Frederickson

1 sifter full of flour                                                                                                                                                                                              1 1 hand full of salt                                                                                                                                                                                                    3 large eggs, beaten                                                                                                                                                                                              Enough water to make a dough                                                                                                                                                                          5# potatoes, boiled in skins and peeled                                                                                                                                                        3#onions, chopped and cooked in butter until lightly browned                                                                                                                  Place flour and salt(mixed together) in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center.  Pour the eggs and about a cup of water in center.  Start mixing with a large spoon .  You will need to add more water, a little at a time,  to incorporate all of the flour.  Once all of the flour is mixed in, the fun begins.  With cleaned, ringless hands, start mixing the dough(it will be sticky).  You may need to add a little more flour to make it into a nice round ball.  The dough should no longer stick to your fingers.  Let rest at room temperature, covered.                                                                                                                                              Place potatoes in a bowl, mash with a potato masher so that there are no large lumps.  Stir in onions and butter and salt and pepper to taste.  May need to add more melted butter so that the mixture holds together on a large soup spoon.                          Roll the dough on a large floured bread board. flip and re-roll, making sure there is plenty of flour on board so that the dough doesn’t stick.  Cut 2 1/2-3″ circles with a cookie cutter.  Spread a heaping tablespoon or more potato filling in the center of each round, fold over and crimp the edges with your fingers.  Have a rolling pot of salted water ready on the stove.  Add about 3 or 4 of the pierogi into the pot.  Stir so that they don’t stick on the bottom.  When they rise to the top, scoop them out with a slotted spoon and add them to a casserole dish that is laden in butter.  The heat from the pierogi will melt the butter.  You may store these in the freezer, bake in a 350 oven until browned and crisp on the edges, or simply fry on top of the stove.  Gramma served them along side cottage cheese.  A good Friday night meatless dish since we were all Catholics.  I have been trying to get my daughter, Lindsay, to make these with us but she is never home long enough.  She is a Madisonite.  The tradition has now passed on to my nieces, who live near me in Ohio.

From the Recipe Box of: Josephine Holkovic

Recipe Story:

My Czechoslovakian grandparents lived up the lane from us and since I always had a love of cooking and baking, became my gramma's right hand man when it came to all things Slovak. She taught me to make donuts, palacinky, chicken paprikas, krupitso sleeza, boofty, jaternici, and of course, pierogi. There was never a recipe at hand, only gramma's memories that she learned from her mother. Therefore, the recipes are merely a guesstimate as to how much of anything was used, but I've tried her handful of this and a scoop of that for years, and everything seems to bring out rave reviews from family members. Gramma Josie will always be remembered for her humor, love of a good story, and especially the recipes she brought from her home country.

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