Pierogies with turkey, tarragon, and spring vegetables.

One more recipe for you guys as I enter the black hole of good eating. I started with a personal trainer this week, as I want to try to enter a fitness competition in September (think bodybuilding). I've been thinking about it for a long time, and that day when I made the bread pudding? And ate it all day? remember? That's when I decided to go for it. Sometimes you need a big goal to kick you into line. I went through a true mourning period for my lost lover (food --good food) and then carb loaded on sugar and pasta last night. So yeah, my first day on the egg white and chicken breast and brown rice diet started today (with a little Molly McButter if you're a good girl --yeeesh), and I know there is no way I can do this if I have to cook 7 times a day, so I've got to make things all ahead of time, and I'm gearing up to cook up 10 dozen egg whites, 7 pounds of chicken and 6 pounds of tilapia with no salt, and I thought I'd finish this post while I try to make myself do it. I actually cooked this last week. It was really good, and it made the pierogies not such an unhealthy meal with the added protein and veggies.
Have you ever had pierogies? A guy from Canada that went to Monterey with me for a spring semester (we studied marine biology) in college used to eat them all the time, and made some for the rest of us. I wonder what happened to him? He was engaged to what seemed like a really mean girl. Like strange mean. One time we tried to call and pay for her to fly out and surprise him, and she got mad. What the? OK back to the pierogies. They are like pasta, but filled with potatoes, and sometimes onions or cheese. OK here's the recipe :


3 T. olive oil
1 lb. pierogis
10 baby carrots (cut in half lengthwise on a diagonal)
12 oz. mushrooms (quartered)
1 large red onion (cut in thin wedges)
3 cloves garlic (put through a press or minced)
1 lb. asparagus (cut in 1 1/2 inch pieces)
9 oz. Turkey breast thinly sliced, in strips (I confess I used good quality deli meat, but it was really good)
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 T. or more snipped fresh Tarragon

Cook pierogies according to package directions in boiling water. Remove and keep warm. Saute the onion, garlic, and carrots in olive oil until the onion is translucent. Add the other vegetables, and reduce to medium . Keep cooking, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are starting to soften (maybe 6 minutes?) and the liquid released from the mushrooms is gone. Add the chicken broth and salt and pepper and turkey and pierogies, and cook (and gently stir) over medium high until some of the broth is evaporated, and turkey is heated through. Remove from heat and add snipped tarragon (I've got some in my herb garden if you need some).


I like to serve with shaved parmesan to pass at the table. It makes the kids think it's fancier (OK, and me too).I should give some credit here for BH&G's Spring Vegetable Braise, but I've changed so many things in this it's barely recognisable I'm afraid.

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