snack Archives - Page 2 of 2 -

by Ellen Bannink - February 13, 2014February 12, 2014

Garlic and black pepper croutons

Last weekend I went shopping with a friend, I left P and his mom at home and she left her husband and her cute toddler at home. Girl time!

I wasn’t really planning on buying something because I want to save up some money for when one of my sisters is coming to visit next month. She will be staying here for six (6!!) weeks and we have a lot of fun thing planned together: Disneyland (because that really ÍS the happiest place on earth I recently discovered), roadtrip to San Francisco (and back over the PCH – yay!) and a visit to Las Vegas (finally!).

My friend had some birthday money to spend so I just followed her around in the stores. Ok, and even though I was planning to buy something I did buy a cute cardigan and a new pair of sunglasses at LOFT (they were both on sale, does that count?) 😉

At one point we stopped by Sephora. Yikes! Those places freak me out, I feel so out of place there.

by Ellen Bannink - January 23, 2014January 22, 2014

Fennel pork bites

Last week we drove up to San Francisco. P had to go for work so we decided I went along plus we extended our stay for two nights. And best of all: we went by car instead of flying so we could drive back over the Pacific Coast Highway on Sunday!

Like, best decision ever! I drove up the PCH once, in October with my brother and his girlfriend. We didn’t plan our trip well because by the time we arrived at the beautiful part -Big Sur- it was already getting dark 🙁 So this time P and I decided to do it better!

by Ellen Bannink - January 14, 2014April 11, 2015

Chinese scallion pancakes

– Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Chung Yau Ban – Lenteui koeken –

I really really really could eat these everyday, that’s how much I like them.
And I know what I’m talking about because this is what I often ate for breakfast in China. In 2010 I went with my Chinese aunt to her family in China, to a little village at an 8 hour drive south of Shanghai. These Chinese scallion pancakes were our breakfast, as well as some delicious steamed buns.

I really wish I could tell you I learned how to make these pancakes in the village where my aunt grew up,

by Ellen Bannink - November 14, 2013December 2, 2014

Cheddar breadsticks

Last Tuesday I had an amazing evening with my LA Food Bloggers friends of the Meetup group. We where invited to a 8 Course Prix-Fixe Dinner at the Barbershop Pop-Up in Venice.

And boy, this was fancy! Chef Walter el Nagar served us delicious food, including the amuse it was 9 courses! I had foie gras for the first time in my life, ate some wild Scottish wood pigeon and fell in love with the candied eggplant.

It’s nice to have a dinner like this once in a while, but deep inside I’m more of a rustic food kinda gal 😉

by Ellen Bannink - September 18, 2013March 4, 2014

Baozi – Chinese steamed buns

I was about to give you this recipe for delicious Baozi last week but something came up. I already wrote a text about the old food photos on my Dutch blog when I saw there were quite some photos missing on my Dutch blog.

Oh no! How could that happen?

Well, that was my own stupid fault.

I started blogging on inmyredkitchen.wordpress.com in May last year, but after a few months

by Ellen Bannink - August 22, 2013February 26, 2015

Dutch egg cakes

– Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Heerlijke luchtiger eierkoeken –

Those egg cakes (“eierkoeken“) are very popular in the Netherlands. Especially since a famous weight loss guru prescribed them in her menu’s. This woman is also known as Sonja Bakker, she is blond and always smiling (of course, she has to sell her diet!) and she is from West-Friesland, an area North of Amsterdam known for its huge greenhouses. So she also has an accent which I find very annoying.

I’ve never followed her diet, I mean… it is a crash diet! I don’t believe in that! Sonja wrote books with weekly menus and she sold a lot of those books. For some reason these Dutch egg cakes where part of the diet.

by Ellen Bannink - July 1, 2013March 3, 2014

Chicken Meatballs

I bought a bike last week! It’s so nice to ride again, I didn’t ride a bike for 8 weeks, the longest since I’ve learned to ride. So that would be 27 years or so 😉 The weather is so good here, and I enjoy to do some grocerie shopping with my new minty-green cruiser.

In Amsterdam I used riding my bike all the time. I didn’t even had a driver license until I was 29! So yes, that’s just 2 years ago 😉
In Amsterdam you need a bike, you can’t live there without having one. Owning a car isn’t necessary, to be precise it’s only annoying. You need a parking permit and even then it’s hard to find a parking spot. In the city centre (where we used to live) the streets are narrow and you’ll get easily stuck in traffic.