Mock-nachts

I do not deserve to claim my Pa. Dutch heritage.
Tuesday was Fastnacht Day.
A fastnacht is a type of donut made from potatoes. Fastnacht is a combination of two German words meaning "fast night.” Which is always the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Supposedly from what I could find on the web, an old German tradition said eating fastnachts on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday prevented boils in the coming year. *Interesting* I believe the jist of the tradition comes from purging the pantry of fats and sweets that would soon be forbidden for the period of Lent. And the only way to make a truly real fastnacht is to fry them in lard, yes, lard. Yum, honestly, yummy.
I can remember making donuts with my grandmother - I haven't done it in years. And - despite this rather convincing pictures, did not *really* do so this year.

See - these are what I will call - mock-nachts. :)
Thankfully Tuesday afternoon as I was sitting watching Food Network, Guy Ferri made this fried donuts for his breakfast show, and I said, aha! I can cheat! So off I went to the store to get biscuit dough....please don't tell my grandmother. Shhhh.....I cut the centers out, and friend them in the closest thing I had to lard, butter flavor Crisco sticks.
These were actually well received by the kids. Althnough explaining to them why we were making them wasn't as easy. "But why?"
Luckily, I have a wonderful job where I get to meet and spend time with some terrific older folks that still maintain their traditions. One of my patient's lives with her daughter who was making fastnachts when I was there on Tuesday. The smell outside their house when I got out of the car, took me back 25 years. Think of the smell of funnel cake cooking at a fair and miltiply it by yum x 4......she lovingly packed up a dozen for me to bring home. Not well received by the kids, the fastnachts are dense and not as sweet as a traditional donut. J. on the other hand, claimed they were the best he ever had. She was very pleased to hear that when I returned yesterday. And I asked to see the recipe. The scrapper in me flipped and wanted to get my hands on that recipe....she pulled out a small piece of notebook paper, marked and stained by years of use, folded, wrinkled, barely legible. This was a recipe she had gotten from an aunt who got it from her mother. This recipe is literally a 100 years old.
So next year - I may be making the *real* ones as well and honestly reclaim my heritage.