Both a good and bad thing, depending on your perspective

I discovered this week that my new KitchenAid Mixer, properly employed, makes Grandma Zydzik's chrusciki recipe with about a thousand percent less effort. And it took a 3-hour job and paired it down to an hour. Worked great for giving to the choir teachers and neighbors. Not so good for my waistline; most of the effort for chrusciki (and the secret to success for this pastry) typically goes into kneading and kneading and KNEADING the dough, which, before I had the mixer, at least shaved off some of the calories. The incredients are: egg yolks, sour cream, flour, sugar, a pinch of salt, and vanilla...shaped into bow ties and deep fried in Crisco, then drenched in powdered sugar.

I would have taken a photo of the chrusciki, but they were gone too fast.

Old family joke (or one that I may have made up 20 or more years ago):

Question: What's the shelf life of chrusciki?
Answer: No one knows, it never lasts long enough to be put back on the shelf.

This is the extent of the Polish heritage that has filtered through (the recipe, not the joke). It's the best part, probably.


Hunkering down for the blizzard today...