PIEROGIPALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOZA

Ok, so....here is where it all started....In the basement of St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Catholic Church, Byzantine Rite under the Greek Orthodox Church (spoken language Ukrainian) when I was a wee one. We would actually first go to church upstairs. During mass, a coughing spell would usually attack me(how convenient). I'd end up being carried out by my daddy and dropped off in the basement kitchen with Gramma Dorothy. The coughing spell; however, was legit. Father Leo would swing his incense around like a crazy man purifying and sanctifying us all. For whatever reason that still puzzles me. It would make me get this God awful itch in my throat and I'd start coughing uncontrollably. The only remedy was a plastic cup of birch beer from the Church Kitchen (capitalized because alot of magic happened here back in the day).
Anyway, I am a pierogi aficionado- and a Polish princess to boot! I always liked the way my daddy would prepare them with sauteed onion and sourcream. He used to always, always, always, yell at me though becauseI liked to use ketchup on them.
I grew up eating the Church Pierogi. As a teen I started to wonder if I could make them too. Not better, nothing will ever compare to the flavor of the heart and soul those old ladies put into them, but my way. I started making them then. I made them from time to time, here and there. It wasn't until my daddy passed away in 1997 that I really started thinking about our family traditions. And it was then that Pierogipalooza came about. Through the years since I have served them for all holidays that I have shared with my brother. I needed to keep the tradition alive and will continue to do so with my own children when I have them.