than I have heard on the cd or radio. Thier new album I guess they are putting out is called Night Castle (this is only their second album, yes they have been popular off thier one cd for the past 15 years...!) and they gave us a sampling of it and thats kinda when I was like, ok when is this going to be over....they had a stage full of flames that were sycronized to the music, but its just....not my style. Not sure if any of you have heard them or even like them but I thought I did and they still do have a couple songs on the cd that are nice but I would not be one of those people that go and see them every year. I saw them once and would not care to see them again. I know Dom enjoyed the lights and he enjoyed them but in the end, its just not quiet my cup of tea. (but I am glad I saw them because now I have wanted to see them in the past when they had come to Syracuse and whatnot - now I know)

Here's Dom and I at the show...He took a picture even though they were very admint about taking pictures. (some people werent even allowed in with thier cameras ...thankfully the security guard that checked our pockets just said don't take them out...bad Dominic... it was only one ;) )

Joyful Spirits, Baking Goodness!

Dom & I made a list of four items to bake this Christmas season. He chose Toffee & Chocolate Covered Pretzel Sticks - I chose Peanut Butter Balls & Sugar Cookies. One night we decided to have our friends over for dinner and then we made the sugar cookies with them (a kid-friendly activity). We had some other friends stop over as well which made it all the more merrier! We rolled out the dough and cut all the shapes. Then we baked them and made three bowls of colored frosting. Once the cookies were cooled we frosted and sprinkled them and made them all different! It was lots of fun and the cookies were soooo yummy! Everyone took part in the fun in some way or another - even if it was just taste-testing! :)

Byron, helping me roll out some dough

Melissa & Izzy making some fun shapes

Tammy & Timmy cutting out some shapes

Some of the adults finishing the decorating after the kids had enough...they decided to watch Tom & Jerry cartoons and laugh hysterically in the livingroom...kids find things funny so easily!

Some of the finished COOKIES!

Local Business' with Familiar Faces

Teresita's Sew Creative, owned and operated by (our very own) Jennifer Zapp, was announced in the St Mary's Star today!

She made front page, first article! She has been opened for some time now but has kept herself low key until she could get things going first. If your local, stop in and see the shop - it's very darling in there - if you're not local - she has a website:

http://www.teresitasewcreative.vpweb.com/

Also, there is another new local shop in town now owned by Teresa Morgali - "Mommy Knows Best." This is a baby store here on the outskirt of town. I haven't been in there yet but I hear they have all kinds of stuff including maternity clothing and the likes as well as new and used kid clothing and furniture.

It's so neat to know that the little town of St Marys is building and becoming more self sufficient.. in that now instead of having to drive to Topeka JUST for a needle... now you can just stop by the Sew shop for one. It's just really neat to see shops opening (especially by people you know) and making our town a little more self sufficient and making it not a necessity to drive all the way to Topeka for everything!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year ! ! !

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas and have had a good and holy start to the New Year! Life definitely picks up its pace during the holidays. This Christmas was another "first" for Dom and I as it was our first Christmas together. Some of you may know that we tried last year but due to the snowy weather in Syracuse and surrounding areas, I was un-able to fly out to spend the holiday with Dom - thats ok though. It made it even more special for us this year. :)

On Christmas Eve it began to snow about 11 o'clock in the morning and continued snowing all day and all night... in fact, I believe it snowed continually till the day after Christmas! For all those singing, "I'm dreaming of a white...Christmas!" you definitely got your wish this year! I had to admit, I was hoping for a white one as well. On our way to Mass we got stuck but thanks to some friendly folks passing by gave us a hand and we (well Dom) were able to help some others when Mass was over. It was definitly an added twist on the excitement of Christmas! Anyway, to make a long story short we had Christmas dinner at the parental units house and everyone was able to make it... so yes, it was a full house! It was a wonderful Christmas....

Next came New Years and my dear friend Meg was in town so we got to celebrate the end of the year with her and some other friends and then ventured back to town here and brought in the New Year with a holy hour at the Church - what better way to end a year and bring in the new one, right?

In the past, back in the younger days, I would always take a piece of Bristol (a thick paper) and draw the highlights of that year on it... I think I have about four of them. I would spend new years eve thinking of all the wonderful and sometimes not so wonderful things that had happened. This year was very easy for me... I got married to not only the LOVE of my life, but my BEST friend... It simply was the best of the year!

I hope you all have had a wonderful end of the year 2009 and hope that this new year of 2010 will bring you much happieness and will be a year of holiness and good health.

May our tiny King, born in the bitter cold, and for Whom there was no room at the inn, find a place in our hearts and fill our lives with gratitude and the gift of joy!