Kate here again. It’s been awhile. Although our YES! magazine internships are long over, Jenni and I are still cooking on opposite sides of the country. Just not blogging about our (mis)adventures as much, apparently. Got many requests for this recipe, but first some background about my obsession with pierogis:

Pittsburgh PA, my hometown, is the unofficial pierogi capital of the world. (well, I guess Poland or Ukraine is, but we’re not in Eastern Europe right now, are we?) So, in my opinion, REAL Pittsburghers brag about where to find the perfect pierogis, not the “almost famous” Primanti’s Bros sandwiches topped with fries and coleslaw, despite popular belief. My favorite pierogis are the ones homemade from scratch, since I’m half Polish, but I also have a few recommendations where to buy homemade ones almost as good. If you wanna know, just ask!

Anywho, there’s a major drawback to making pierogis: They’re incredibly time-consuming. Last year, I decided to make a batch for an international potluck lunch, and they took me more than three hours from beginning to finish. There’s making the dough and the filling, pinching them together, etc. So that’s an obstacle. Putting them in lasagna form is MUCH easier, to say the least, although the homemade ones I make are stuffed with cottage cheese and green onion, not potato or sauerkraut. Can’t win ‘em all, but maybe I can alter the recipe sometime when I’m feeling REALLY motivated.

Also, this was my source, which I stumbled upon during a very random pierogi-related Google search. My version is slightly different, through trial and error. I tried to quote any sentences in the recipe that i re-used verbatim. (because I’m an awesome journalist like that, attributing sources)

There are three parts to the lasagna: the potatoey layer, the mornay sauce, and the caramelized onion topping.

Here’s what you need for each:

Lasagna (with potato layer):

• 4 to 6 large potatoes, diced (I used four, and it was barely enough.)
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• One package of shredded cheese of your choice (Colby Jack was in the fridge and worked fine for me) 1/2 cup to be used with potato filling
• 1/2 cup milk for creamier potatoes
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 package of oven-ready lasagna noodles (my favorite)
• 2 cups of Mornay sauce (recipe follows)
• Golden butter and onion topping (recipe follows)

“Fill a large pot with cold water and add the potatoes,” the recipe says. Bring your water to a boil until potatoes are tender and mash-ready. Drain water, and then mix butter, sour cream, cheese, and milk. Use hand-mixer until smooth, taking a minute or two.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Now, In a 9 x 13 pan, grease pan, “and pour 1/4 cup of milk into the bottom of the pan,” the recipe says. I also picked up the pan and tilted it from side to side to evenly spread the milk. Lay down in this order: noodles, potatoes, mornay sauce. Do this three times. End with another layer of noodles. Cover this layer with the remaining mornay. I also topped it with grated cheese, to make it look like more traditional lasagna. I might add this as part of the layering process next time. Cover with aluminum foil and cook for 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes.

For the Mornay Sauce: (yields about 2 cups)

• 2 1/2 Tbsp butter
• 6 Tbsp flour (I used more than 3 Tbsp, like the original recipe called for because I like a thicker sauce)
• 2 cups milk
• 4 ounces grated Cheese (once again, Colby Jack worked fine, although I’m sure they’re interchangeable)
• salt and pepper, to taste

“In a medium pot, melt the butter over low-medium heat. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly about a minute. Slowly whisk in the milk and continue to whisk until the sauce thickens and comes to a boil, about 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to a simmer and whisk in the cheese. Allow to simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper. If the sauce seems too thick, add milk in small increments until you get the consistency you want.”

Personally, I think thicker sauce worked better, otherwise I think it would’ve made the lasagna too mushy.

For the Topping:

• 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
• 2 small onions, sliced thin (I had excessive amounts of onion, but I guess it all depends on how much you like)

“Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the onions and stir to coat everything with butter. Continue to stir and cook for 10 minutes until the onions have caramelized.” Top individual slices with layer of onions. Mmm, my favorite!

And voila! You have excessive amounts of delicious pierogi goodness in less than half the time!

Once again, I’d like to thank this blogger for such a creative and innovative idea! Best. Idea. Ever. Please, if anyone else tries making this, let me know how it goes!

Hello, all! Kate here. I’m Jenni’s friend, co-worker, house mate, and now co-blogger! I’ve been name dropped here a few times already, so why not start contributing? I think I’m doomed to have some misadventures in cooking; I didn’t learn how to cook chicken (of a non-Tyson variety) until my junior year of college.

Anywho, I made some lovely blackberry scones with a lemon glaze tonight that I’d like to share.

So to give this food story a bit of context, I fell in love with some of the pastries at a local bakery. Specifically, Blackbird Bakery’s tasty scones. They just go so well with milk. But at $2.50 to $3 a pop, my wallet wasn’t very happy with me. As much as I like to support local business, it was time to see if I could make them for myself to save money and to replicate for when I fly back to Pittsburgh in a couple months.

I wasn’t expecting scones to be so simple to make!

