Paczki Day

March 4, 2014

Today is Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, the day for riotous celebrations before Lent begins tomorrow. I grew up in a liturgical church, which always celebrated this day, called Shrove Tuesday in the church, with a pancake dinner the evening before Lent. The idea is to use up the flour and sugar and oil in your house before the 40 days of fasting prior to Easter. When our children were growing up, I always made pancakes on this day.


The church we attend now does not have pancake dinners, but many people here buy paczkis, huge Polish jelly-filled donuts, on this day before Lent. They are available in the grocery stores, but we made the trek to the Polish neighborhood of Hamtramck in Detroit to a tiny Polish bakery packed with paczki lovers. Even a local TV news crew was on hand.

When we got there, #86 was being served. Our number was #109. I didn't mind, though. They were playing Polish polka music, and the crowd was all waiting patiently.


Boxes of pre-orders ready to pick up. We tried to pre-order, but couldn't get our call through.


List of flavors. Raspberry and lemon are my favorites.


The bakery has other items as well, including cookies, bread, and pastries. We picked up a marble pound cake, some French bread, and some angel wings (and promptly got powdered sugar all over us eating them on the car ride home).


So here they are . . . 



Eating one of these is about as "riotous" as I'm going to get today.

8 comments

  1. So interesting and delicious looking! But I think I'm going to have to go find some pastry now! Haha! Happy Fat Tuesday!

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  2. Oh yummy...the custard would be my favorite!

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  3. Yum! Those look absolutely delicious! I did not know the history behind Fat Tuesday. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. I've never heard of such a thing but they look DIVINE- and very worth the drive and the wait! Yummy! Thanks for sharing. I'll definitely keep my eyes open for them in the future.:) Lori

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  5. My best friend is Polish and you made me think of her!

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  6. Yum! The doughnuts look delicious. I think you made the right choice by standing in line for some. Thank you for joining Adrienne and me for "How I Wear My: Boots." It was great to have you with us! XO, Jill

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  7. Ahhh, polish doughnuts are absolutely divine!
    xx
    Mila

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  8. Oh now I want one of these! :) I should never view food posts around dinner time. Worse would be seeing this at breakfast time though, come to think of it :)

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