Happy New Year (2015)!

Happy New Year, peeps! 

I really wanted to begin this post by saying that the Poet Tree is back up, but it's not.  Clearly a Grinch is at work in the city of London.

I just finished reading my 2013 New Year's post - HNY 2013 - and I am not sure what to say except that resolutions are meant to be broken; and my coiffure is lame:

Okay, enough vanity from me.  In 2014, I didn't write a crossword (surprise) and I didn't finish a novel.  I am not going to focus on my epic fail, instead, I choose to revel in the writing that I did do:  blog posts, poetry, short fiction and nonfiction, and several knitting patterns.

Dare I make some resolutions for 2015?  Let me think on that while I share my New Year's treat for you, my loyal readers.   Here are two of my favourite, tried and tested seasonal recipes: Perogies / Petahe (pronounce that weirdass word like this:  petta-heh) and Potato Latkes.

I recruit the family to make many dozen petahe at Christmastime.  We fight, and roll dough, and fill circles with mashed potatoes and cheese, and boil, and laugh and fight some more.  I have a lot of pictures to illustrate the madness that is perogy-making.

Seriously?  I can't find any of my pics! They are gone.  Dammit.  Hold on.

Here's a poem to read by haiku master Kobayashi Issa.  Enjoy it, while I go look for my missing pictures (ha ha, I'm hilarious).

New Year’s Day--

everything is in blossom!

I feel about average.

I really love these simple and funny lines.

*****

Okay, I found the pics.
Here are the perogies, frying in the pan in a LOT of butta:

Now they're on the plate, accompanied by a side of onions fried in butter, and a very large dollop of sour cream, and the whole mess is about to be devoured by me:

Apologies to those of you who are feeling less than fresh this New Year's Day.  If you had been smart like me, and drank only 1.5 glasses of wine, you will think that these look delish!  If you were feeling particularly merry last night and overindulged in food and drink, you might want to skip this post.

And now for the latkes.

My daughter is so sweet; she brought this amuse-bouche to me as I was typing away happily:

Holy shizzlesticks! It is so lipsmacking delicious, I am going to combust.

Here's a pan full of them, sizzling in hot oil:

If you haven't made either of these delectable nibbles before, I recommend that you start with the latkes.  They're easy, and it's pretty hard to screw them up.

*****

PEROGIES

The recipe I have adapted is from kooky Ken Kostick's mother, Helen.  You might remember Ken and his wacky cooking show, which I watched religiously.

I loved that show.  Ken is no longer with us, but his recipes live on.  Here is my adapted recipe:

You start by making the filling (red potatoes, milk, cheese, fried onion, butter) and the dough (flour, salt, oil, water).  Super easy.  I don't typically add bacon to my petahe, but some do. 

Roll out the dough on a well-floured surface and use a thin glass to cut out circles.  Place approximately a tbsp of filling on each perogy.  

It is very important to properly seal the edge of the perogies when you fold them in half.  Pinch all around the half circle, making sure that there aren't any holes where the filling can leak out when you're boiling them.  You will only make that mistake once.

Drop 10 to 15 perogies into a pot full of boiling, salted water.  

The petahe are cooked when they float up to the surface of the water. Remove the perogies with a slotted spoon and place them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet to cool.  They can be eaten after boiling (the texture is like a dumpling or gnocchi) but I prefer them fried in butter with a big side of fried onions and sour cream.  Fat city!

Oh yeah, baby.

Once you've finished boiling all of the perogies, cover the cookie sheets with saran wrap and put them in the freezer.  Once they're frozen, remove them from the cookie sheet and dump them into large ziploc bags.  If you try to skip the "freezing them individually" step, and chuck them into a bag and into the freezer right after you've made them, they will stick together in a giant frozen ball of perogy, ruining all your hard work. You will only make this mistake once.

Bags of homemade perogies make great gifts.  People love them.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/say-it-with-pierogies-jc-duffy.html

LATKES

This recipe is from Martha Stewart.  I don't use sweet potatoes; I prefer to use red potatoes.  Having said that, they are equally delicious.

Peel your potatoes, and put the peels in the composter.  If you don't compost, it's time to start.  

Do not use a box grater to grate the potatoes and onion unless you want shredded fingers in your latkes.  Get that food processor out.  I don't care if it's "hard to clean".  Suck it up and save yourself some time and your fingers some skin. 

Martha does not tell you to strain the grated potatoes, but I do this to remove the excess liquid.  Let the potaotes sit in a colander for 20 minutes or so, or if you're in a hurry, just use your hand to mash the shredded potatoes down, forcing out the liquid through the holes in the strainer.  

It looks like shredded mozzarella, doesn't it?

Quick aside.  Did I mention that I love my food processor?  Today, I wanted freshly squeezed o.j. so I thought I would try out the juicer attachment, but because I am a dunderhead, I misplaced the strainer part of the juicer.  The processor wouldn't operate without it, so I McGyvered it with a plastic fork.  Yes!  This picture makes me very happy:

Now back to the latkes.

I also shredded a large sweet onion using the FP:

Onions are very juicy, so I strained them too.  Don't cry!  Onions are pungent and powerful, and tears welled up in my eyes.

Mix everything together (see recipe) and fry until golden.  Serve with lots of full fat sour cream:

Stroking out here, but damn!, is that good.

*****

Happy New Year, everyone!

Optional musical pairing:  Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines because I couldn't stop singing it this morning.