A Polish Hash

Happy Monday! I am feeling rested and rejuvenated after a successful weekend of errands, cooking, and relaxing!  My boyfriend and I spent a lot of time this weekend in the grocery store and local ethnic markets picking out some foods for new recipes to enjoy while sipping wine and watching The Walking Dead, which we are totally addicted to!  I know I feature primarily sweets on my blog but I do cook often and wanted to share the meal I made this weekend.  

On Saturday afternoon we were perusing the shelves of Stop and Shop when I saw perogies and instantly got a craving.  Louis is Polish and absolutely loves Polish food – golumpkis, sauerkraut, kopusta... Up until I met him, I had never had polish food, not even a perogi.  It was all foreign to me, but I am not a big cabbage person, and that is a main ingredient in a lot of polish foods, but I did grow fond of Polish sausage and perogies!

So when I saw the perogies, my craving kicked in and Louis was totally on board.  However, we left S&S and he decided to take me to Belvedere’s, a local Polish market in East Windsor, CT.  I loved walking through the aisles and not being able to read anything—it reminded me of grocery shopping in Greece!!(which was the most INTERESTING experience of my life and warrants its own blog post someday!)  The juices and spices and soups..and the Polish sausage! It all looked so good, we couldn’t even choose. We ended up walking out with two packages of perogies (one 3-cheese and one with potato and bacon), half a stick of sausage, some sesame crackers, a loaf of fresh rye bread and a package of flavor filled chocolates that smelled so heavily of liquor after opening the bag, I had to put them away instantly.. although they were tasty! Just strong.. after biting into one, Louis laughed at me and said “it’s candy made by Polish people, obviously it has vodka in it!”… I should have known!

Anyways, I created a delicious dish with the perogies, sausage, onions, bacon and sweet potato. I don’t really have a recipe… I am all about cutting up ingredients and throwing them in together with spices… measuring just takes up too much time, and this dish wasn’t going to be healthy from the start so who cares! It was the perfect Saturday night meal we needed, filled with warmth and carbohydrate goodness!  Not every meal you eat needs to be healthy! You have to indulge! It’s all in moderation.

First I thawed the packages of perogies, and chopped the onions, bacon and sausage.  I cubed the a sweet potato and a Yukon potato and threw that into boiling water with some garlic salt for 15 minutes, until they were tender but not cooked all the way through just yet.  I drained and set aside. 

I got my skillet hot and added ¼ stick of salted butter and melted that down before throwing in the perogies.  I let them brown on each side for about 10 minutes, then removed from the skillet and put on a paper towel to rest and patted dry.  Of course, a healthier route would be to boil them, but traditional perogies are browned in a skillet with onions and bacon!   

I immediately added the bacon, onion and sausage to the skillet and let cook for about 15 minutes on medium heat, stirring frequently until onions and bacon was browned, and the sausage turned a darker pink. I added spices at this stage, such as cracked black pepper, garlic salt, a pinch of red pepper flake and some parsley.

I then added the potatoes, and let them brown while soaking up the flavors from the onions and sausage.  Once everything was browned and cooked to my liking, I threw the perogies back in the pan to heat them back up.  I topped it all with a thin layer of a three cheese blend, but any cheese works.  The salt of the cheese and sausage marries with the sweetness of the perogi dough and sweet potato, and the combination is amazing!

I served the dish with a side of rye bread, and mhmm it was yummy!

  It is definitely heavy on your stomach… You could lighten it up by adding veggies like sauerkraut or asparagus, or use less perogis, but it is rare to eat this food so I say if you’re going to make it, really go for it!  It will definitely hold my craving over for a while! 

We hope to travel to Poland in the next few years and really try an authentic Polish spread!

-Elena 

Baby Bliss

Recently, I’ve realized how much fun I have creating cakes for baby showers.  Sure it gets a little monotonous.. there’s only two possible outcomes and only so many colors (though usually it comes down to pink or blue!)… but I find each shower I do, I tweak my designs and change them up a little bit to really create something unique.

This shower was for a mom-to-be whom I met through my best friend’s family. I was so excited to hear the colors included purple!! Don’t get me wrong, I love pink, but it’s nice to throw other colors in there for contrast and purple is my favorite color!

One thing I decided to change up was my display.  The circular plates with the ribbon that I usually use are so perfect for baby showers – the ribbon ties in the theme and the presentation is always adorable but like I said, I am trying to tweak everything and switch it up! So I opted for the square, white enamel plates—and elegant design but no room for bows L I couldn’t deal with all that white showing, so I decided to cover the surface with fun, polka dotted paper that screamed “baby!!” to me! 

I wanted the cake-babies to be feminine and pretty, but fun—like the expectant mother!  So instead of the usual flowers, I decided to give the little girls bows, and I am so in love with the finished product.  The rosy cheeks added a perfect finish and I hear they were devoured in five minutes so nothing makes me happier than that!

And here is the finished product!

With the transition from babies and weddings to the holidays, I am excited to jump into different projects such as apple crisp, mini pies and peppermint bark! And of course, cake pops… It’s going to be an exciting few months, filled with the hustle and bustle of Christmas… just don’t forget to be present in your moments, especially the ones spent with family and friends! Don’t rush the holidays, take them minute by minute, or bite by bite, and savor them!  I am excited to see what this holiday season brings!

-Elena

A Flair for Fashion

Well here we are, November which means "holiday mode" is in full swing! I haven't been too busy in terms of baking which is good because I am prepping myself for the holiday season.. it is going to get busy but I say bring it on!!

This  “throw back Thursday” I’d like to throwback to an event I really enjoyed – a little girl’s fashion show themed birthday party! This party was actually for my cousin who invited all her friends to a local dance studio. They got their hair, nails and make up done, played games and at the end put on a fashion show complete with boas  and jewelry. It was the cutest thing. I wanted to really bring in the theme to this display and make it at girly as possible but also “grown up” without going overboard. 

My favorite part of this display is the base. I wanted it to scream high fashion! I love the mod sunglasses, models, and pictures of clothing and designers. I also included a lot of words that express fashion and being a girl – confidence, beautiful, natural, be yourself.  It really tied everything together!

The little picture frames with quotes from noted fashion icons were fun! I love the chocolate handbags.. I went crazy with chocolate molds!

Shoes! Every girl needs shoes.. definitely my favorite cake pops!

OK maybe the nail polishes were my favorite!

The chocolate lollipops were a huge hit! The little girls were running all around with them.

The finished product was amazing, and everyone really loved it.  It brought the party theme full circle and my little cousin Katie was in her glory – friends, fashion and food, what more can a girl want?

One day closer to the weekend! I am making a chicken soup from scratch this weekend which I am excited for! I also may try out a spice cake recipe I found... we'll see how it goes!

-Elena