Fasnetsküchle

It's carnival time and surely, Stuttgart isn't Cologne or Rio ... but children certainly love to dress up here as well.
Additionally, we have a very tasty carnival specialty: "Fasnetsküchle".

This taste reminds me of many carnival (here: "Fasnet") celebrations in my childhood. My mom used to bake them every year and we also watched the carnival processions in Mainz, Düsseldorf and Cologne (Germany's carnival stongholds) on TV.
This year, I made them for the very first time. Surely I saw my mom making them often and also helped her sometimes. But this time I was the responsible one :-)
They are made of a sweet yeast dough, then the dough is rolled and cut into rhombs.
After that the challenging part comes: they are put into heated oil where they bake happily until golden brown.
Here's a recipe in German.
I took my recipe from this Swabian cuisine book which I got from my mother some years ago:

It can still be ordered on amazon.
And now have a look:
Start with patience and let the yeast dough grow...

Then cut the rhombs....

Put them into hot oil...

and then put them out, let the oil drip off and dust them with icing sugar:

ENJOY ENJOY ENJOY!!

BTW, we also watched the carnival processions yesterday and as we lived in Cologne some years, this was certainly the highlight:

Orchid buds!

Our orchid suffered during our move last summer. Accidentally it had been covered totally with paper and was put into a box. So several days it was in almost total darkness.
The green leaves showed white  spots and it really didn't look great.

Last week the same orchid gave me a very big, very pleasant surprise:
suddenly I saw new violet buds coming forth - not the white colour like before - but this beautiful violet:

What a beautiful picture of strength and beauty in the midst of adversities!
What a beautiful picture of new life and beauty coming forth!
Looking forward to see it blooming!