Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Happy Fastnacht Day!
Happy Fastnacht Day!For those of you that don't know about this time honored Pennsylvania Dutch (german) tradition, here's a great website that includes a recipe for making Fastnachts. Sure, New Orelans has Mardi Gras, but that doesn't fly with the Pennsylvania Dutch--too much drinking, carousing, and generally wasting time. We pair our pre-Lent festivities down to one day--one morning actually--Shrove Tuesday-- and, given our traditions, you shouldn't be surprised to find that the celebration is all about eating in great quantities. I was in southern Germany a few years ago during Shrove Tuesday and they celebrate a version of Fastnacht--Fasching--sort of a carnival. Most Pennsylvania Dutch folks came to the US in the 1600s/ early 1700s--most of my family arrived early in order to escape religious persection--so the tradition in the US is distinctly different and far less celebratory (religiously tempered perhaps? All those Mennonites) than that in Europe.
When I was a little girl there was a rush to get out of bed on Fastnacht day--last one awake was the fastnacht for the day. My Mom would mix up and fry the donuts and we would dunk the ones right out of the fryer into a brown lunch bag that held powdered sugar. A bit of shaking, and they were ready to eat. The donuts are cakey, heavy things due to the mashed potatoes, flour, and lard. The leftover donuts were dunked in Lion Brand golden table syrup and a smear of butter. Of course, I don't have anything in the house to fry donuts in and the whole lard thing scares me. But hey--it's Fastnacht day! Eat some fattening foods!
And in Texas we are moving on to spring:
Time to get those gardens planted (tomatoes should be in soon... the husband planted berries last week). All thoughts of winter are gone. Well, I guess there should be some explaination of the Olympic knitting conclusion (or mid point in my case). Here's my first picture:
Someone wanted to be in the picture, but we mostly ended up with two sets of feet and a mop of early morning hair. Here's the completed back:
Olympic Knitting
Originally uploaded by amyeetx.
So I don't get a medal, but I am one step closer to a finished object! This has been fun to knit and you should expect more in the near future!
