Happy Monday! I'm back from a weekend away (again) - and I never thought I would return exhausted from a weekend getaway! My best friend is getting married this year, so us in the bridal party took her out for a bachelorette weekend away. So. Tired. But hey, I love weddings and am counting down the days.

It's another week back at school for me and I'm hoping this one goes by quick. And with the return of school is the inevitable change of seasons - the days are getting shorter, and the mornings are getting colder. Hello, Fall. So I picked up a few shades from OPI's Fall 2013 Collection featuring the beautiful city of San Francisco. Up this week is one of my favourite fall shades - a gorgeous deep plum creme called In The Cable Car-Pool Lane. Although the colour is beautiful, I wasn't too impressed with the formula and application. I found the polish to be a little thicker than normal, so application was streaky, and the polish wouldn't level itself out. At three coats in the pictures above, I could still see streakiness and wasn't happy with the finish. The manicure lasted only 3 days before chipping, and I would attribute it to the formula. Boo. Hopefully the next polish performs better!

Perogies. Who doesn't love perogies? It's comfort food to the fullest, and definitely food coma material. And there's so many ways to cook and customize them that there's something for everyone. What's your favourite?

A couple months ago, I set aside an afternoon to spend with my lovely friends K, A, M & G to make perogies from scratch. Yep. It really helps when you have a friend who's grandmother is a perogy whiz and grew up learning to make them with her - one phone call was all it took for us to get the secret recipe. And now I get to share it with you!

I think the thing that scares people the most about making perogies is the dough. Well, at least it was what I was most unsure about. Like, what goes in the dough? Fillings are easy - mash up some potatoes, add your favourite fixins and voila, wrap it in the dough and cook it up.


Fillings for perogies
But surprisingly, this dough has two ingredients. Literally. Flour and sour cream mixed together to achieve a doughy consistency, rolled out and cut to the perfect size. And once it's cooked up, it tastes amazing! With a little prep work and elbow grease, you can make your perogies in the afternoon and serve them up for dinner.

The funnest part in the whole process is getting the hang of filling the dough and shaping the perogies. For the filling, we had mashed up potatoes as our base, and added different components to change things up. One was a cheesy potato filling, while another had green onions, and others yet had some diced up caramelized onions. Want more ideas? Try bacon or mushrooms - whatever makes you happy! Pro tip: K's grandmother suggested using Cheez Whiz to make potatoes cheesy, as it is much easier to incorporate. But I'm sure if you cooked up a quick cheese sauce with your favourite cheese it would be the same.

The bunch of us together had so much fun making the perogies. All of ours looked different from one another, and it was fun making an activity out of it. G went and did some "perogy inception" - he put a small perogy into a larger one. Oh, boys.


borscht
Once all the perogies were folded up and ready to cook, we boiled them, hoping they wouldn't burst open in the cooking process. Together we fried up some bacon, sausages, and onions - the house smelled amazing!

Buns, perogies, sausages, bacon, borscht, and sour cream galore - we had a feast to serve at least 10 people. The process was easy and straightforward enough that I could totally do it again if I had the craving. Homecooked is always the best, as you're able to control what you are making and eating, and you're able to tailor things to your dietary needs.

When K grew up, her grandmother also made dessert perogies. This was something completely new to me, and I had no idea what we would be putting in them. For the afternoon, we decided to fill our sweet perogies with blueberries and strawberries tossed with a bit of sugar. Cooked up and served with yogurt, they were delicious! I can only imagine filling them with other fun things... like chocolate.. or salted caramel.. oh man. So grab some friends and have a perogy feast!


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RECIPE

Flour
Tub of Sour Cream
Potatoes
Fillings of your choice
1. While stirring the sour cream, add flour 1/4 cup at a time to achieve a doughy consistency (you will have to watch carefully and adjust the flour). When the dough is ready, it will be barely sticky to the touch and stretchy. Knead slightly to ensure everything is thoroughly incorporated, and place in the fridge for 30-45 minutes (longer is not a problem).

2. Prepare your fillings for perogies.

3. After refrigerating, roll out the dough to a thickness of 0.5cm. The dough should not stick to the surface it is being rolled out on. Cut with a cookie cutter or a cup with an approximate diameter of 6cm.

4. In your hands, work the dough slightly, thinning out the centre and edges. Place a dallop of filling into the centre, then fold the dough in half, pressing tightly on the edges to seal your perogy.

5. Bring to boil a pot of salted water, and drop in the perogies to cook. The perogies will float when they are ready to eat.

6. Serve them up the way you like & enjoy!

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Super easy, right? Let me know in the comments below if you try this recipe out!

Happy Monday!! I'm finally back from holidays and it's the end of a long weekend - 1 more day until school starts up again which is a little upsetting, but I can't wait to finish up my last year of school.

Up this week I've got a product to share with you - one that I've been testing out for a while. When the Make Up Forever HD High Definition Foundation first came out, I remember seeing advertisements for it everywhere. It caused a pretty big stir in the beauty blogging world, so I ordered it right away, but never decided to use it until now.

This particular foundation is exclusively carried by Sephora, and described as "an oil-free medium-to-full-coverage liquid foundation that covers skin imperfections flawlessly while remaining invisible on-screen and in real life. This foundation creates a soft-focus effect, which is designed to meet the coverage concerns of those in the spotlight. It leaves your complexion with such a flawless finish, it can withstand bright or harsh lighting." It was produced when flawless, photo-ready skin was all the rage - and its description has a lot to live up to.

For my NC35 skin, I picked up Sand (shade 125), which unfortunately was too light for my summer skin. In the winter (my arm shade), it's likely to be a better match. Shade aside, you can see above that the product comes housed in sturdy packaging, with a pump to dispense the foundation. The foundation is quite runny, making it easy to spread, but I find that this can also be a downfall. I prefer high coverage products, so a thin layer of product on the skin results in medium coverage. It can be built up for higher coverage, but it makes the product feel heavier on the skin. At the end of an 8 hour workday, the product is still on my face, but definitely oxidized and has less coverage. The foundation has pretty good oil control though, as I don't feel greasy at the end of the day.

But does this foundation do what it claims to do? Yes. When applied on the skin, it leaves a semi-matte finish, and gives the skin a slight dewy look to it. It is lightweight if all you need is a thin application, and skin looks nearly flawless in photographs. Application with a brush gives the best results, as blending with fingertips doesn't give the most flawless finish. Although Make Up Forever has a high price tag on this particular product ($42 CAD), one bottle is likely to last a good six months, as the pump does contain a fair amount of product. It isn't my holy grail foundation, but it's a solid foundation that I would recommend to anyone looking for medium coverage and a semi-matte finish.

Anyone tried this product out? What did you think? Let me know!