Paczki Day!!!!

Whooohoooo! It's Paczki Day!


For those who do not live by, or have not grown up around a Polish community like I did, you might not understand just how important Paczki Day is. Wikipedia says that paczkis were traditionally made by the Polish to use up forbidden foods prior to lent... and when they emigrated to America the tradition was continued (thank God!). And now, paczkis have taken on monumental importance in Fat Tuesday celebrations! I grew up about an hour away from Detroit Michigan, and there Paczki Day (notice I don't say Fat Tuesday... because it's really all about the paczkis) seemed to be a holiday. And if it wasn't an actual holiday, it should have been. There was a paczki parade, people lined up for hours to buy paczkis, and bakeries sold out with in hours of opening. Many paczkies were consumed, and I consumed alot! It was wonderful, fattening, gluttonous... and then we moved.


The first paczki day in our new state was so depressing... I had waited all year to have a paczki (or many paczkis), but no one here had heard of them! I called bakery after bakery, and no paczkis. It was tragic (okay, that is taking it a little far, but I was a bit saddened that I wouldn't get my deep fat fried ball of dough and lard). After a few years, I almost forgot about Paczki Day, heck we didn't even celebrate Fat Tuesday. But I would still get longings for them... then this year my Mom called and said she had something for us at her house... Could it be? If it was, where did it come from? My husband stopped by to see what she had, and called me in glee... She had gotten paczkis for us!


Blueberry.


I am in paczki heaven.


Long live Paczki Day! (I wonder if there will be a parade next year?)