Cooking Old Family Recipes - Pierogies

I have been craving for the past month to make a home-made dish that I can find in the freezer department in the grocery store. Pierogies!

My mother’s parents have a Slovakian heritage. My mother grew up with so many of these delicious meals. Her father, Stephen A. GABUZDA, immigrated to the United States over 100 years ago. He opened his own meat market store & shared the business with his brother who ran the local farm. Her mother, Mary I. SARNA, knew what to do with the goods her husband provided for the family’s meals.

A few years back, my cousin published a family cookbook with our grandmother’s & aunts’ recipes. 

I pulled out “Mom’s (Grandma’s) Pirogi.” Interesting with the many spellings of this dish.

I also found the well-known 1892-1952 The 60th Anniversary Slovak-American Cook Book in my mother’s cookbook collection. (seen above) This cookbook was given to her as a gift from her cousin, Mary Gabuzda, in 1969. I love what cousin Mary wrote in the front cover of the book, "To my dear cousin Martha, A little remembrance with recipes for Slovak Pastries and other dishes you enjoyed at home. With Love, Cousin Mary Gabuzda."  Mary Gabuzda (1903-1976) was the eldest daughter of Joseph Gabuzda. Joseph was the eldest of the 4 Gabuzda siblings who came to America from Austria-Hungary from 1899-1906.

Pirohy was found in the Bread section. This Pirohy recipe also included the cabbage filling. (For anyone who wants to find a copy of this cookbook, there are many sold online.)

I pulled out the prunes to boil & 3 potatoes to peel & boil as I chopped up half of the cabbage & onion.

I browned the cabbage & onions with some butter.

I continued to make & kneed the dough to roll out with my rolling pin. I cut out 9 three-inch squares.

When the potatoes were done I added two slices of American cheese & mashed the cheese in with the potatoes. 

I mashed the pitted prunes. I decided not to add the sugar as requested. 

My mouth is watering the whole time I am smelling these wonderful aromas.

I made nine pirogies of 3 each of the fillings. I decided to fry 5 of them and boil 4 of them. Both fried & boiled tasted great! Loved all 3 fillings. It will be fun to make these again playing with new ingredients.

These can be topped with sour cream, scallion & bacon bits. I did not have these on hand at the time.

Looking at the ones you can buy at the grocery store look better than mine; but,

taste as yummy. 

Next time, I will boil and then fry lightly to get the Mrs. T's look.

As a post-script, I will add what my mother wrote in the back of the Gabuzda Sisters Cookbook. She copied a story of a grandmother teaching her young granddaughter how to make Pirohies. At the end, the granddaughter asks, "Gram'ma, what do pirohies mean to you?"
"Pirohies mean love to me. My mother would spend all afternoon working in the kitchen, rolling out the dough & filling & shaping the pirohies. It means my mother in the kitchen loving her family & continuing a Slovak tradition." 
"Am I a pirohy? Mommy says kids take lots of time." the granddaughter replies.

A comment is added at the end. "Can't you just hear & picture an immigrant woman teaching her daughter or granddaughter in her broken English." She also gives credit to her sister, Marion, for the story.

I share these to inspire my cousins' children to continue on the stories & recipes from the Old Country.