Dragon colada - it's a cocktail with dragon fruit! #FearNoFruit | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Dragon colada – dragon fruit cocktail

Dragon colada - it's a cocktail with dragon fruit! #FearNoFruit | in my Red Kitchen

My first introduction to dragon fruit was at college and it came in the form of a processed drink, the ones that come in those little bags. Those little bags of juice that are so hard to put the straw in.

I can’t remember when I had my first real dragon fruit but I do remember eating it in China. I love the flavor, it isn’t too sweet and it has a smooth texture.

When Frieda’s sent me a big box of fruit for their ‘Fear No Fruit’ campaign it made me think about myself. I grew up with ‘normal’ fruits like apples, pears, bananas and strawberries. But nonetheles I’m willing to try ‘weird’ or ‘tropical’ fruits now. Because the only way to know that I don’t like it, is to try it first!

An egg salad with bacon and cheddar - sounds amazing right? | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Bacon & cheddar egg salad

An egg salad with bacon and cheddar - sounds amazing right? | in my Red Kitchen

Egg salad has been in my life as long as I remember. My grandma makes the best egg salad in the whole wide world – yes I’m serious! I don’t even know what she puts in it. Raw thinly sliced onion, that’s for sure. But there must be a secret ingredient she uses for it.

I need to ask her for the recipe!
But I myself also make a decent good egg salad if I can say so. For the past weeks I’ve been making quite a few egg salads, I don’t even know why.

Rose sponge cake with meringue, strawberries, raspberries and pistachios for the LA Cake Club | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Rose sponge cake with strawberries and pistachios

Rose sponge cake with meringue, strawberries, raspberries and pistachios for the LA Cake Club | in my Red Kitchen

I love social media. Okay I’ll admit it: I’m a social media junkie. The moment I wake up you’ll find me checking Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (in no particular order) with still one eye closed.

I wanna know what happened while I was sleeping and I want to know what’s going on in the world. It’s my coffee – the only way to start the day properly.

And the best part about social media? Meeting new people! And that’s a very welcome thing if you just moved to LA. Well ‘just’…

Lemon meringue cupcakes - it's my favorite pie turned into cupcakes! | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Lemon meringue cupcakes

Lemon meringue cupcakes - it's my favorite pie turned into cupcakes! | in my Red Kitchen When life gives you lemons… you make lemonade, or lemon curd, or lemon meringue pie, or limoncello.

So many ideas what to do with the variegated pink lemons Frieda’s sent me! I was really hoping to receive some Meyer Lemons as I have never tried them before. They don’t exist in the Netherlands and even after living in Los Angeles for almost a year now, I still haven’t had them. But the Meyer Lemons weren’t available so Frieda’s made sure I would get my lemon-fix with these beautiful lemons that are pink-ish on the inside.

If you love lemon meringue pie and you find yourself being in Paris at one point in your life:

Ghee roasted sunchokes | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Ghee roasted sunchokes

Ghee roasted sunchokes | in my Red Kitchen

Do you know sunchokes? No? And have you ever heard of Jerusalem artichokes? It’s the same root vegetable and it’s also called topinambour, earth apple, sunroot or earth pear (in Dutch it’s called earth pear or topinambour).

They look a little like bloathed ginger roots but they are actually the edible roots of a North American sunflower plant.

sunchokes-raw

I really like this explanation of where the name ‘Jerusalem Artichoke’ came from

Traditional Dutch Easter bread with raisins and almond paste | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Paasstol – Dutch Easter bread

Traditional Dutch Easter bread with raisins and almond paste | in my Red Kitchen

– Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Paasstol –

This is by far the most delicious bread I’ve ever eaten. A ‘stollen’ is a traditional Dutch raisin bread with an almond paste center and it’s served at Christmas and Easter. The only difference is that you put almonds on top of the bread before baking at Easter, the Christmas stollen is without the almonds on top.

This Dutch Easter bread was always part of our Easter brunch, as well as boiled eggs. With the boiled eggs we used to play a game, it’s a real tradition and in our family we even know stories about it from when my mom was a little girl! The game goes like this:

Roasted tomato salsa, a great snack! | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Roasted tomato salsa

Roasted tomato salsa, a great snack! | in my Red Kitchen

There are always lots of great ideas in my head, ideas for a new logo for this blog, ideas for food styling and lots of ideas for cookies, salads, breakfast recipes or cakes.

Too many ideas for the time I have on my hands, but normally that’s not a big problem because I know I spent all the time I have on this blog. Of course, I want to post more recipes than two each week but I still have another blog (www.inmyredkitchen.nl) that also needs some TLC 😉

But lately I’m experiencing some anxiety attacks…

German currywurst - simple to make and so delicious! | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Food Truck Tuesday – Currywurst

German currywurst - simple to make and so delicious! | in my Red Kitchen

– Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Currywurst –

One of my first food truck experiences after moving to LA last year was the Currywurst Truck. There is one thing you might not know about me and it’s that I grew up near the German border at the east side of the Netherlands.

Currywurst-truck

While growing up we often went to Germany for shopping on Dutch holidays. Ever since then I love German food: pretzels, german bread and currywurst. And while studying me and my best friend drove to Germany for grocery shopping at least once a month. It was just a 15-minute drive and I would stock up on alcohol because

Creamy strawberry chia seeds pudding - a healthy dessert that you can eat for breakfast! | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Creamy strawberry chia seeds pudding

Creamy strawberry chia seeds pudding - a healthy dessert that you can eat for breakfast! | in my Red Kitchen

Who wants to eat dessert for breakfast? I do!

But today is a day that I’m feeling guilty. And that’s pretty common for me once in a while. It’s not just one thing I feel guilty about, there are a few things. To start I feel guilty towards in my Red Kitchen. I wanted to post the recipe for this delicious and creamy strawberry chia seeds pudding yesterday, but instead of working (a.k.a. blogging) I took a road trip with my sister to San Francisco. We left on Monday, spent 1,5 days in rainy SF and we drove back yesterday over the PCH. So I failed in putting myself to work and take time to write this blog post on time.

We had a really good time in San Francisco, even while

Chinese "pizza" is a great snack, it's filled with mustard greens and bacon! | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Chinese pizza with mustard greens

Chinese "pizza" is a great snack, it's filled with mustard greens and bacon! | in my Red Kitchen

‘Chinese sauerkraut’, that’s how my Chinese aunt calls mustard greens. And she is right, it dóes taste a little like sauerkraut.

I can remember eating a kind of pita bread filled with sour greens and onion in China. One of my aunts cousins (or at least that’s what I think he was) took us on a day trip into the mountains while we where there. No idea where these mountains were, but it sure was beautiful! We drove the whole day and at one point we stopped at a river for a swim.