Pierogi Day 2010

On New Years Eve, we along with Steve & Jenny hosted the 2nd Annual Valentine Pierogi Day. & it was a success if I do say so myself!

Robby's Grandma Virginia, his mom's mom was 100% polish & in honor of the family heritage, Bob & Jeannine, Robby's parents decided to set aside a day each year to make pierogies. This tradition has been going for at least 5 years in Dallas, maybe more. Last year, the Valentine's were at our house and hosted Pierogi Day with us as the helpers. This year was our first attempt at running the show. All said & done, it was a little more work than anticipated but so much fun!

We had nearly 40 people & made about 240 pierogies which were enjoyed with a delicious spread of sides including a few Polish dishes: red cabbage, chocolate babka & kielbasa shipped by Grandma Virginia from The Polish Place Butcher Shop in Detroit, Michigan. All of our cooking & eating was accompanied with Polka music that we have stuck in our head for weeks following ; )

One side note, according to Big Bob, you can only wear a Polish shirt purchased by him if you are Polish. He bought all the Pollocks the "You bet your Pierogi I'm Polish" shirts back in 2006. The next year they got the shirts that say "Polska" down the sleeve. Jenny & I were extremely jealous & tried to convince Bob to buy us some but he held his ground & forced us to make our own. We settled upon "The Polish love me" & surprised everyone at Pierogi Day 2007. This year, we had to make shirts for the girls who are 1/8th Polish....you will see what we decided on in a picture below.

Here are some snapshots of the day.....

Our welcome sign on the front door. When we were prepping for the day on the night before, we started adding "ski" to everything we said & basically could not stop laughing.

The 3 of us (4 if you count growing baby in belly)

Bella Blue in her "You bet your Pierogi I'm Polish" shirt. She wore it all day!

Here are the slaves to the kitchen to keep things moving along.....

Jenny was the pierogi boiler, Steve boiled the smoked Kielbasa for us

Robby manned the dough making & cutting while I fried the boiled ones out on the back porch.

What is not pictured is the rotating groups of 6 at the kitchen table rolling out the cut circles, stuffing them with potato & cheese filling then sealing them with a little water and a fork to press the edges together. This team of folks were quick learners & great Pierogi makers. We will invite them back next year ; )

Here are Charlotte & Karis in their adorable shirts their creative mothers made them ; ) Aunt Jenny surprised us with the matching bows!

Our neighbors Hugo, Juanita & Matilda joined us for the festivities. Their family moved here from Colombia & Juanita surprised us by revealing that she is part Polish as well!

And just for one last laugh, when one child arrived, she placed a sticker randomly on Charlotte's shirt. Our little Polish Chick became a Polish Hick in a split second.

We celebrated Jenny's 27th Birthday in the midst of Pierogi Day. She looked stunning in Charlotte's feather boa as we sang Happy Birthday : )

An amazing crew stayed after and tagged team whipping the kitchen & living area back in to working order. It was a DISASTER! Once it was all done, we spent the afternoon relaxing and definitely went to be long before 2011 began. I miss living in Texas where I could just stay up until 11pm & watch the ball drop in New York. I probably wouldn't even make it until then these days but it is a nice thought to think I would enjoy it ; )

The year would be incomplete without Pierogi Day & we cannot WAIT until next year when the Valentine's will be here to celebrate with us! We are wondering if we can reuse a "Polish Chick" shirt on Baby Valentine #2 or if we will, as Uncle Steve said, have to turn it into "Polish Chick Magnet." Both would be cute right?