I made pierogies. Overall, I’m glad I did, because I’ve never made them before. The recipe I used is here, and it worked–though when they say to salt the filling “rather well” you might want to take that with a grain of…well, you know, and scale back a bit. Mine was a tad too salty.
They came out fine. They tasted great. But I decided two things: 1. pictures of pierogies are boring, and 2. I probably won’t make them again.
As two of my friends told me–friends who used to make pierogies but don’t anymore–you can eat Mrs. T’s Pierogies, from the frozen food aisle, and they taste pretty much the same. They’re much less trouble, too. And they use far, far fewer dishes. I think I used pretty much every pot and bowl I had to make these.
The dough consists of flour, butter, and warm water. The recipe says to do it by hand, but I did it in my stand mixer.
the dough
While the dough is resting, you boil some potatoes and fry some onions. After the potatoes have boiled and been drained and cooled slightly, you mash them up with a potato masher and combine them with the cheese and the onions, and set aside.
the filling
A word about the cheese: the recipe says to use farmer cheese, but I used crumbled up Queso Fresco, because here in San Antonio it is much easier to find and I think it’s similar in texture. It worked fine, in any case.
the cheese and the ravioli/pierogi/empanada/potsticker maker
Next, you roll out the dough. After it has rested some it is very easy to work with. To cut and shape the pierogies, I used my multipurpose dumpling, etc., maker. It is usually, in my kitchen, called upon to make empanadas (in fact, I don’t even want to think about how many empanadas this poor little tool has seen). But it worked perfectly for the pierogies.
roll them out and cut them
fill them, and seal them up
And then, just when you think you’ve used every pot in the kitchen, you need to bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pierogies a few at a time, and take them out just as soon as they float to the top–about a minute or less.
To serve, get out yet another pan (this time a frying pan) and saute the pierogies in butter. Top with more fried onions and sour cream. 
And then, wash the dishes. All. The. Dishes.
They look yummy and like a whole lotta trouble, like you said.
Yes, buy the frozen! Pat B turned me on to them and they are much simpler. Thanks for trying out different things for us, though. You make our lives easier.