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Every year, as February approaches and thoughts of Christmas are long gone, European bakeries disrupt the bleakness of midwinter with windows and display cases filled with delightfully rich sweets seldom seen the rest of the year. The tradition is a hangover from the days when the Christian festival of Lent which this year begins February 17 meant giving up all that was good, like sugar, eggs, butter, and fat, for the 40 days prior to Easter. Though that tradition may have gone the way of the Middle Ages, the urge to indulge be it on Fat Thursday, Shrove Monday, or Mardi Gras remains.