,,,well another Fat Tuesday has come and gone and for the first time in years I didn’t bring home any Paczki which is pronounced POOCH-KEY which is a Polish pastry that is deep fried pieces of dough shaped into spheres and filled with a sweet filling. It could be filled with apple, strawberry, Bavarian cream, custard, raspberry or blue berry. I used to bring home a box every year before lent and especially for Fat Tuesday cause if there is anything that will fatten you up its Paczki. Tradition has it the reason for making Paczki was to use up all the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house because their consumption was forbidden by Christian fasting practices during Lent. Usually my wife would get upset because I would always bring home Paczki with apple filling. Last year I was able to bring home a box with several different fillings. This year she was super upset because I didn’t bring home any Paczki. Now that it’s officially the Lenten Season or the season of fasting which means no more Paczki , no more sweets., no more nothing. It’s time to make sacrifices between now and Easter. That’s why Fish Frys are so huge this time of year because you have to sacrifice eating meat. Well at least on Ash Wednesday or any Friday during lent which I got used to when I was a kid because as a catholic you didn’t eat meat on any Friday during the year let alone during lent. Back then it was a sin. Since then the rules were relaxed and its no longer a sin to eat meat on Friday which got the late comedian George Carlen to thinking if there were guys still doing time in hell for that meat rap.