Kasia

yesterday dinner - Greek-style fish - the vegetables' cover includes carrots, parsley roots, celery, onions and tomato concentrate

Dear @gfweb and @Kerry Beal we ate it and survived

EXQUISITE JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE SOUP Jerusalem artichoke, also called sunchoke or earth apple, has been known in Poland since the first half of the XVIII century. It is a vegetable especially recommended for diabetics because it reduces the amount of blood glucose. Those who would like to lose weight should also reach for it. Jerusalem artichoke contains a lot of potassium so it reduces blood pressure, and inulin which reduces high cholesterol. I have looked suspiciously at the packaging of Jerusalem artichoke a few times. Only the soup I ate in a Warsaw restaurant convinced me to buy it. I prepared my own version of cream of Jerusalem artichoke. I found the recipe at the Polish page zakochanewzupach. However, I used my own spices. I served this soup with mushroom crisps and parsley olive oil. It was really excellent. Ingredients (for 4 people): 500g of Jerusalem artichoke 200g of potatoes 1 big onion 2 tablespoons of oil 500ml of vegetable stock 400ml of coconut milk 2 mushrooms fistful of parsley 2 tablespoons of olive oil salt and white pepper Dice the onion and fry lightly in oil. Peel the Jerusalem artichokes and potatoes and cube them. Add the vegetables to the onion and fry for a while on a low heat. Don't brown them. Put everything into a pot, add the vegetable stock and boil until the vegetables are soft. Add the coconut milk, spice it up with the salt and white pepper and boil for a while. Blend the soup thoroughly. If it is too thick, add more vegetable stock. Cut the mushrooms into thin slices. Fry the slices in oil until they are gold and crunchy. Grind the parsley in a mortar with a pinch of salt. Add the olive oil while grinding constantly. Serve the hot soup with mushrooms crisps and parsley oil. Enjoy your meal!

......and gingerbread Christmas trees

Traditional Christmas gingerbreads at our home - always prepared with kids

@rotuts thank you yes the mushrooms are saute'd

BANOFFE - MY DAUGHTER'S BIRTHDAY CAKE This year, mischievous nature tried to upset my daughter's birthday plans. Spending your birthday in bed with a thermometer isn't an excellent idea ¬– even for an adult. For a teenager it is a drama comparable to cancelled holidays. My daughter told me that you are thirteen only once. And she was right. Literally and figuratively. I wanted to sugar the pill for her on this day and cheer her up for a bit, so I prepared a caramel cake with bananas – banoffee in the form of a small birthday cake. My sweet magic and the dinner from her favourite restaurant worked, and in the end her birthday was quite nice. Ingredients (17cm cake tin): 150g of biscuits 75g of butter 200ml of 30% sweet cream 250g of mascarpone cheese 2 tablespoons of caster sugar 2 bananas 300g of fudge 1 teaspoon of dark cocoa Break the biscuits into very small pieces or blend them. Melt the butter and mix it up with the biscuits until you have dough like wet sand. Put it into a cake tin and form the base. It is worth rolling it flat with a glass. Leave it in the fridge for one hour. Spread the biscuit layer with fudge and arrange the sliced bananas on top. Whisk the chilled sweet cream with the caster sugar. Add the mascarpone cheese and mix it in. Put the mixture onto the bananas and make it even. Sprinkle with the dark cocoa and decorate as you like. Leave it in the fridge for a few hours (best for the whole night). Enjoy your meal!

lately I did something like this - exquisite Jerusalem artichoke soup (with i.a. potatoes, onion, coconut milk and mushrooms)

ON THE CHRISTMAS TABLE - ŁAZANKI - NOODLES WITH CABBAGE AND MUSHROOMS Traditionally, during the Polish Christmas Eve supper we don't eat any meat. Instead we have twelve dishes with fish, mushrooms, vegetables and cabbage. In my home everybody waits for their favourite meal: my husband and daughter for the herring dishes and vegetable salad, my son for the fried fish, while I wait for dumplings and jellied carp. One of the traditional dishes in many Polish homes is łazanki with cabbage and mushrooms. Łazanki are small, square noodles. The best dish is made with noble porcini mushrooms. I sometimes mix these forest mushrooms with sliced champignons, which look beautiful among the noodles. Łazanki are a Christmas Eve dish, but sometimes when my children ask me I prepare it during the rest of the year too. Ingredients: 500g of sauerkraut 1 onion 60g of dried porcini 6-7 champignons 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds 2 bay leaves 2 tablespoons of butter 300g of łazanki salt and pepper Soak the dried porcini in water for 4-5 hours. Cook them until they are soft. Cut them into smaller pieces. Dice the onion, slice the champignons and fry them in butter. Cut up the sauerkraut. If it is too sour, rinse it with water. Put the sauerkraut, onion, caraway seeds, bay leaves and cooked porcini and champignons in a pan with a heavy bottom. Spice it up with salt and pepper. Stew until the sauerkraut is soft (for 2-3 hours). Boil the Łazanki until it is al dente. Mix the noodles with the sauerkraut and mushrooms. Serve hot. Enjoy your meal!

