Flowers for the Royal's hats?

When I heard that British hatters had ordered thousands and thousands of artificial flowers from the Sebnitz manufactory, I decided that it was high time to pay a visit to this tiny village at the Czech border.  50 km from Dresden, the perfect destination for a weekend trip.

Already on the staircase, where I took the photograph above, I got some slight doubts about the lifelike appearance of these works of art. Moving along to the wedding room I was happy for being already married... (Funny enough that I actually wore a wreath of white and pink flowers on my wedding.)
Next we visited the creepy iron cellar where all the moulds were stored. Thereafter we were shown a film about the artificial flower production in Sebnitz before World War II. At that time Sebnitz produced 3/4 of the world demand.

Endless rows of workers, men and women, doing one single movement the whole day, cutting flowers, pressing, dying, making stems. In the factory and in home work- pictures from the industrial revolution!

After this disturbing impression we were guided to the today's manufactury. We could watch a woman pressing veins into green cotton leaves (2000 kg pressure at 120°C!), another one fixing marigolds on stems, and a third one colouring poppies.
AND: finally we had the possibility to ask questions.

NO, there is no big production anymore. Artificial flowers now come from the Far East. We only produce for the shop downstairs. NO, we didn't deliver to English hatters on occasion of the royal wedding. Those flowers came from Wallroda (also nearby), from a manufacturer with better  connections to the WEST.

Finally we were guided to the shop. Hard to believe, but there were only a few lifelike flowers, the bigger part had exchanged the natural look for stage potential (easy to be seen from the last row...)

Rose Carrarini's Pistachio Cakes

One of my most loved cookbooks at the moment is Breakfast, Lunch, Tea from Rose Bakery in Paris.
Rose Bakery offers a modern, simple and healthy cuisine, using first quality, organic ingredients from regional suppliers. Just what I'm  trying to do here in my everyday kitchen for my family and friends.

One of Rose's recipes I tried out lately is the pistachio cake. I was looking for a nut cake, because I had some leftover roasted ground almonds waiting to be used. Hm, only 60g... well , in the drawer I still stored some hazelnuts,  pistachios and pine nuts from my last Almwiesenmuesli. I ground them all in the little Zyliss drum grater (highly recommendable: my best kitchen tool!) and tadaaa:  the required 200g!

The original cake and the original recipe look like this:

 And here is my variation:

250g butter
200g sugar ( I took 25g less than in the original)
grated zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons rosewater (yes, it gives a very subtle and delicious flavour!)
4 eggs
200g ground almonds, pistachios, pine nuts and hazelnuts
50g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180° C.

Butter  a 25cm cake tin or the cake tins you decide to use.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Mix in the lemon zest and the rosewater. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Now fold in the ground almonds, ground pistachios, flour, baking powder and salt.
Pout the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 40 minutes. 30 minutes if you take smaller baking tins.

I made no topping, because I liked the little Gugelhupfs just like that. Otherwise heat in a saucepan:

50g pistachios , whole or chopped
50g caster sugar
grated zest and juice of on lemon
and pour  the mixture over the cake.

kitchen curtains

Today comes the curtain man with my new kitchen curtains! Striped again, but in a soft grey and white instead of the old red/cream striped Pierre Frey's.  They were beautiful and still are, but it's good  for now with the all dominating, attention claiming RED. I  need some softer colours now, more neutral, to be not  restricted anymore in the rest of my decoration.

#6 Intro To Awesome Punch

Our new favourite from now!

As I'm convinced that the malevolent Ehec germ lives neither in spanish cucumbers nor in our regional vegetables, I fancied trying a cocktail with fresh cucumbers. The Intro To Awesome Punch has been created by Jane Danger, head bartender at Cienfuegos, a spin-off from the owners of Death and Co., a cocktailbar located in the East Village of Manhattan.

The Punch mixes best while listening to this music

How to mix:

1 1/2 parts dry white Rum

1 part Aperol

1part fresh lime juice

1/2 part sugar syrup

3 cucumber wheels

Club Soda

salt

Muddle the cucumber wheels and sugar syrup in a mixing glass. Add rum, Aperol and lime juice. Shake and strain over ice into a cocktail glass. Top with soda and a pinch of salt (I prefer it without salt..). Garnish with a cucumber wheel.

We tried it with soda and without, on icecubes and without.  It's always AWESOME! 

Happy sunny Saturday!

How about a cool shower?

Let's walk from Moritzburg's Schlosskapelle to Fasanenschlösschen

Moritzburg Castle and the little pink Pheasants Castle are built in a line of sight during the time of August the Strong (beginning 18th century) and it takes about an hours walk to get from one place to the other.
 On occasion of his birthday one of my friends invited us to walk with him this path along forests and waterways surprising us at start and end with interesting lectures about God, church and religion.  It was a remarkable birthday afternoon (and, of course, the ouverture of a big party at night!).

Please stay, if you want, and follow the pictures!

the line of sight

looking up to the ceiling fresco in the chapel of MoritzburgCastle

The sky looked menacing when we left the chapel. Actually we had a thunderstorm warning that afternoon. 

still inside the castle grounds

out in the forest 

along waterways covered with tiny white waterlilies and the Venus fountain already close to the Pheasants Castle

The Pheasants Castle with the pheasant's cage in front.