Bourbon balls - from I.C.

Combine:
1 cup finely crushed vanilla wafers
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbs unsweetened cocoa

Add:
2 oz. bourbon (I use Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey)
1 1/2 tbs. light corn syrup

Combine everything, blend well, cover & chill 1 hr. or more.

Shape balls (about 1 inch in diameter) & roll in powdered sugar.
Store in refrigerator or freeze.

Fried "pierogi‏"

Hank and I have been experimenting and after 2 complete failed attempts & 1 1/2 days wasted we got the perfect fried mushroom pierogi - just like my mom use to make or as close as we can get. Making mushrooms stuffing was easy - I guess I paid more attention to it when we made it with my mom, but I never liked to play with dough.

After each attempt of making that dough I was so disappointed that we could not get close to my mom's dough recipe. I am just glad that my mom did not see us dumping all that dough :-[ and Hank wanting to try again.
One of the disaster dough Hank baked as bread.
Hank went on internet & found recipe for Crispellis, from which we finally perfected the recipe to what we have.
http://recipecircus.com/recipes/DsNonna/ETHNIC/Crispellis.html
Our final product Hank did the dough by hand (did not use a bread machine), and we fried pierogi in Crisco one side & then the other for a few minutes until they are golden brown using an electric skillet at 360*.

Dough:
4 cups flour
Package of yeast
2 cups very warm water
1 ½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon baking power
2 teaspoons salt

Mix the ingredients. After the dough is made, let it rise for at least 1 hr. You will have a very sticky dough that is hard to work with!

Mushroom stuffing was made with:
fried chopped onions (large)
fried chopped mushrooms (3 12oz. packages)
salt, pepper, & some breadcrumbs (I used 2 tablespoons - to keep the moisture from mushrooms - not too much of breadcrumbs)
When everything was mixed I send it through meat grinder.

Take about a 1 Tbs. size of dough and spread out in your hand to form a disk (not to thick).
Place about a 1 tsp of stuffing into the disk and seal the ends and gently roll into egg shape dough balls, set aside under a towel so they don't dry.
When you have made about 8-12 dough balls place into hot oil and fry for about 3 min. until golden brown then roll over and fry the top side until golden brown.
Remove and drain on paper towels.

We made 40 of the fried mushroom pierogi & I had a little bit of stuffing left.
I am keeping them for Christmas Eve - they freeze great.