ON THE CHRISTMAS TABLE - CHRISTMAS EVE CRANBERRY KISSEL One of my friends from Ukraine told me about her traditional Christmas dishes. Except for stuffed cabbage with potatoes (which I have made already) I was surprised about cranberry kissel. I searched the Internet and I saw that in many Polish homes Christmas Eve supper ends with cranberry kissel. In my home we always drink compote with dried fruit, but maybe this year we will try a new dish on our Christmas menu. I wonder why cranberries are on the Christmas table. I didn't find any particular information about it (except the fact it is tradition). I think that a few years ago cranberries were treated as a natural cure which aids digestion, and this could be quite useful after a hefty Christmas meal! At my Ukrainian friends' home Christmas kissel is runny like a drink, but you can prepare it like a dessert with a more dense texture. I made the drink version, but you should choose which is better for you. Ingredients: 500g of cranberries a piece of cinnamon and a couple of cloves 6-8 tablespoons of sugar 2-3 tablespoons of potato flour Wash the cranberries and put them with the cinnamon and cloves in a pan. Pour in 500ml of water and boil until the fruit is soft. Remove the cinnamon and cloves and blend the rest. Add the sugar and mix it until it has dissolved. Sieve the cranberry mousse to make a smooth texture. Mix the potato flour with a bit of cold water. Boil the cranberry mousse and add the mixed potato flour, stirring constantly so it is not lumpy. Boil for a while. Pour the kissel into some glasses. Enjoy your meal!

Liquid chocolate - melted in bain-marie @rotuts

COURGETTE MUFFINS WITH LEMON Since I found the recipe for courgette muffins with lemon on the Polish blog gotujzcukiereczkiem I decided to prepare them. My children looked at the ingredients with surprise. Courgette and cakes don't go together well. The argument that they add caster sugar to the courgette pancakes didn't convince them. The muffins reminded my husband of the lemon cake his grandma used to prepare many years ago. I just liked them. They were short lived, because they disappeared in no time, slightly lemony, moist and not too sweet. They were perfect. If I didn't know they had courgette in them, I would never believe it. Try it, because it is worth it. Ingredients (for 12 muffins) muffins 200g of flour a pinch of salt half a teaspoon of baking soda half a teaspoon of baking powder 150g of sugar peel from one lemon a tablespoon of lemon juice 2 eggs 150ml of oil a teaspoon of vanilla essence a teaspoon of lemon essence 210g of grated courgette icing: 3 tablespoons of milk 10 tablespoons of caster sugar 1 teaspoon of lemon essence Heat the oven up to 170C. Put some paper muffin moulds into the "dimples" of a baking pan for muffins. Mix together the dry ingredients of the muffins: flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Mix together the sugar and lemon peel in a separate bowl. Add the eggs, oil, lemon juice and both essences. Mix them in. Add the dry ingredients and mix them in. Grate the unpeeled courgette, don't squeeze and don't pour away the liquid. Add the courgette to the dough and mix it in. Put the dough into some paper muffin moulds. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Now prepare the icing. Mix the milk with the caster sugar and lemon essence. Decorate the muffins with the lemon icing. Enjoy your meal!

..and another gingerbread before and after decoration

MILLET GROATS CHOCOLATE CREME WITH CRANBERRY MOUSSE Today I would like to share with you the recipe for the best chocolate crème I have ever eaten. It is thick, smooth and very chocolaty in flavour and colour. Despite the chocolate, the dessert isn't too sweet. But if somebody thinks that it is, I recommend serving it with slightly sour fruit mousse. You can use cherries, currants or cranberries. You will make an unusually yummy arrangement and your dessert will look beautiful. My children were delighted with this dessert. I told them about the fact it had been made with millet groats after they had eaten it, and ... they didn't believe me. Next time I will prepare the millet groats crème with a double portion of ingredients. Ingredients (for 4 people)chocolate crème 100g of millet groats 200g of dark chocolate 1 tablespoon of dark cocoa 250ml of almond milkfruit mousse 250g of fresh cranberries juice and peel of one orange half a teaspoon of grated ginger 4 tablespoons of brown sugar Boil the millet groats in salty water and drain them. Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie. Blend the millet groats, chocolate, cocoa and milk very thoroughly until you have very smooth crème. Pour the milk in gradually to make the right consistency of your desert. Prepare the fruit mousse. Put the washed cranberries, ginger, juice orange peel and sugar into a pot. Boil until the fruits are soft. Blend. Put the chocolate crème into some small bowls. Put the fruit mousse on top. Decorate with peppermint leaves. Serve at once or chilled. Enjoy your meal!

Juicy chine for Sunday dinner