Here’s what you need:

• 2 Cups flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 6 Tbsp cold butter
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 Cup milk (I used 2%)
• 1 Cup frozen blackberries (emphasis on frozen)

In addition, also set aside

• 1 Tbsp flour + enough to flour a surface
• 1 Tbsp cold butter

First, preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Then, in a small bowl, toss frozen blackberries with the Tbsp of flour that was set aside. Place the bowl back in freezer. This is an important step, as to not turn the blackberries into jam during the dough mixing process.

Then, in a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Once mixed, cut 6 Tbsp into small piece and mix with fork. (A pastry blender would work too, but I used a fork and it was fine.) Be sure that the butter is chopped into fine pieces. Stir in the milk and vanilla extract until a doughy mixture forms. Now is the time to take blackberries out of the freezer and carefully work the blackberries in the dough with floured hands. Pat the dough out onto a floured surface and shape into a square. Then, quarter into squares, then split in half into eight triangles. Place scones on a greased cookie sheet. Cut the remaining butter into eight pieces and place on top of each scone.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until golden brown.

For the glaze, I whisked 2/3 cup powdered sugar and used about 4 Tbsp of lemon juice. Wait until scones are cooled to add the glaze.

And voila! Enjoy wonderful pastries for the fraction of the price. I’m going to take these to the local foods potluck at the office tomorrow. Hopefully they’re a hit!

Note: Jenni made blackberry cheesecake bars tonight too (for the potluck), so we’ve made very tasty and local treats with all the blackberries we picked on our walking commute to work! If you ever try picking yourself, just watch out for the thorns.

Labor Day got us feeling all kinds of patriotic, so we decided to have a cookout! I prepped some corn with olive oil and handed them off to grill master Kate. We also made turkey dogs! Kate’s sunflower named Fred and my lovely Lolita the orchid hung out in the sun together. It was overall a wonderful day. Janson flexed his patriotic muscles by staying inside and letting the women cook.

I also put together a salad from some greens Kate and I got from the Ballard farmers’ market [with our food stamps!] and a bunch of stuff I found in the fridge like chick peas, tomatoes and avocado. In honor of my friend Ariana, who always made the best dressing for us, I whipped up something of my own. I kept it pretty basic though with just some salt, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice but Janson ate several helping of salad, and if you know him that means it was a success. We capped it off with some local beer and the movie “Men Who Stare at Goats,” which finally broke our bad movie streak.

Blackberries rank up near mangoes and nectarines in my list of favorite fruits. When I found out that blackberries grew likes WEEDS here, I was even more excited to move and also turned off that they were compared with weeds. Anywho, thankfully they grow rampant on the island, and I walk by several bushes every morning on my way to work. Since this summer in Washington was unnaturally cold, they berries had a late bloom, which meant for me a lot of sour taste tests.The other day they finally looked juicy enough to eat! So Kate, Janson and I picked TONS of them, got real cut up and covered in blood juice. But the real misfortune was what we decided to do with those berries. For dinner Kate cooked some turkey burgers she got for free at the lovely Helpline House and I sauteed some veggies for a side. But our real treat was going to be the blackberry cobbler we made from a recipe Kate found in the New York Times. Well, the recipe SUCKED, I know it had to be the recipe … it just tasted like “a dessert that someone would sell as ‘healthy,’” according to Janson. So we loaded it with Cool Whip and it was OK.

I picked some more today for some blackberry cheesecake bars, which will hopefully not be as disappointing. 

So as with most blogs I start, at some point I start slacking off. At least I have continued eating, just not posting.

There is a community garden at work we are encouraged to pick from. I think, as unpaid interns, we are pressured more than others to benefit from the goodies. I’ve been eating a lot of kale lately. So I made a basic pasta and sauteed some kale, garlic, heirloom tomatoes and mushroom [all locally sourced, YAY]. It turned out nice, an easy meal.

I LOVE grilled cheese. But I could never do it right, like how my dad made it. So I bought some fancy cheese and tried. This was made with Gruyere cheese and some caramelized onion. I also used olive oil to coat the bread instead of the butter I’m used to and I like it a lot more. So I’m satisfied with the results and my inevitable onion breath.

I got the recipe from the blog Pink Basil, who I am really jealous of because she takes beautiful photos of her easy-to-make food. I really just need to invest in a nicer camera.

Last night I made baby corn in a black bean sauce. I gave some to my roommate and she didn’t spit it out!

Here’s what went in it:

• 2 cups of fresh baby corn
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp black bean sauce
• 1tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1tsp finely chopped garlic
• 1 tsp finely chopped ginger
• 1 tbsp corn flour/corn starch
• 4tbsp water
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds

For all of the steps, see Chimmayie’s (a graphic designer and food lover living in Bangalore) food blog, Love Food Eat.

Last year I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the first time for my family. This was a major achievement for me considering I had never cooked an egg in my life, much less a whole turkey. I come from a very loving family, but my mother — bless her — hates to cook. That should have been my cue to learn and take over, but I could never find the right time (or tried).

I just moved to the direct-opposite corner of the U.S. — Bainbridge Island, WA, a small island about a 35-minute ferry ride from Seattle. I’ll be interning at YES! Magazine for the next three months, and since it is unpaid, I’ll be using my new food stamp money to try and hone my cooking skills so I won’t just have to bring desserts to potlucks.

Watch me fail/succeed!