Kitchen favorites

I'm having a great time perusing Pinterest these days.
Now it is cold and that draws me to the kitchen and the stove. I love how images can bring you to new taste and flavor sensations. And I am totally in love with these two recipes:

Pickled Radishes by David Lebovitz

and Pickled Blueberries found on saveur.com

I love to put a few berries or radishes on my cheese and ruccola sandwiches. 

What are your best finds this year?

Easter preparations

It's busy in the kitchen; I'm test baking. With my but pressed against the (still warm) oven I made some quick snapshots of my first try at eiër-koeken / egg-cookies, probable candidates for the coming Easter brunch I am planning.

 I bought a butter lamb because I've wanted one all my life and now I have the perfect excuse: Miss E. needs one of course! ;-) She directly recognized the form as a: " schaap" / sheep. Which I found pretty smart for someone who is just under two years old, as it is a negative form and somewhat rough. So that recognition was the proof that a butter lamb was needed and would become, without a doubt, part of the household.

Somehow Balance seems to be a point of growing interest in my life. The perfect breakfast is all about balance: the right amount and the right ingredients, so is baking the perfect bread. Balance is not just about making mobiles, `though they do bring balance and harmony to the room and certainly inspire you to think and work things out regarding balance in your life.

Last Christmas I had it perfect for one dinner occasion, enough dishes and a perfect harmony. I tend to go in the direction of abundance when preparing a holiday brunch or dinner, but I want to refine it in to balance this year.
So here I am, slowly planning my Easter brunch. Of course one can't do without eggs for Easter now can you? But we'll see where this will lead. I am already enjoying it so much, this planning bit.

Are you already planning for Easter?

In my kitchen

It is spring and that means that the flea and antiques market season is upon us! I love antique and flea markets. One of my most cherished items I once found on an antiques market is my antique herb-cabinet.

 I filled the cabinet with glass pesto jars. This is a pesto-lovers collection of many years mind you... Now a day I make fresh pesto, in the same tradition of 101cookbooks. Which brings me to this amazing film of kinfolk have you seen it yet? It instantly brings me in the perfect kitchen mood. I learnt to make pesto like this many years ago on a French campsite, from our Italian neighbors, (how small can this world be...) but it's the same method.

But back to the herb cabinet...
My love who has these divine hands with which he can make about anything I can dream of, made a construction underneath the cabinet so I can easily hang my collection of cookie cutters and measuring spoons in hand-reach. I am so happy with how it has turned out and will keep this cabinet for the rest of my life.

And no there is nothing wrong with your eyesight, my kitchen walls are crooked and this cabinet is oblique as well. So the house and cabinet match perfectly. That's the advantage of living in a 1920 old house like ours ;-)

Have a nice weekend; you can find me on the next flea market!