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

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.

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 😉

Garlic and black pepper croutons, it's great to always have some on hand!
by Ellen Bannink -

Garlic and black pepper croutons

Garlic and black pepper croutons, it's great to always have some on hand!

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.

California hot dog - a healthier twist on fast food | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Food Truck Tuesday: California hot dog

California hot dog - a healthier twist on fast food | in my Red Kitchen – Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> California hotdog –

Aaaaaand… another one! I already promised you a second hot dog recipe. For this second edition of Food Truck Tuesday I was planning to make the Chili dog I had at our first visit of an LA food truck.

And right before I was planning to make them we ran into the Dogtown Dogs truck again, this time at the LACMA at a Sunday when we went to the La Brea Tar Pits. We were into a small and quick lunch at 3pm. Yes, on Sundays we always take it slow and easy 🙂

Chili dog - a hot dog with chili, cheddar and crispy tortilla chips. Home made fastfood! | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Food Truck Tuesday: Chili dogs

Chili dog - a hot dog with chili, cheddar and crispy tortilla chips. Home made fastfood! | in my Red Kitchen – Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Chili hotdog –

And there it is, the second Food Truck Tuesday since I came up with this section 😉

For this second edition I wanted to focus to the first Food Truck meal we had after arriving in Los Angeles a little over 9 months ago. It was on a sunny Saturday…

Wow, that sounds like the beginning of fairy tale 😉

Fennel Pork Bites - perfect for a Superbowl party! | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Fennel pork bites

Fennel Pork Bites - perfect for a Superbowl party! | in my Red Kitchen

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!

Chinese Scallion Pancakes incl step-byb-step photo's! | in my Red Kitchen
by Ellen Bannink -

Chinese scallion pancakes

Chinese Scallion Pancakes incl step-byb-step photo's! | in my Red Kitchen

– 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 -

Bali meatballs

– Click here to read this recipe in Dutch -> Oma’s Baliballetjes –

This recipe is a winner. You will make friends with it.

This recipe is one of my grandma’s recipes to start with.
My grandma is 81 years old and she is a tough cookie. She lives with my 82-years old grandpa in an apartment building with really nice neighbors. They like living there and that makes me happy.

Bali balletjes

At their birthday parties in the Summer we sit on the balcony. But the balcony is small so we expand easily to the corridor.
The neighbors don’t mind 🙂