Brussels sprouts mash with roasted garlic and mustard - great side dish for Thanksgiving! | in my Red Kitchen #thanksgiving #recipe #thanksgivingdinner #spruitjesstamppot
by Ellen Bannink -

Brussels sprouts mash with roasted garlic and mustard

Brussels sprouts mash with roasted garlic and mustard - great side dish for Thanksgiving! | in my Red Kitchen #thanksgiving #recipe #thanksgivingdinner #spruitjesstamppot

– Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Spruitjesstamppot met gepofte knoflook en mosterd –

These past weeks I like to go to the Farmers Market on Sundays. Leaving the house quite early (for a Sunday, and especially for us), taking the baby in the stroller and have breakfast at the market itself. And buy fruit and vegetables for the coming week of course. Always following the seasonal offerings. After buying the vegetables it’s time to meal plan for the week and go out for the rest of the groceries.

And almost every week I buy a bag of

Kaasbroodjes // Gouda Cheese Pastries | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Gouda cheese pastries

Kaasbroodjes // Gouda Cheese Pastries | in my Red Kitchen

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

When you’re living abroad for a longer period of time, you are going to miss the most crazy things from your home country.

For me, this took about 1.5 to 2 years. It obviously was related to the fact that I was pregnant at the time. I had a sudden need for eating food from the ‘old days’! And all this while Dutch food at all is not

Dutch butter cake - yes, you read that right: BUTTER cake! | in my Red Kitchen #butter #cake #buttercake #recipe
by Ellen Bannink -

Dutch butter cake

Dutch butter cake - yes, you read that right: BUTTER cake! | in my Red Kitchen #butter #cake #buttercake #recipe

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

It’s my party and I can eat what I want to…

No wait a minute… TWO parties today because it’s my birthday ánd exactly two years ago today I married the most amazing man on earth.

But yet today is just an ordinary Wednesday. The older I get, the less I value my birthday. This year is also the first time that I’m not going to celebrate it.

Dutch Janhagel cookies for the Great Food Bloggers Cookie Swap | in my Red Kitchen #fbcookieswap #cookies #cookie #dutch #almondcookie
by Ellen Bannink -

Dutch Janhagel cookies

Dutch Janhagel cookies for the Great Food Bloggers Cookie Swap | in my Red Kitchen #fbcookieswap #cookies #cookie #dutch #almondcookie

– Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Janhagel koekjes –

Last year I had a lot of fun participating in the annual The Great Food Blogger Cookie swap. Yes, that’s right. That’s a cookie exchange among food bloggers.

The rules are simple. You sign up. You will receive the addresses of three other food bloggers. You bake three dozen cookies. Cookies that you wrap up well and that you send by post to the other three food bloggers. In return, you get three boxes of 12 cookies sent home, by random food bloggers. So much fun, and also very delicious!

But the best part of this cookie swap?

Oven baked fries with peanut sauce and mayonaise. This Dutch 'patatje oorlog' is the best! | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Oven baked fries with peanut sauce and mayonnaise

 

Oven baked fries with peanut sauce and mayonaise. This Dutch 'patatje oorlog' is the best! | in my Red Kitchen

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Dutch recipe. And here I am, giving you Dutch junk food which you don’t normally make at home 😉

Our recent trip to Amsterdam totally inspired me to share this recipe with you. I didn’t grew up with going out for dinner (so maybe that’s why I enjoy it so much 😉 ) but on weekends we sometimes got some take out food! There wasn’t much choice, it was either Chinese food or fries, frikandellen and bitterballen from the so-called ‘snackbar’.

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:

Traditional Dutch Apple Pie for my birthday! | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Dutch apple pie for my Birthday!

Traditional Dutch Apple Pie for my birthday! | in my Red Kitchen

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

Yes! It’s my birthday today! I’m getting old you guys, 32 already! I used to get really excited, weeks before my birthday. But this year everything feels different, I really have to remind myself it’s my birthday and I don’t really care about it. Of course, it’s a good opportuniy to eat cake for breakfast,

Porcini bitterballen - typical Dutch croquettes | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Bitterballen – Dutch croquettes with porcini

Porcini bitterballen - typical Dutch croquettes | in my Red Kitchen

According to Wikipedia a croquette is a: “small breadcrumbed fried food roll containing, usually as main ingredients, mashed potatoes and/or ground meat (veal, beef, chicken, or turkey), shellfish, fish, cheese, vegetables and mixed with béchamel or brown sauce, and soaked white bread, egg, onion, spices and herbs, wine, milk, beer or any of the combination thereof, sometimes with a filling, e.g. sauteed onions or mushrooms, boiled eggs (Scotch eggs). The croquette is usually shaped into a cylinder, disk or oval shape and then deep-fried. The croquette (from the French croquer, “to crunch”) gained worldwide popularity, both as a delicacy and as a fast food.”

According to me a croquette is just insanely delicious 😉

by Ellen Bannink -

Sweet potato and kale mash

Sweet Potato and Kale mash | © in my Red Kitchen

It’s hard to break from those bad holiday eating habits, isn’t it? You probably have some leftover cookies at home, or delicious marshmallows to go with your hot chocolate.

I know all about it. Even though I kept on hiking and juicing in between the holidays I gained some weight again. Not fun!

So to force myself to break with my new habit of eating some chocolate after dinner or go out for hamburgers I did a juice cleanse this week. This really forces me to eat healthy the days up to the cleanse.