Chickpea soup with spinach. Is it winter yet? | in my Red Kitchen #chickpea #soup #fall #winter #spinach #spinachsoup

Chickpea soup with spinach

Chickpea soup with spinach. Is it winter yet? | in my Red Kitchen #chickpea #soup #fall #winter #spinach #spinachsoup

– Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Kikkererwtensoep met spinazie

You know it’s fall when you’re craving chickpea soup with spinach! This soup is one of my favorites as it has two of my favorites: chickpeas and spinach!

6-year old Ellen would have never thought that spinach would be one of 32-year old Ellen’s favorites 😉 I hated spinach, as well as lots

Salmorejo, a Spanish chilled tomato soup that's so much better than Gazpacho! | in my Red Kitchen

Salmorejo – chilled tomato soup

Salmorejo, a Spanish chilled tomato soup that's so much better than Gazpacho! | in my Red Kitchen – Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Salmorejo – koude tomatensoep

What is a person without friends? Not much in my case. It’s so fun though, moving to the other side of the world with just your husband and spending lots of time together. But of course I also need to do things with friends: going to see a movie, going for a walk around the block or simply meeting for coffee.

Those moment are important for talks about all things women. Dieting, running a household, clothes… you know the drill. Things that P doesn’t care about, because why should he care when I walked out of the beauty salon with a bloody

Fresh pea soup with mint, the best soup for Spring! | in my Red Kitchen

Fresh pea soup with mint

Fresh pea soup with mint, the best soup for Spring! | in my Red Kitchen

– Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Doperwtensoep met munt

Growing up at the east side of the Netherlands, my aunt and uncle had a huge farm, not too far from our house.

I can recall many happy moments there; playing with my cousins at the hayloft and finding a dead mouse, seeing a cow giving birth to a calf at night while we are watching through the video system how my uncle was assisting, camping in a little tent in the front yard, drinking really fresh

This is my mom's recipe for Chicken noodle soup with leeks - but I made a slow cooker version! | in my Red Kitchen

Mom’s chicken noodle soup with leeks (slow cooker version)

This is my mom's recipe for Chicken noodle soup with leeks - but I made a slow cooker version! | in my Red Kitchen

Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Kippensoep

‘They’ are promising us rain later this week. And not the rain we had a few times now since our arrival in Los Angeles, no we are talking about the Dutch kind of rain. One to two inches (2.5 – 5 cm), that’s a lot! Especially for LA 😉

I have the feeling the whole city is preparing to cope with the rain and I’m also planning ahead. I just don’t want to leave the house if it isn’t necessary. It’s not because I’m made of sugar, come on, I grew up in the Netherlands where it always rains a lot!

Thai shrimp coconut soup and a cookbook giveaway!

shrimp-coconut-soup-3-inmyredkitchen

If you browse through my recipes you see a mayority of Asian recipes. Kinda weird if you know that I’m a 100% Dutch girl, with no foreign roots. I also grew up in a small town in the east of the Netherlands, near the German border with no oriental influences at all over there.

I do have a Chinese aunt, she married my Dutch uncle almost 12 years ago when I was 20. She taught me some of her recipes and three years ago I travelled with her to her home town in China for four weeks.

Creamy sunchoke soup

Sunchoke-soup-inmyredkitchen

Two weeks (and a little bit) until Christmas! Waaaah, time flies! This will be my first Christmas in LA and -even though it’s cold lately- the weather will never be as bad as in the Netherlands. Christmas and sun, that sounds like the perfect combination to me 😉

This week I’m going to give you a full Christmas menu, first course, main course and dessert.

A while ago I promised myself to start cooking with ingredients I’ve never cooked before, like parsnip,

Mexican tomato and bean soup

Mexican-tomato-soup-inmyredkitchen-3

Los Angeles is such a great city, it has so much to offer and is really really big. So big that we haven’t seen everything yet so in the weekends we try to explore the city. I say try because we also have to go out for brunch on Sundays and go on hikes on Saturdays 😉

A few months ago we went to Silverlake on a sunny Saturday. We walked around, had some drinks and visited the cute boutiques.
And in one of those cute stores I saw it: the cookbook I wanted to buy for a long time but still hadn’t done it because of our move.

Bacon Barley Soup with Kale

Bacon Barley Soup 3

 

A few weeks ago it was so cold in LA, I had to wear shoes -instead of sandals or flipflops- for the first time since living here. I also bought a few sweaters and I was looking for a coat.

P was laughing at me, “do you know where it’s cold? In Amsterdam!”
I also got a few texts from friends who laughed when I complained about the cold, “so what’s cold, 20°C?” they were asking. (fyi: 20°C is 68°F)
Well ok. I had to agree with them.