Pierogi!

I <3 pierogi. Believe it or not, I've never had them before now. Yes it's true. They sound like something I'd like. They feature a lot of my favorite ingredients: potato, mushrooms, saurkraut, dry fruit. Somehow I'd just never gotten around to eating them.

Flash forward to today. I was getting a hankering for potato and cheese, and my healthy diet resolve was starting to yield to the pressure of animal fries from In~n~Out and those wonderfully soggy chili cheese fries from Tommy's. Then bam, it hit me. Pierogi! I had all the stuff I needed to make at home, and I could satisfy my cravings while continuing my explorations of the dumpling continuum (Pretentious!).

Boiled and panfried pierogi finished with black pepper.

I didn't work from a recipe, just from a classic flavor combination. Here's what I added:
2 ea onions, small diced and caramelized
8 oz sharp cheddar, small diced
2 c instant mashed potato (Don't judge me! It's what I had in the pantry.)
TT salt
TT black pepper
AN water
cold water jiaozi dough

 This will yield you a bunch of pierogi. I've only made 15 for lunch, and it barely made a dent in the filling. Sadly, I forgot to add garlic, which would be tasty.

Forming is the same for jiaozi, pleats optional and not traditional. Boil them in salted water until the dough is cooked. Serve them, or crisp them up in a oiled pan on the stove.

I'm going to try and make some prune pierogi with some of those prunes haunting my cabinet.