Christmas Foods

Usually at Christmastime I make a big batch of tamales and we have them for every meal. As kids, my family ate tea and tamales for breakfast and it was a great treat. But this year we decided to make something equally as time consuming and close to the same delicious experience. Pierogies.
We have no family tradition of pierogies, but years ago between husbands, I worked as a waitress in a tiny Polish restaurant. I learned all about a new set of great dishes, and really loved the possibilities inherent in these dumplings.
They can be filled with potatoes, sauerkraut, pork and onion, or cheese. I suppose they can even be filled with something fruity like plums or cherries, but I have never done those....until maybe this year.
I believe the attraction may be the bacon and sour cream toppings, but that is getting ahead of the story.
At this restaurant, named Europa, the staff was a set of Poles who had some English and lots of great cooking abilities, altho I am sure they had other professions before coming to the US. We all had lonliness in common, so making the best of the holidays meant cooking and serving the patrons with gusto.
One lady was employed to just make pierogis all day. I watched her roll out the dough, cut them in circles, add filling and then close and pinch each filled pocket. It took a long time to make them all for the nighttime crowds.
They were boiled and set aside to cool and per order they were fried in butter or bacon drippings and served with sour cream, or applesauce or both or my favorite, mushroom cream sauce. Nothing like calories were even considered.
The majority of our diners were single (or pretending to be) men who worked here and sent their families money back in Poland. They spoke very little English, but managed to flirt like mad anyway. Lots of vodka and Polish beer was consumed, and the resulting mood lightened immeasurably.

On Christmas Eve I got done serving at about 1am but the raucus party continued. I went downstairs and fell asleep on the cot in the restaurant basement. Later one of my customers drove me home and stayed the night. Imagine my surprise to wake up and find him next to me in my bed! What a Christmas memory, eh? The things we do when we are young and stupid.
Anyway...for some reason I had forgotten that event until just now, and it really has nothing to do with why I love Pierogis. Honest.
I mean really.