What in the world is a paczki? Checking out Fat Tuesday traditions

It's Fat Tuesday.  Time for king cakes and paczki.  Say it with me now... "pooooonchkeeee."

I have never really followed Mardi Gras.  I've never done anything outrageous for beads.  I only traveled to New Orleans one time for work.  And, I never ate king cake.

But that all changed today.

Steve Koehn, our Live at 5 producer, said he wanted to get packzi for the newscast but didn't have time, so I volunteered to go pick up some.

Here's the lowdown.  Packzi is a Polish dessert popular on Fat Tuesday.  It's much like a donut, but the folks at Scott's Pastry Shoppe in Middleton say the dough is much sweeter and "pillowy-er" plus the filling is sweeter.  And it's pronounced "poonch-kee.'

Got it?  Good.  

We cut the king cake and Tabatha Wethal got the baby!  Apparently that means she'll have good luck, is king for the day and will buy the next year's cake.  Should we try to hold her to it?!

I love firsts.  This goes on the list!