So, how do you commemorate Fat Tuesday? And what is Fat Tuesday anyway? Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Carnival, or Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the period of Lent– a period of 46 days before Easter. Observed in the Catholic tradition, Lent is a time of physical sacrifice, a practice of self-deprivation in the giving up of things of comfort, especially physical comforts such as in the eating of meats, fats, sugars and such.
And so, as the tradition goes, Fat Tuesday is the last day or last chance to fatten up before the almost-seven weeks of self-imposed deprivation. So, what do you eat on such a day? Well, you eat the most indulgent foods, of course. And if you’re of Polish ancestry, you make and eat paczkis, pronounced poonch-ki. These are buns stuffed with a variety of sweet and creamy fillings. And if you happen to live in the Metro Detroit area, you know you will find an abundance of paczkis on this day, nay, on any of the days leading up to this day, that is.
So today, I happened to attend a meeting at work that focused on the big budget cuts coming our way, thanks to a new state administration. Not-so-great news on Fat Tuesday, of course, but what better way to take the edge off a miserable meeting agenda than a spread of traditional Polish Paczkis?
See for yourself what I mean. I chose one with a lemon filling. The pizza, by the way, was the deepest-dish pizza you could ever find: layer upon layer of veggies and cheese was what my slice was all about. And that salad was most refreshing!
