Perogie, Pierogi, Pyroghi

A short time ago, someone in my office noticed that the office butter had been left on top of the toaster oven, causing it to melt all over the place.  (The culprit has yet to be apprehended, I believe).  After a quick accusatory glance my way - no, I did not do it, as I used the microwave that day - we got into a discussion of the age of that butter.  As in, How long has the butter been sitting out?  I guessed about two weeks, and S confirmed that was probably true.  DP stared incredulously - "Butter doesn't have to be refrigerated."  (Okay, I'm paraphrasing, but the point was that it could stay out for a few days at a time without going bad.)

After looking at the package (which recommends refrigeration), and the Internet (Wikipedia can't even be trusted for keeping you food safely stored, in my opinion), DP pointed out that Blue Cheese has bacteria, as do all cheeses.

My response - of course it does.  But it has happy, tasty (ish, sometimes) bacteria.  Good cheeses only have certain bacteria exposure, and when others are thrown into the mix, it makes it more "milk gone bad" than "wine companion".

Then DP suggested it as a perogie filling.  He may not have meant it to be a dare, but alas - I took it!  (And there wasn't much else to do last Sunday afternoon)

I've only tried it once, in my pre-goat cheese stage of life.  As life is meant to be full of, well, living - I'm willing to try again.  Now that I have, I can understand why people would gain that acquired taste for it.  I, however, have a few too many country smells in my repertoire, and it reminds me of one of the less satisfying.  I could go into what it is, but I've decided that it would be better to politely shake my head and say "no, thanks."  I don't want to ruin your appetite on a food blog.

(The same thing happens with lamb.  It reminds me of something unsavoury.  That is, except the first and only time I had a roasted lamb, made by my best friend's mother, when I went camping with them.  Wow.  Unbelievably succulent, Mrs. L!)

Anyway, I still decided to go ahead, as I planned on trying, at the very least.  In addition, there's always the chance that a good companion will change the game.  I've searched out the web for great foods to eat with blue cheese, and came up with this idea.  So, without any more delay, I give you the recipe (which is very simple):

100 grams blue cheese (I went with Cambozola cheese, which is a mild blue cheese)
1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts
1 nectarine
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup water


After rolling out the dough, fill with chopped walnuts and slices or crumbles of the cheese.  As a sweet accompaniment, bring the water and sugar to a boil in a frying pan, then add slices of the nectarine.  Do not brown the nectarine, but let it soften, then remove.  Boil the perogies, letting them pop up to the top, then place in the frying pan with the remainder of the juices.  Add more water, if needed.  Fry lightly, keeping sure that the perogies do not stick to the pan.
Remove, and eat with the nectarines.



The Hubby's thoughts:  Liked them a lot, despite the blue cheese.  (Even though he spent a good amount of his life in France, he didn't quite get into blue cheese.)  He remembers looking forward to the next one each time.

Since we needed to get blue cheese lovers into the picture, I brought them to the office, for more taste testing.  The results:
Um, Um.  Oh yeah.  Oh yes.  (Not paraphrasing.)  After a couple of minutes, someone suggested that they should perhaps turn off the lights.

This made for a pretty good afternoon.