I just love the Advent season in Berlin! In a way, I find the four weeks before Christmas even nicer than Christmas itself. Every Sunday, we celebrate together with friends, drinking the inevitable 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…
Kruidnootjes XXL (tiny gingerbread cookies)
December is not complete without the celebration of Sinterklaas, the much-discussed tradition on the 5th in the Netherlands and Belgium. No matter where we live, we celebrate this feast for children like we always do: with special presents and funny poems, hot chocolate, home made pea soup, and mandarins for dessert. Here in Berlin, we […] 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…
Pumpkin Bread
My two daughters are too old for trick-or-treating, but they’ll surely love a nice treat while watching a scary movie. I make this Pumpkin Bread every year for Halloween, it has become kind of a tradition in our house. I think it’s one of my favorite classic American sweet treats. I’m not really a dessert […] Read more…
Hot Leek Mushroom Sandwich
With a yard half covered with snow, we say goodbye to winter in DC. Today is the first day of spring, a day I usually celebrate with a typical spring dish like asparagus risotto. Read more…
Janneke’s Apple Cinnamon Crumble
Today we share a delicious recipe from our Dutch friend and colleague Janneke Philippi. She is our first ‘Kitchen Table Friend’ or ‘guest blogger’ and we are delighted and proud to have her. Read more…
My Grandmother’s Dutch Apple Pie
Homesick for Holland also means homesick for grandma, who is 94 years old. So when I came across this family recipe for Dutch Apple Pie, hidden in one of her old cookbooks, I immediately started baking. Read more…
Glögg
Mulled wine is one of the best winter drinks around. All over the world you’ll find different kinds, and in Denmark they call it glögg. One winterly Sunday afternoon, we drank a few glasses at a friends house and wanted to move to Denmark instantly. The recipe though isn’t Danish at all, she confided us, […] Read more…