An American Tail Dinner

To get in the holiday spirit, we did An American Tail dinner because tonight is the second night of Hanukkah!  This movie is one of Tim's very favorite movies!  We've been looking forward to it for a long time!

For dinner, we had Mousekewitz's Vareniki, Tiger's Broccoli, The Streets are Paved with Cheese and Crackers, Moscow Mules, and Hanukkah Rugelach.

Mousekewitz's Vareniki 
I chose this dish because it's a Russian dumpling dish with cheese (perfect for the mice!)  It was my first stab at dumplings and they were pretty good!  I got the recipe here and sort of made it my own (since I don't need to make 140 dumplings, we had to get a tad creative!)

Ingredients:
1 large egg
1/2 tablespoon of sour cream
1/6 cup of water
1/3 cup of milk
1.25 cups of flour
3 Potatoes
1 tablespoon of salt
1/3 cup of Mozzarella cheese
1 ounce of cream cheese
1 tablespoon of butter, melted
3 slices of bacon, cut up into chunks 
1/4 of an onion, chopped
1 tablespoon of butter, not melted 

Directions:
1. Mix together egg, sour cream, water, milk, and flour.  This will create the dough.
2.  Knead the dough for a few minutes on a floured surface, sprinkling in flour to help not be so sticky.
3. Tear off pieces of dough and roll out into circles (or as close as you can get!)  
4. When you are done with the dough, let rest for a bit while you peel the potatoes and cut into small chunks.
5. Place potatoes in a large pot with water and a tablespoon of salt.  Bring to a boil and cook for about ten minutes until soft.
6. Drain potatoes and remove from heat.  
7. Mix in cream cheese, Mozzarella cheese, and melted butter
8. Using a spoon, spoon the potato mixture into the circular dough.
9.  Pinch each dumpling around the edge so it won't open when you cook it. 
10.  Once dumplings are finished, bring a large pot of water to a boil.
11. Drop the dumplings in the boiling water.  Once the dumplings rise to the top, then let cook for 3 more minutes. Remove from water with a slotted spoon.
12. While the dumplings are cooking you can make the Zazharka.  You cook the bacon up and once it's close to done, add the onions, and finally stir in the butter.  You drizzle these over the finished dumplings. 

Tiger's Broccoli
We just cooked up some frozen broccoli by following the stovetop instructions on the packaging.

The Streets are Paved with Cheese and Crackers

Moscow Mule
Using our fancy copper mugs, Tim had a fabulous Moscow mule.

Ingredients:
4oz Smirnoff Vodka
6oz Ginger Beer
The juice of half a lime
Ice

*I had sparkling grape juice!

Hanukkah Rugelach
I have made these cookies every year and they are so tasty!  I found the recipe here!

Ingredients:
2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature 
8 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature 
1/2 cup of sour cream
2 cups of flour

Toppings: 
Apricot Jelly
Sliced Almonds
Chopped Dates
Chocolate Chips, Mini
Nutella 
Dried Cherries
*obviously not all together

Directions:
1. Mix together butter, cream cheese and sour cream in a large bowl.  Slowly add the flour.
2. Refrigerate for a few hours
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees 
4. Take out about 1/4 of the dough and place between two sheets of parchment paper and roll out with a rolling pin.
5. Refrigerate for a few minutes to keep the dough from getting too sticky. 
6. Add your fillings, refrigerate for a few more minutes
7. Roll into a log, refrigerate for a few minutes 
8. Cut into 12 small slices and place on a baking sheet
9. Cook for about 15 minutes

I had three kinds of fillings:
#1. Apricot Jelly and Sliced Almonds
#2. Chopped Dates, Chocolate Chips, Sliced Almonds (I wouldn't do this again because the filling doesn't stay in)
#3. Nutella and Dried Cherries

We had a fabulous dinner that we incorporated into our fun countdown to Christmas!