Passing on the paczki

It's fat Tuesday - to which I've always thought

"it's Tuesday, I'm fat - big deal".

I was in my twenties before I ever heard of a paczki let alone tasted one. If you've never had the thrill that is a paczki, it's basically a Polish jelly doughnut. Around the Southeast Michigan area, paczki day is a pretty big deal. The Detroit area is home to lots of Polish immigrants (including my DH's grandparents) so the idea of eating paczkis on fat Tuesday was passed down through the generations.

Tomorrow morning people all over the metro Detroit area are going to show up at work and find a box (or several boxes) of these special treats. The paczki filled with lemon, raspberry or apple filling are some of the first to go. Employees late to the box will be left with fewer options including prune - which are everywhere but I've never seen anyone eat.

Along with that box of treats will come the usual conversations about the fat content of the paczki. The conversations that I've observed are accompanied by suspicious glances at the box of paczki - as though the doughnuts themselves might attack. I've never hear men engaging in this topic, but I suppose it could happen.

What amuses me is how the same people who scorn the "fat bomb" that is a paczki because is has 329 calories and 11 grams of fat, are the exact same people who will drink 500+ calories and 30+ grams of fat in a frozen coffee drink. (nutritional info courtesy of Daily Plate and Men's Health).

I've never been much for doughnuts so it's easy for me to forgo the paczki just like I've never liked coffee, so passing up frozen coffee is pretty easy. It's just a matter of preference - lately, my preference has been for blizzards from Dairy Queen.