Month: November 2014

Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad with Pomegranate & Walnuts

We’ll celebrate this Thanksgiving with our dear American friends, just like we did last year. I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate this explicitly American holiday! This year my friend Maren and I decided to cook some of the dishes together, like the turkey and her mother’s delicious cranberry chutney. She will take […] Read more…

Maren’s Cranberry Chutney

What I like about Thanksgiving is that people start cooking several days in advance. The day before yesterday my American friend Maren called me and invited me over to prepare some of the traditional dishes with her. There’s nothing better than cooking with friends! We made one of her mother’s recipes: a delicious, spicy cranberry […] Read more…

Roasted Mini Squash with Gruyère & Sage

I think fall is my favorite season here in DC. The sunlight that filters through the colored leaves of the trees…I could just stare at it for hours. And it’s pumpkin time! I love the wide range of pumpkin varieties offered at my farmers’ markets and my grocery store. We don’t have such a large […] Read more…

Königsberger Klopse

“Don’t listen to him please, there should not be any anchovies in it.” “With cream? How dare you even suggest!” Nothing beats conversations about food: that’s why we love to share food with our friends at our kitchen tables. While starting dinner with some Berlin friends, Read more…

Soljanka

Soljanka, an old-fashioned Eastern European soup is almost as famous as Borscht, the Russian beet soup. It’s a hearty, sweet, spicy, and sour soup with red pepper, tomato, and chopped Sauerkraut. Back in the days of the DDR you could find this soup on every East Berlin menu, and it never really disappeared. There are […] Read more…

Jambalaya

It was a beautiful and warm fall night, so we decided to cook outside: Jambalaya. I think of Jambalaya as the Louisiana version of paella. Okay, the rice and spices are different, but I prepare both dishes more or less in the same way. I usually add chicken, chorizo and shrimp, but sometimes I replace […] Read more…

Día de los Muertos: Three Mexican Salsas

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), wish we had this tradition in my country! I think it’s fascinating and beautiful. Is there a better way to remember and honor your deceased loved ones than by celebrating, drinking, eating, and telling stories? And how special it is that families congregate in graveyards at night, Read more…