Fighting the Weather with Pierogi Lasagna

When the weather changes, when the sun is hidden by dark, low hanging clouds heavy with rain, i can feel my heart sink. It sinks to the bottom of my stomach and a low grade chronic coronavirus infection takes over and i am overcome with general malaise and depression. just kidding... kind of. That's just me being overly dramatic.

Today's lab woes were again due to cell culture contamination. twice in two days, three different cultures... it's an anomaly. It's never happened this badly before in my 5 years of tissue culturing without any antibiotics in the media. I guess that's what happens when a mystery allergen is suddenly largely abundant in the vents. To fight this sudden onset of bad luck and bad mood, i turned to food. what else can cheer a dark and gloomy disposition than something warm and savory, something carby and potatoey... and cheesy?

I found this recipe for pieorgi lasagna and it looked absolutely perfect for a day like today. not to mention i had been meaning to make this for weeks now, and the only thing stopping me was... my lack of shredded cheddar cheese.... which i went out and bought today! WIN!

in between donning some newly bought shoes, hot pants and cleaning the kitchen, some heavy duty cooking was underway.

PIEROGI LASAGNA

2 lb red potatoes
1/2 c milk
1/4-1/2 c sour cream
lasagna noodles (~9 for my pan)
handfuls of shredded cheddar
dash of salt and pepper to taste
8 tbsp butter
1 large onion
garlic

Reds

• Wash and cut potatoes and boil with a little bit of salt until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork
• Boil a pot of water and prepare the lasagna noodles.
  
• When potatoes are tender, place into large bowl and mash or blend (with skins! of course :-D), gradually adding in the milk and sour cream. After the liquids are added to the potatoes, add the salt and pepper and a handful or two of cheese and let sit.

Mashy Goodness

• When noodles are done, spread them out on a cookie sheet and let cool.
• Chop onions into rings
• Melt butter in large frying pan
• When butter is melted and slightly browned, add in the garlic and onions and sautee until the onions are tender and translucent

Onions in Butter

• Take a spoonful or two of the onion garlic butter and spread along the bottom of the lasagna pan and add a layer of noodles
• With heaping spoonfuls of the mashed potatoes, sprad generously over the layer of noodles
• Pile on onions over the potatoes
• Add another layer of noodles, potatoes, and onions, and finally top it off with a last layer of noodles
• sprinkle shredded cheddar over the last layer of noddles and bake at 375 for ~20 min

I thought this dish would taste like mashed potatoes... because it was too simple with tons of potatoes and not enough kick! But i was amazingly surprised at how delicious it was. The onions gave the dish a buttery sweetness that complemented the cheddar and potates. Looks like this massive pan will be my lunch and dinner for the rest of the week. but hey, it's supposed to thunderstorm all day, so i'm not complaining.

Lets hope next week is less dismal and more successful in both the kitchen and the lab.