A New Take on an Old Classic

When my father goes to Wawa he often buys perogies from the Polish Hall. He cooked up a batch while I was home and this got us brainstorming delicious combinations. Of course the Polish ladies make fabulous perogies, it's just that they make the standard ones. We came up with some ideas:
-Greek: feta, olives, oregano, potato
-Indian: potato, lentils, curry paste, peas (a little like a samosa), mild cheese
-Local: smoked fish (by my uncles), red skin potatoes, chives, local cheese

In all of our daydreaming we never got around to making the perogies (although I'm still game if you are, dad).

Today, Hi-C bestowed upon me her perogie skills and we improvised a scrumptious filling. We even decided to forgo more perogies and just ate the left over filling with a spoon. These little babies take hours, but they sure are worth it. First, you make the dough. You can find dough recipes online. A handy tip: use a pasta maker to get your dough to the right thickness (ie. flat). Cut out many many circular shells.

The marvelous filling (we used a recipe as a guide to proportions but just wing it)
-3 large sweet potatoes (baked until super soft then peel and mash)
-chopped chives
-chopped and caramelized onion
-genoa salami
-goat cheese
-rosemary
-pepper
-pinch of salt

Fold mixture in and seal (by squishing or with water if necessary). Fry up right away with some onions and butter or freeze to enjoy later. We did both of those things. We happened to get 25 each so I can have 3 perogies 8 times and one wonderful day with 4.

I was still feeling bake-y when I got home so I ripped open the box of cake-mix in the cupboard (ok, not that bake-y) and made THE MOST ABRASIVE cupcakes on earth. Strawberry flavoured with an unnatural pink hue. You see, I have an obsession. When I venture to the grocery store in the states I have to buy at least one thing. The sheer variety available, all the insane flavours they test on Americans before mass marketing in Canada is overwhelming. You thought choosing a flavour of Mini Wheats was a challenge at your local Canadian food basics???? Try it in the US*.

All this to say that the last time I went across I scored: strawberry cake mix, lemon icing (lemon!) and pineapple jell-o (I'm not entirely sure that this one is exclusively for the yanks). After opening the box of cake mix and pouring it into a bowl I discovered my need for three eggs and possession of two. Never fear, google is here. I felt smart replacing one egg with some apple puree until I "poured" in the puree and found it to be chunky. Now I have strawberry apple-chunk cupcakes. And no muffin liners. But with enough margarine they only semi-stuck to the pan. Oh, and they taste fairly awful.

*Upon further googling I have discovered that many of the flavours of Mini Wheats that once seemed totally insane have now been unleashed on the Canadian public.