Punchkeys!

Thursday, my cousin sent me an e-mail saying that my family was going to have a "punchkey" party on Sunday. I knew what she was talking about and we had a good laugh because neither of us knew how to spell it. Then, I got home Thursday night and Mr. says to me "Hey, did you know it is garble garble bad pronunciation Day!".

Me: "What? You mean punchkeys???"

Mr: "Punchkeys? I would never pronounced it like that. Oh you crazy Polish"

Me: "Why how do they spell it?"

Mr: "P-A-C-Z-K-I"

Me: "Wow. Never would have guessed that."

Are you confused yet?

Let me clarify.

I am talking about paczkis, Polish doughnuts, made before Lent, traditionally on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday but also on Mardi Gras depending on your locale.

My grandma always made these and so I thought I would give it a try this weekend.

I don't like jelly or fruit filling in doughnuts so I put a nice glaze on them along with some that just had powdered sugar.

They came out quite well although I will say I do not care for things that involve yeast because I feel like it never blooms right when I do it. I also don't like waiting around and more waiting around. Blech. So I will not be making these everyday. But they are a nice treat to ring in the Lenten season. Mr. and I are giving up mid-week desserts because we have been out of control lately and need to take a step back for the sake of our (OK my) waistlines. So this is our last major sugar fest (mid-week at least) until April. We got about two dozen so let's see how many we can get down prior to Wednesday. We've eaten four in the past few hours.