Punchkie

I am Polish, my mom's maiden name ends in "wicz" and according to my grandparent's funeral home director, my last name probably ended in "ski" generations before.
And in my family's Polish tradition Fat Tuesday means eating punchie - a donut like pastry coated in powdered sugar.
The polish spelling is Paczki and my family, the purest do not fill them.  Just powdered outside!

Actually, by tradition, I mean my family living in Detroit.  You can get punchkie at every grocery store for the week leading up to Ash Wednesday.  

We have my mom's grandmother's recipe and I decided to try my hand at them.  The recipe is huge!  My mom's family had one girl and 4 hungry boys, so I cut it in 1/3rd, but forgot to cut the water!

Opps!  So I had to add a lot of extra flour to make the dough less sticky.

This was also my first time frying anything and I burnt the oil (I used canola oil since it was what we have on hand) after the first round came out  I was working without a candy thermometer, so I had no clue how hot the oil was and had walked away from it.  Opps!

After a trip to the grocery store, the next round of punchkie came out great and tasty.

Paper bag used for shaking the punchkie in powered sugar.

What family traditions do you have?
Happy Fat Tuesday!
ELH