All right, I’ll admit it. I am an incredible butter snob. I don’t DO margarine in any way, shape, or form. I don’t do "It’s Almost Butter" (no, in fact, it’s nothing like butter), or Blue Bonnet Margarine (do they even make that one any more?). In fact, I am so spoiled that I don’t even do Land of Lakes butter ..nothing less than Plugra, which I can’t  find here in Montana. I have never in my life found any recipe that called for margarine (or, horrors,oleo!), that couldn’t be improved tenfold by the real deal - butter.

So, having laid that background for myself, I will tell you all that I love pierogies. Many years ago, we were introduced to this wonderful dish by a real Polish Grandma who made them herself with much love tucked into each one. Whenever there was a special dinner or occasion, Grandma Pollack sent over a huge pan of her homemade pierogies. She even shared her precious family recipe with me. I looked over the recipe, and very smugly decided to change the "margarine" to butter. It had to be an improvement., right? Very wrong! After several attempts, using her recipe and others that I collected over the years, my pierogies were always a disaster. The dough didn’t hold up to the filling, becoming very wet and eventually falling apart before I could even cook them.

So I gave up and turned to Pierogies Plus. I discovered them when my daughter was in college in Pittsburgh. When we went to pick up our first order, there were real Ukranian and Polish "Grandmas" out back peeling hundreds of pounds of genuine potatoes for their pierogies. They were heavenly! So I just ordered them from there, feeling very inadaquate, but enjoying the product nontheless.

When our wonderful Val came to work at the store last year (the official store beautifier and organizer), I heard her talking about making pierogies. My ears perked up, as I knew that she hailed from a Hungarian/Eastern European background. Could she give me the secret to making these delicious pockets of bliss? Well, as it turns out, she certainly could and did. There was only one drawback..I had to use the dreaded margarine! She explained to me that she, too, had tried butter, but it just didn’t work out. Well, I was wondering, how could I even muster up the courage to purchase margarine at the grocery checkout? How embarassing! But I did, in fact gather up the strength of character to make the purchase, and finally, after all these years, managed to create some quite above average pierogies. The dough worked out beautifully, was easy to work with, and I must say that I am quite proud of myself.  If only I didn’t have to publicly purchase margarine.  Thanks Val!! Here’s her recipe.