It's Time!!!!

I have been waiting three years for one of these. Do you know what it is?





No? Here is a closer look.





Yes, it is paczki time. Today is Fat Tuesday. In case you don't know what Fat Tuesday is here is an explanation I found on the internet.

It's time to party it up, and ....eat. Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday. It is also known as Mardi Gras Day or Shrove Day. It is a day when people eat all they want of everything and anything they want as the following day is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of a long fasting period for Christians. In addition to fasting, christians also give up something special that they enjoy. So, Fat Tuesday is a celebration and the opportunity to enjoy that favorite food or snack that you give up for the long lenten season. holidayinsights.com

It is a tradition for people to use up the sugar, butter, dairy and fat on Fat Tuesday in preparation for Lent. In Poland that means the baking of paczkis. Because Detroit is heavily Polish paczkis are everywhere and being the good Catholic that I am I always participated in the eating of these little beauties.

Sadly, when we moved to Western PA this tradition was not honored. My first Fat Tuesday here went paczkiless. Last year I spotted them but they were only available in boxes of six. Now I like paczki as much as the next person but six is about five too many. This year I spotted them again and again available only in a box of six. But I was brave and asked if it would be possible to buy only one. They thought about it and then said, "yes". Score! So my one lone paczki came home with me. I was so excited. It had been three long years since I had eaten one of these little beauties. My flavor of choice, lemon.





I would like to say that it lived up to my expectations but I can't. I am sad to report that the bakery here in Western PA does not know how to make paczkis. It didn't taste at all like the paczkis of my Michigan years. Next year I will resist the temptation to buy a paczki and wait until I am back in Michigan to eat the real deal. In the meantime I will have to satisfy my paczki cravings with pictures from Hamtramck, the paczki captial of Michigan.