Happy Fat Tuesday!

Let me tell you about one of my favorite lent traditions. Fat Tuesday! Who wouldn't love a day were you are expected to eat donuts, am I right! I grew up catholic and going to a catholic grade school, every lent papa johns pizza and fish Frys were a must. But little did I know I was missing out on the best part of the beginning of the season, something my ancestors had been making for years. The polish donut, pazckis.

My grandpa Ed was polish, and I grew up with all kinds of smells coming from his kitchen of stewed cabbage and meats. He loved to cook and he loved going to Chicago to visit the polish butcher shops, walking in the front door, taking a huge breathe and saying "I'm Home". Of course I'm sure your wondering what does this have to do with a donut? Because afterwords we would always go eat at a little restaurant called the The Jolly Luck club in Little Poland. Or go visit the local polish grocery store and see all the confections in the bakery. And let me tell you, growing up in America and then trying a polish pastry, we always found it lacking because they never had the same sugar levels we were use too.

Fast forward 10 years and I'm living in traverse city Michigan. Its winter, and they are having the most snow fall they had seen in 30 years. I'm locked in a tiny house in Interlochen MI, spending the winter preparing myself for my first real chef job on Mackinac Island coming up in the following summer. I have been told to create, write menus, come up with food ideas, and all I can think about is snow, snow and more snow. But little did I know that the universe had once again brought me to an area rich in European culinary finds.

I was out at the grocery st