Fat Tuesday!

Happy Fat Tuesday!

Do you even say that?

Who knows?  But, I see it as another reason to celebrate before we enter the Easter season.

So in our last, well really, only visit to New Orleans...the capital of Mardi Gras in the USA, we stopped at one of the most visited places there for beignets!  

OH MY HEAVENLY GOODNESS OF FRIED DOUGH!

I THOUGHT I HAD DIED AND GONE TO FRIED DOUGH HEAVEN!

These creations are so good and the best place to have them in New Orleans is at Cafe du Monde!

The place is packed!  Waiters/waitresses are scurrying around taking orders and bringing out beignets.  Tables are all squished together and it is very loud.  You wonder how you will ever get your order?  Beignets and Cafe Au Lait!  Will it even be worth it???

A thousand times YES!  They are so worth it!  Mounds of powdered sugar on these dough creations!  Careful you don't sneeze!  (As a side note...one member of the family, who shall remain nameless, sneezed or blew out funny because the next thing we know, the back of someone from another table is covered in powdered sugar!  Being the "honest" people we are...we didn't say a thing!  Just pretended it never happened...maybe it was really the wind?)  Back to the story...They are so good!  This is what people in New Orleans eat on Mardi Gras for sure!  I'd eat them year round if I could!

Now up in these parts...Chicagoland.  We celebrate Fat Tuesday with Paczkis (pronounced something like pooch key).  Never heard of them til I got here.  So glad I know about them though!  They are a Polish version of a jelly or custard filled donut...but a hundred times better than a regular 'ol jelly donut!

Paczkis come powdered, granulated sugar covered or chocolate frosted.  The insides come in all different kinds of flavors...so hard to decide which to get and only out a short time of the year!

So Happy Fat Tuesday!

Hope you are celebrating with a beignet, paczki or something just as good in your part of the woods!

Celebrate the little things that make life sweet!

Christine