Kielbasa & Pierogies

More comfort food. I'm obsessed. Frozen pierogies were a treat when I was growing up. They were always potato and onion, and they always came frozen, in a box. Mrs. T's.

Somewhere along the line, I learned to love cooking.  Then I became obsessed with the ethnic cooking, and eventually searching for the roots of the ethnic food my own family ate when I was growing up.  Now I know that I could make pierogies from scratch, but instead I've switched to the Sam's brand of the months (and flavor of the month) and look for recipes I can use them in.

Kielbasa & Pierogies

Ingredients

• About 16 frozen pierogies
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3-4 cups packaged coleslaw mix
• 1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 12 ounces kielbasa sausage, cut into 1/4-inch slices

Directions

1. Bring a large shallow pot of water to a boil and drop in frozen pierogies. Boil over medium heat until pierogies float to the top, about 5 minutes; drain and set aside.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add cabbage and onions, cooking about 5 minutes until cabbage is wilted. Stir in kielbasa pieces; cook until sausage is heated through, another 5 minutes.
3. Gently lay pierogies into the skillet and move sausage mixture aside to allow pierogies to cook on the surface of the hot skillet.  Turn heat down to medium-low and cook until they puff up and brown slightly, about 10 minutes on each side.

This is a great, easy to make dinner.  And SO tasty!  Use whichever type pierogi you love.  My personal favorites are potato and onion, but the rest of the family loves potato and cheddar.  I would have no problem doubling the amount of cabbage to stretch this for unexpected company.

~ Enjoy!

Operation Clean Out the Freezer - Day #8

I heart Bethany's Italian Sausage with Bowties.   A lot.  I forgot how much until I ate dinner tonight.

For the Love of Grub:  Italian Sausage with Bowties. 

There was a moment of panic when I thought I only had one can of tomatoes, but thankfully there was a second hiding behind the canned chicken.  (Can you believe I made it through four decades on earth without ever knowingly eating canned chicken?  Yea...  if it weren't for necessity, I'd have like to have made it my whole life. :p)

As always, less is not more when it comes to fresh garlic.  I used about six cloves... maybe 3 or 4 teaspoons.  We do love our garlic!  I think I may have used a whole teaspoon of red pepper flakes (I was sort of, maybe, kind of winging it..) but no one is complaining it's too spicy.  Whew.

If you think this recipe is awesome, check out the others on Bethany's blog.  It's one of my main go-to recipe sites.  I linked above in this post and there's also a link in the sidebar.

ENJOY!