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

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

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

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.

My contribution to the LA Cake Club: a Stroopwafel cheesecake! | in my Red Kitchen #stroopwafel #cheesecake #Dutch #caramel #treat

Cheesecake with Dutch stroopwafels

My contribution to the LA Cake Club: a Stroopwafel cheesecake! | in my Red Kitchen #stroopwafel #cheesecake #Dutch #caramel #treat

– Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Stroopwafel cheesecake

Oh boy … you must think I’m a little schizophrenic. Or at least a little crazy. A bit bipolar with here and there an identity crisis.

For a month I lived without sugar (except for the natural sugars in fruit) and refined carbohydrates, and so I ate super healthy. As pure and whole as possible, just to get some healthy eating habits again. And you could see that on in my Red Kitchen. All the recipes that I shared for the past 1.5 month were sugar and refined carbohydrates free.

And now I’m here again, with a cheesecake with Dutch stroopwafels.
Yeah… a stroopwafel CHEESECAKE. Oh dear… Millions of calories and lots of cream, sugar and butter. And typical Dutch ‘stroopwafels’, caramel waffles a.k.a. the BEST cookies in the whole world. And yes, you can buy those cookies at the American supermarket. Trader Joe’s sells them, and of course Cost Plus World Market too. And look how beautiful this cheesecake came out. Can you blame me?

Okay, time for some explanation

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

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

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

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 😉

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.

Spritsen for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

Spritsen-1-inmyredkitchen
I didn’t had to think about it when I read about the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. Of course I’m participating in this! Who doesn’t like cookies? I love every part of it: baking them, eating them (still warm out of the oven? yes please!) and handing them out to friends to surprise them.  fbcookieswap2013_white

And of course I’m participating in this cookie swap with some typical Dutch cookies!