Head to Hamtramck for Paczki Day

Paczki Day is tomorrow and I’m excited to head down to Hamtramck to join in the festivities. This is Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s Day all rolled up into one fabulous Polish-infused day. 

This video with Mo Rocca is from Paczki Day 2008:

How do you pronounce that? Paczki is pronounced PUNCH-kee. The people who say POONCH-kee are wrong! Wrong, I tell ya!

What are paczki?

They are the most incredible glorified jelly doughnuts; they are a heart attack and the end of your diet. Traditionally, you aren’t supposed to eat such things during lent so they would use up the butter, sugar and lard in the house to make these sweet treats.

In Poland paczki are eaten on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, which would have been last week. It is the Polish-American tradition to pig out on these pillows of loveliness on Fat Tuesday.

Where can you get paczki?

I know you can get paczki at your local grocery store but it isn’t the same. The following bakeries are the best places in Hamtown to stock up on your Fat Tuesday treats:

• New Deluxe Bakery (11920 Conant Street)

• New Martha Washington Bakery (10335 Joseph Campau Street)

• New Palace Bakery (9833 Joseph Campau Street)

• New Polka Bakery (9834 Conant Street)

• Al Jenah Bakery (9240 Conant Street)

• Metropolitan Baking Co (8579 Lumpkin Street)

New Palace Bakery last year before Paczki Day.

Other events include bar crawls, a paczki eating contest, live music, and Polish food. The Polish Muslims are playing at three different venues throughout the day.

I’m also interested in catching Polka Floyd who will be playing at Small’s and PLAV 10-11824. Seriously, it might seem crazy but I love it! Listen to their version of “The Wall Part 2.”

Growing up Polish can be difficult, you must endure countless Polish jokes and nobody can pronounce your last name. As I got older I embraced my heritage and am proud to be 100% Polish. I even miss my maiden name, which I always had to spell.

On Paczki Day everyone is Polish. Na zdrowie!

Detroit Moxie's Weekend Roundup

Yes, we all survived Snomaggedon. Or is it Snowpacalypse? It wasn’t so bad, it’s not like we live in D.C. where they freak out and just shut everything down when it snows. I have to say that I’m pretty happy I didn’t have to shovel any of the fluffy white stuff.

I know we live in Michigan but I’m ready for warm weather, sunshine, and green grass. For the record, I don’t mow the lawn either. I’ve survived 40 years without pushing a lawnmower and I’m certainly not going to start now.

New Palace Bakery in Hamtramck is one of the places to go for paczki on Fat Tuesday.

Weekend Roundup

1. Countdown to Paczki Day - Hamtramck hosts this pre-paczki party featuring free paczki, polka music, a paczki toss, and the "Paczki Express," a historic bus tour. February 13. (Disclaimer: I am 100% Polish, I live for this stuff!)

2. Motown Winter Blast - Marshmallow roasting, FREE ice skating, ice sculptures, wine tastings and Motown music! Campus Martius will be hopping this weekend. February 12-14.

3. The Dirty Show - If it's Valentines Day weekend it must be time for The Dirty Show. The erotic art exhibition is one of the largest in the world. February 12-20.

4. Arts & Scraps Dinner and Auction - Taking place at the Michigan Design Center, this benefit includes dinner, window shopping, and a live and silent auction. February 11th.

5. Detroit Science Center - This Sunday is a Ford Free FunDay! Explore different types of engineering through hands-on activities. February 14th.

Do you know of a great event going in on Metro Detroit this weekend? Add it to the comments and share it with us!

Tennis Anyone?

For those that don’t follow this blog regularly, a few other female blogger friends and I have joined up with PositiveDetroit.Net and Operation: Kid Equip for The Dictionary Project.

You see, words are important to us bloggity types. Words are all we have. We want the children of our community to love words as much as we do. We want to empower them. We want them to make up better words than bloggity.

Thus, Word-Up! Talking Trash For Kids was born. Local bloggers, Facebookers, Tweeters, friends, family, and followers are coming together to raise money for The Dictionary Project while having fun and playing tennis.

You Cannot Be Serious!

Oh, I’m serious! You can swing a racquet and hope for bragging rights, heckle the players from the sidelines, or just show your support. Either way, it’s sure to be a fabulous time while raising funds for a good cause.

Word-Up! is Saturday, February 27^th from 9-11pm at the Birmingham Racquet Club.

All proceeds from the event will go to The Dictionary Project, an Operation: Kid Equip collaboration with PositiveDetroit.net and Local Female Bloggers, to help complete the mission of putting a dictionary in the hands of 25 % of Oakland County School District's 3rd graders.

Warning: Trash talk will be flying at this event, and is more than likely to land out of bounds at times. All attendees, playing or not, should arrive with well-padded egos.

How will it work?

• Each court will play doubles for 20 minutes, then rotate up the river/down the river style and record the amount of games they won.

• At the end of the 2 hours, we will add up all of the game totals and the players with the highest scores (winners can be on any court) will win a prize or some trash talk from the non-winners!

• Theme is Stylish 70's Athletic Wear (not required, but strongly encouraged)

• Prize will be awarded for Best Costume at event

• Tennis and Spectator Spots are Limited and on a First Come, First Serve Basis

• After party location will be announced during event

So put your headbands and tube socks on and join us for gentle ribbing. Bring your best game and channel your inner John McEnroe.

Word. Up. Word-Up!

Click here for more event details and to purchase tickets.

Ice Ice Baby

I heard about the Ice House Detroit project back when it was still in its funding stages and, to be honest, it didn’t get me excited.

Gregory Holm, a photographer, and Matthew Radune, an architect, are the men behind the project and they encased an abandoned house in Detroit in ice. From their fundraising website:

Ice House Detroit references this contemporary urban condition, and involves the acquisition and recontextualization of one of the 80,000 abandoned houses in the city.

The house will be sprayed with water in subzero temperatures, gradually building up layers of ice over the course of several days or weeks. Once it is frozen, the common architectural and urban references of the house will be temporarily obscured, providing a period of reflection.

Stop, Collaborate and Listen

I might not have been interested at first but in the past few weeks I have been desperately trying to find the location of the house. Maybe my obsession with the Belle Isle Ice Tree was just gateway ice and now any and all interesting ice will feed my addiction? Possibly.

Anyway, I finally found out the location of the Ice House on Friday, a day before it was to be announced publicly. Of course I couldn’t get down there till Saturday so my inside information didn’t give me a head start.

My overall impression? It’s a great subject to photograph.

I mean, I’m happy that they are being respectful of the neighborhood, recycling, and giving back to the community. But did it change anything or raise awareness? Everyone knows that there is a housing crisis and that Detroit has tens of thousands of abandoned homes.

Looking back at the last line of the quote above, I’m wondering if any of the onlookers had a "period of reflection" afterward? I hope so.

See that peice of ice by the apex of the roof? It's in the midst of falling.

You can see 2 peices in mid air above the bushes on the porch. Notice the missing ice at the roof line?

The address of Ice House Detroit is 3920 McClellan.

The Belle Isle Ice Tree is Blue!

We made another trip out to Belle Isle this past Tuesday to see the evolution the Ice Tree. It’s starting to look more like it did the first time I laid eyes on it.

The Belle Isle Ice Tree is a beautiful blue color; I just wish the sky wasn’t so grey and dismal. It was also snowing, ever so slightly, while I was out snapping these photos.

These photos were taken on February 2, 2010.



Take a look at photos of the Ice Tree last month, before the ice, and last year.