Sunday night. The kids are in their beds; my husband pours us two glasses of wine. I smile at him, “What a nice and relaxing weekend it was. Wasn’t it, honey?”
He looks at me with surprise, which I, submerged in the ambiance of our slow-paced weekend, miss entirely.
“It was so mellow… so tranquil… so stress-free… Slow mornings, followed by some well-needed quality time with family and friends, a workout, relaxing five-mile hike and picnic at the beach…”
My hubby’s face expression transformed from surprise to disbelief. Still in my dreams, I continue on, “I wish we had more weekends like this.”
It is his turn to speak. He takes a large sip of wine, “Are we talking about the same weekend?” he starts suspiciously. “Because, here is what I thought we did:”
“Saturday morning. We are running around like crazy, picking up pancakes from the floor and begging our kids to eat faster, so that we can make our early-morning hike. We leave the house without having any idea where we’re supposed to go. We meet our friends at the trail, 45 minutes late. We hike for 5 miles, stopping every 100 feet, trying to convince our children that their sense of exhaustion is a subjective matter.”
“We sit down at the beach for a picnic. But we have to relax fast since we only have 30 minutes before we have to go. Our children loose any sensation in their extremities in the freezing ocean waves. We leave the beach, explaining to the kids that they have to spend the rest of the day in their soaking wet clothes because there is no time to stop by the house to change.”
“After an hour in a weekend traffic, you drop us off at my grandma’s for a visit, while you go grocery shopping. You pick us up one hour later and we rush to your dad’s Birthday Party. On our way to your parents’ house, our son tests other drivers’ eardrums with his version of “Moves Like Jagger,” while you describe how our local Whole Foods is better than the one in the city.”
“We spend the rest of the evening shouting our civilized conversations over loud TV speakers, watching our children refuse to indulge in a celebratory dinner, and listening to your mother trying to convince them otherwise.”
My husband stops for a second, to measure my reaction, and continues.
“Sunday morning. The kids cannot wake up, tired from last night’s late entertainment. I break every traffic law on our way to the synagogue, while the kids revolt against going to Sunday school because ‘it’s boring’.”
“After the gym, I break the same traffic laws, once again, on my way to pick them up in order to make it to the two birthday parties, one of which has already started. We spend the rest of the day running from one scheduled social function to the next, until we finally get home to frozen piroshki, instead of a real dinner.”
“Did I miss something?”, he concludes with a question.
Cucee’s Healthified Mini Piroshki (Russian-style savory meat-filled pastry)
Ingredients
- 1 bag of puff pastry
- 1.5 lbs chicken legs (on bone)
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 tbs Olive Oil
- 1 cup cooked white rice
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions
- Place chicken legs in a large pot; add water to cover. Cover pot and bring to a boil; reduce heat to a gentle boil and cook for about 90 minutes, or until chicken meat is falling off of the bone. Remove chicken and let cool. Reserve stock for soup
- In the meantime, while chicken is cooking, sauté an onion on medium until nicely browned (about 30 minutes)
- Combine chicken with sautéd onion; add salt and pepper to taste. Pulse in a food processor until the mixture is ground and everything looks well combined
- Mix with cooked rice
- On a lightly floured board, roll out puff pastry dough into ¼ – ⅕ inch-thick sheet. To make moon-shaped piroshki, cut out 4 inch circles with a glass or a biscuit cutter. To make rectangular ones, cut each pastry into 2-inch squares
- Place 1 tablespoon filling in center of each piece of dough. Moisten edges of dough with a little water, fold over and pinch edges together to seal. Set aside. Repeat until all filling is used
- Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until golden. Serve warm, or freeze for later. (Frozen piroshki don’t need to be defrosted. Just pop them into a preheated oven and bake until hot all the way through)
Wine pairing
I love Hartford Court wines but neither my husband nor I have been a big fan of Pinots. Hartford Court Lands Edge Pinot Noir is probably one exception that we can both agree on. It effectively balances the mildness of the piroshki in a way that no full-bodied red wine would.
These look so easy!
this looks delicious yummy pastries