Paczki Day, Geauga Lake and other things I cannot pronounce...

Based on the spelling there are many things in the north that I cannot pronounce. Thanks to my first grade teacher who taught me to sound things out I've gone far in my ability to read however she must have been from the south otherwise she would have thought of other ways to teach kids to read.

In Ohio, and probably in other northern states they celebrate Paczki Day. It's pronounced Punch-key. I would have never come to this pronunciation-conclusion on my own. The spelling gives no hint to how to say it. Thank you Polish people for making me sound illiterate. This is a fantastic tradition though. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE what the south gave me, like queso and pecan pie but I haven't found a tradition better than this-- yet. Paczki are pastries traditional to Polish cuisine (the word is sometimes translated as doughnut.) 

A paczki is a deep-fried piece of dough shaped into a flattened sphere and filled with sweet filling. Although they look like jelly doughnuts, paczki are made from especially rich dough containing eggs, fats, sugar and sometimes milk. They feature a variety of fruit and creme fillings and can be glazed, or covered with granulated or powdered sugar.

Many Polish Americans celebrate Paczki Day on Fat Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday). Traditionally, the reason for making paczki was to use up all the lard, sugar,  eggs and fruit in the house because they were forbidden to be consumed during Lent.


THIS IS GENIUS!!! I will celebrate this tradition to the fullest.

On another side note about northern cuisine, I visited the grocery store today. They offer a WIDE variety of Pierogi, unlike in Texas where you can get potato or if you're daring you can get potato and cheese. There are also local bakeries that sell handmade, fresh Pierogi like sweet cottage cheese and fruit filled ones too. (BTW, there was only one type of Rotel tomatoes in the grocery store. Go figure. I may need someone to mail me some spicy tomatoes in a can but we'll talk more later.)

(For anyone who has not been introduced to Pierogi yet here is what they are. I recommend finding some and eating with a sauteed onion and sour cream! Pierogi are boiled, baked or fried dumplings of  unleavened dough and traditionally stuffed with potato filling, sauerkraut, ground meat, or fruit. Of central and eastern European provenance, they are usually semicircular, but are rectangular or triangular in some cuisines.) Basically they are the Polish equivalent to Spanish Empanadas. 

Here is the grocery store collection and what they look like cooked. For this and the Paczki I am glad to be introduced to new traditions in the north.