Meet Helen Wisniewski from Pittsburg, PA.  She is the mother of three grown sons and every year she visits her son, Art, who lives in Costa Mesa and is a dear friend of ours.  During her visits she cooks two traditional Polish dishes: pierogies which are potato dumplings and halupkis, stuffed cabbage rolls.

According to About.com, the people of Pittsburg eat 11 times the periogies of any other city in the nation and perogi fillings range from traditional potato and cheese to sweet prune.  Helen  makes the traditional potato and cheese.  Because of our 20+ year friendship with Art and his wife, Karen, we are one of the privileged few who are invited to dinner to savor one of these delicious and comforting Polish delicacies. This year I brought my camera so I could photograph and record the art of pierogi making.

Helen admitted that it is quite a process and she doesn’t do all this at home anymore, she endorses Mrs. T’s Pierogies if you’re not up to the process If you would like to make some homemade pierogies you can find a recipe here or at Food Network.