Peter & Pat's Bacon & Cheddar Cheese Pierogies with Bacon & Brussel Sprouts

Hangry, a perfect word for summing up the overwhelming feeling of anger in response to hunger, and an emotion that you never want to catch me in the midst of! It's unpleasant, to say the least. In order to prevent unnecessary hangry episodes in my home,  I have to keep my kitchen stocked with quick and easy midweek dinner options so that I can get food into my hangry mouth as quickly as possible on busy evenings. Of course we will always have our shameful boxes of mac and cheese and instant pancake mix, but it's important for me to keep more "legit" options in my freezer as well. This is where I keep my store-bought asian dumplings, trays of homemade lasagna, chilli, and soup, and, one of my favourite go-to's, frozen pierogies! 

Frozen pierogies have come to be one of my all-time favourite weeknight go-to meals thanks to how convenient they are to store, their simplicity, satiety, delicious taste, and versatility. The amazing thing about pierogies is just how versatile they are. They come in so many different flavours, but more than that, the options for serving and topping pierogies are endless! 

Recently Peter & Pat's Pierogies reached out to me to introduce me to their line of Bacon & Cheddar Cheese Pierogies made from a 60-year old family recipe, with 100% real potatoes, and 100% natural ingredients. Disappointed with the usual pierogies I was buying at the grocery store, I was eager to try out Peter & Pat's product, which are now available for purchase at Costco locations throughout Canada. Not only did Peter & Pat's Pierogies provide me with a sample of their product, they also sent along a few recipes for me to try out with their pierogies! 

While I have always loved serving my pierogies with sautéed bacon and onions, with a big ol' dollop of sour cream, the combination of the bacon and sour cream (plus all of the bacon, potato, and cheese inside the pierogies) made the dish a little heavy for a weeknight meal. I loved Peter & Pat's suggestion to try the pierogies with sautéed brussel sprouts, with bacon and onions. Though the suggestion was to serve the perogies with quartered brussel sprouts on the side, I thought it would be even more delicious to serve just the sautéed brussel sprout leaves tossed right into the pierogies. Though it was a bit of an odd combo that I had never thought to try before, the brussel sprout leaves tasted so delicious with the pierogies, especially when combined with the bacon and onions. The brussel sprout leaves were fantastic for cutting all of the richness in the dish, giving it a really nice balance. 

More than just the serving suggestion, I was really impressed with the flavour of Peter & Pat's Pierogies. That 100% potato flavour came through really strong, with the flavour of the bacon and cheddar cheese merely complimenting the potato filling, as opposed to overwhelming it. I love how the potato remained the star! The pierogies also had a great texture, and featured the signature crimped edges that you find with homemade pierogies. I will definitely continue to keep their pierogies stocked in my freezer from now on! 

Be sure to keep your eye out for Peter & Pat's Bacon & Cheddar Cheese Pierogies at your local Costco, and try out the recipe for Pierogies with Bacon & Brussel Sprouts below! You're gonna love it! 

* Cutting bacon into lardons means slicing it into paper clip-sized pieces.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

14-20 frozen Peter & Pat's Bacon & Cheddar Cheese Pierogies

about 12 brussel sprouts, leaves picked, core discarded

4 slices bacon, cut into lardons*

1/2 medium onion, fine dice 

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, separated 
salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Boil pierogies as directed on package. Drain and set aside. While pierogies are cooking prepare topping. 
2. In a large nonstick skillet, cook bacon at medium heat until fat has rendered. Remove with a slotted spoon, and set aside on a paper-towel lined dish. 
3. Drain fat from pan, leaving 1-Tbsp. Add onion and cook for 1-2 minutes until softened. Remove to a bowl with a slotted spoon. 
4. Add 1-Tbsp butter to pan and add brussel sprouts. Cook, stirring often, until leaves are slightly crisp and charred on the edges. Season with salt and pepper. 
5. Add remaining 1-Tbsp butter along with pierogies, bacon, and onion to the brussel sprouts and toss to combine. Serve immediately. 

Listening To:

Portland - Drake ft. Quavo & Travis Scott

When Life Hands You Bagels, You Make Everything Bagel Butter

What do you do when life hands you an obscene amount of plain, grocery store bagels? You make Everything Bagel Butter! This past weekend I had the chance to escape the city and head to beautiful Minden Hills near Haliburton to celebrate my good friend Rommi's bachelorette. Though the prospect of spending the weekend on a dock with a bunch of like-minded and hilarious ladies is enough to get me pumped about going away, in typical Danielle fashion, the thought of getting permission to binge eat all weekend using the "calories don't count on vacations" excuse, was always in the back of my mind. 

Though I arrived at the cottage a day later than most of the group, I couldn't believe how much food and snacks were still decorating the cottage. Everywhere you looked you would find gummies of every shape and flavour, Kettle Chips in just about every seasoning, hard candies shaped like dicks (it was a bachelorette weekend after-all!), Oreos, brownies, bagels, fruit, vegetables, I could go on and on! I was in snack-attack heaven! Come Sunday, upon our time of departure, I was amazed at how much food ten small women had consumed in only a few days. It was downright impressive! But as is true with any girls getaway, our eyes were much larger than our stomaches and despite our impressive consumption, we ended up with quite the haul of leftovers by the end of the weekend. 

With so much leftover food about to hit the trash, along with my recent extreme budging and fear of food waste, I happily accepted any of the leftover food that no one else wanted to take. Though I was thrilled to go back to Toronto with a kitchen full of food, I somehow ended up with over a dozen bagels for just myself and my boyfriend. I'm not just talking about any kind of bagels here, I'm talking the plain, ol' grocery store kind, devoid of any flavour or appetizing texture. Sure, you can call me a food snob, but I've grown up eating some of the best bagels this city has to offer, and plain grocery store ones just do not do it for me. Despite my distaste for the brand of bagels, I was still grateful to have free food, and knew that I would be able to think up a creative way for making those sad excuse for bagels edible. 

Once again, I find myself thanking the heavens for giving me the gift of Pinterest, as all I had to do was quickly scroll through my board of Recipes To Make to find an easy-as-can-be recipe for Everything Bagel Butter! Pure genius and just what I needed to give my plain bagels a much-needed flavour boost! This trick for making a compound butter, enhanced with the flavourings from an everything bagel, was the kind of idea that had me thinking "why didn't I think of that?" The Everything Bagel Butter took all of 5 minutes to make (maybe even less!), and only two hours in the fridge, and most definitely did the trick in making my bagels delicious! It's safe to say I've eaten at least one bagel per day since returning thanks to my new favourite butter! 

WARNING: Do not eat this butter before a date! It contains both dried onion and garlic and will leave you needing a very good tooth-brushing, flossing, and mouth-washing session. You have been warned! 

Check out the blog Spend With Pennies for the full recipe for making Everything Bagel Butter! 

Listening To:

A #createlounge podcast!