Hot Pastrami Stromboli and Cheese Pierogi



     After a grueling couple of days of work, I was kicking myself for not stealing the extra dough I made in Nisswa for the pizza rolls.  I consoled myself with the fact that if I just bit the bullet and made the dough, I would have two other doughs for future use, sitting in my freezer, to make some other rough Wednesday a little easier.
     I had decided a couple of weeks ago that instead of doing both versions of the pierogi in one night, that I would split it up and do the mushroom pierogis and save the cheese pierogi for the next Pizza Night.  I still had all of the ingredients from then.  I read the instructions of "forcing the cottage cheese through a sieve" and decided that sounded messy and unnecessary.  I threw everything on the ingredient list into my Vitamix.  The only item I didn't have on the ingredient list was the chives.  When I was making my grocery list for this recipe a few weeks ago, it was still warm outside.  I didn't put chives on the list, because I figured I could still salvage some chives out of the greenhouse.
     I looked at the incipid layer of snow leading out to the greenhouse and decided I probably wouldn't find anything salvageable out there, and the greenhouse seemed really far away, and it looked really cold outside.  I did have several green onions that needed to be used up, so I decided to substitute those.  I threw them in the Vitamix with everything else.  It smelled wonderful - oniony, cheesy, with just a hint of the menthol from the nutmeg.  However, when I emptied the blending container, I wondered if I had made the wrong choice - maybe the Vitamix wasn't the correct tool for this job.  The mixture was pretty runny.  I put it in a container and put it in the refrigerator, hoping that it would set up and become thicker overnight.
     At this point, I made another brioche dough, shredded the Provolone for the stromboli, and then called it a night.

     Pam showed up first, so I put her to the task of rolling out the brioche dough for the pierogi.  It took a little consideration to figure out which dough was which.  When I had taken them out of the refrigerator that morning and set them on the counter, I had briefly considered writing labels on them, so I knew which was which, but I had decided I would know and didn't need to do that.  Apparently, I did need to label them.  I couldn't tell the difference between them. 
     I opened one and started to roll it out on my pizza paddle.  It seems a little stretchier, more pliable than the usual pizza dough.  I asked Pam what she thought.  She said that she thought she had the regular dough, and the one I had was "yellower" than hers.  We traded doughs, so she could still be on pierogi duty.
     Unfortunately. the cheese didn't set up as I had hoped it would overnight.  It was still runny.  Pam was having a hard time keeping it from leaking out of the dough as she squished it together. 
     Jennifer came in and suggested that she use the pocket makers.  I had totally forgotten about them - I am surprised Jennifer remembered.  Grandma Anniebelle had these pocket makers, as seen on t.v.  They are little round plastic thingees that have a hinge in the middle.  You place the dough on top of it while it is open, put the filling on top of the dough, then fold the two sides together, and it crimps the dough shut.

     Pam said she had thought of it first, but she figured it would squoosh all of the filling out during the crimping process, but she said she would give it a try anyway.  Afterward, she decided she should have been doing it that way all along.

     Meanwhile, I was rolling out the stromboli dough, covering the dough with olive oil, strategically placing the pastrami over the dough, and sprinkling the mozzerella and Parmesan on top.  I rolled it up jelly roll style and placed it on a tray for cooking.  I read the directions over a couple more times to make sure I wasn't missing an egg wash or anything, and then placed it in the preheated oven.

     Jennifer had brought a frozen roasted vegetable pizza for the kids (and Roger, if he rejected the choices offered).  Since Jonah had rejected all pizza-type options, including the frozen one, in exchange for a peanut butter and peach preserve sandwich (or two), we girls decided we should sample the vegetable pizza to make sure that it was okay.

     With the frozen pizza done, and me on the stromboli, and Pam on the pierogi, we assigned Jennifer to the drink making duties.  The drink was similar to a manhatten, but instead of whiskey, it was brandy.  There were some other additions to it that differed from the Manhatten, but the flavor profile was very similar.  It was called Mikado.

     Jennifer and I both liked it very much, and as soon as Jeff saw us drinking it, he decided to try drink of the week for the first time in a couple years.  He can't resist a Manhatten, and since we were out of whiskey, he decided to give our drink a go.  We thought it was a little too sweet, so we tried it a second time, with double the brandy to the other ingredients.

MIKADO

1½ measures cognac

2 dashes orange bitters

2 dashes creme de noyau

2 dashes amaretto

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with a half slice of orange and a cherry.



     I actually remembered to "wash" the periogi before putting them in the oven this time.  I didn't remember at the last pizza night for the mushroom pierogi.  We will see what the difference is.  I think I also had twice the amount of dough than I did for the mushroom pierogi.  I remember being able to see through the dough to the mushroom filling, because the dough was so thin.  This time, it wasn't like that.  Last week, I had pulled the dough out of the freezer, giving me the impression that it was half or less of a recipe amount, and since I was now using the entire recipe, it only made sense that it would be at least twice as much dough for the same amount of filling.  Once I had pulled them out of the oven, it was obvious that there was more dough.  They were beautiful, though.  They were puffy, glossy, brown, and pillowy.  The egg wash was definitely an improvement, and our fear that the filling was going to leak out was apparently unfounded.

     The stromboli recipe suggested that it be served with a mustard or a tomato sauce.  I had purchased an unusual msutard last time I was at Kowalski's (on our "yuppy turd-head adventure this summer).  It was a habenero roasted garlic honey mustard that was local.  I hadn't tried it yet, but it sounded like it would be the perfect sauce to serve with the stromboli.  It turned out it was.  Despite its description, it wasn't spicy.  It had a nice tang to it, and against the beefy, peppery pastrami it was fantastic!  It smoothed it out, complimented it, and enhanced it all at once.

     We were critiquing the stromboli, and considering that maybe it should have more cheese, and then visions of Wednesday raced through my head!  What did I shred all of that Provolone for??  I raced back into the kitchen to recheck the recipes.  Sure enough, the stromboli recipe had Provolone listed in the ingredients, but there was no further mention of it in the instructions of the recipe!

     Gracie and Roger showed up after Gracie's swimming lesson.  Grace had decked herself out in her new pink sequined dress, and we have never seen a more beautiful princess!  It appears, however, that I will be sweeping up red glitter for quite some time to come!

     She was a big fan of both recipes, and we packed her up a to-go back so she could enjoy some the next day for lunch.  Imagine how much more she would have liked the stromboli if it had all its cheese!