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Easy snack – courgette in pancake batter Though you can buy courgettes all year round, dishes with them in are associated with autumn. Stuffed courgette with meat or vegetables, crumpets and tarts are on the table mainly in October. Today I would like to share with you a recipe for an extremely simple and quick snack. Courgette in pancake batter is excellent as a side dish or a light supper. I prepared a yoghurt garlic-dill sauce for it. I think it will also be great with spicy tomato salsa or simply with horseradish. Ingredients 500g of courgette 170ml of milk 50ml of oil 6 tablespoons of wholemeal flour 1 egg 3 tablespoons of Parmesan 1 tablespoon of minced thyme salt and peppersauce: 200g of natural yoghurt 2 tablespoons of minced dill 1 clove of garlic salt and pepper clarified butter Crush a clove of garlic. Mix the yoghurt with the garlic and dill and spice it up with salt and pepper. Leave it to one side. Pour the milk and oil onto a flat dish, add the egg and mix them together. Add the flour, thyme and Parmesan, spice it up with salt and pepper and stir. Leave the dough for 15 minutes. Slice the courgette into 1-cm slices. Dip the slices of courgette in the dough and fry in butter until they are golden. Take them out of the pan and drain on a kitchen towel. Enjoy your meal!

Chocolate cake with plums The first cake I ever dared to bake by myself was a chocolate cake. I have since baked it many times, always using the same recipe, and many times I have spoiled it at the beginning of preparation. It is necessary to cool down the chocolate mixture before adding the rest of the ingredients. On a hot summer day this process is very long, so I accelerated it by putting the pot with the mixture into some cold water in the kitchen sink. Many times, by mistake, I turned on the tap and poured water onto the cooling mixture. In hindsight these situations were amusing, but at the time it wasn't funny. This chocolate cake is excellent without any additives. You can enrich it with your favourite nuts or butter icing. Today I added some plums to the top of the cake. It was great and its sweet chocolate-plum aroma lingered long in my home. Ingredients (25cm cake tin): 200g of flour 150g of butter 3 tablespoons of cocoa 120g of brown sugar 15ml of almond milk 100g of dark chocolate 1 egg 1 teaspoon of baking powder plums Heat the oven up to 180C. Smooth the cake tin with the butter and sprinkle with dark cocoa. Put the butter, milk, sugar, cocoa and chocolate into the pan. Heat it until the chocolate is melted and all the ingredients have blended together well. Leave the mixture to cool down. Add the egg, flour and baking soda and mix them in. Put the dough into the cake tin. Wash the plums, cut them in half and remove the stones. Arrange the plum halves skin side down on top of the cake. Bake for 50 minutes. Sprinkle with caster sugar before serving. Enjoy your meal!

This recipe is inspired by the Original Lufthansa Cocktail, not the present day commercially available version, and should end up around 30% abv. For a full history about this recipe and the original that inspired it, please visit my blog, Villa Tempest. Ingredients: 250ml Rosé Vermouth 370 ml Apricot Schnapps/Brandy 75 ml Framboise/Raspberry Eau de vie 20 ml Orange Bitters 55 ml Elderflower Syrup Method: Combine all the ingredients, mix well and bottle. Makes 1 x 750ml batch. Serving Suggestion: To 2 full measures of Liqueur add an equal portion of well chilled Sekt or Champagne. Serve in a tumbler over ice, or in a saucer rimmed with a lemon segment and dipped in sugar. Garnish with a slice of lemon, or a cherry.

Fruit salad with salmon and mozzarella cheese I think that sometimes everybody is hungry but doesn't know what to eat. We open the fridge and although there is everything inside, we are not in the mood for anything in particular. Salads save the day. You only have to think for a while and with the main ingredients you can prepare a yummy dish. Add egg, beans, chickpeas, or any meat to the salad and you have a rich and equally light and beautiful dish. Sometimes a combination of ingredients which seemingly don't go together make a yummy and surprising effect. Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a salad with this kind of unusual combination: fruit, pepper, smoked salmon, mozzarella cheese and a spicy sweet-and-sour dip. In my opinion, it tastes heavenly, and you will have to admit it looks beautiful. Ingredients (for 2 people): salad: 1 yellow pepper 5 strawberries 2 peaches 200g of mozzarella cheese 200g of smoked salmon peppermint and basil leaves dip: 2 tablespoons of olive oil 1 teaspoon of honey 2 tablespoons of lemon juice chili pepper salt and pepper First make the dip. Dice the chili pepper, and mix in the olive oil, lemon juice and honey. Add the chili pepper and spice it up with the salt and pepper. Mix it in again and leave for a while. Cut all the ingredients of the salad into smaller pieces. Arrange them in a bowl, sprinkle with the dip and decorate with the peppermint and basil leaves. Enjoy your meal!

In search of the ideal breakfast – buckwheat pudding with almonds and banana As the Chinese proverb goes: "Eat breakfast alone, share lunch with your friends and give dinner to your enemy". There is something to it, because according to dietitians, it is the most important meal of the day, because it should supply you with energy after the night's rest. Apart from weekends and holidays we rarely have enough time to prepare and eat breakfast. I am searching for the kind of breakfast which will supply a lot of nutrients and let us start our day pleasantly. Today for the first time I used buckwheat groats for preparing breakfast. I know that not everyone likes them because of their heavy "smoky" taste and smell. For breakfast I recommend using unroasted buckwheat groats. They are light and in my opinion have a slightly nutty taste, and if we only scour and soak them, the groats don't lose their fibre and valuable vitamins. I found the recipe for this breakfast in the book "Zielone koktajle. 365 przepisów" ("Green cocktails. 365 recipes"). Ingredients: 60g of unroasted buckwheat groats 1 banana 3 dates 150ml of almond milk half a teaspoon of cinnamon fruit and almonds for decoration Scour the unroasted buckwheat groats and soak them the day before. Drain them and blend with the banana, dates and almond milk. Decorate with fruit and almonds before serving. Enjoy your meal!

My quesadilla Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a dish which meets holiday requirements. It is easy, and it doesn't need sophisticated ingredients or an oven. A frying pan is enough. Quesadilla, the dish in question, is a tortilla with melted cheese. The rest of the ingredients you choose at your discretion. Red beans, pepper, chorizo or fried meat all work brilliantly. I added fried pieces of turkey leg. Thanks to this, my dish could be a holiday dinner. Ingredients (for 2 people) 4 tortillas 300g of turkey leg half a chili pepper half an onion 1 clove of garlic 2 tablespoons of oil 200g of tinned sweetcorn 200g of tinned red beans fresh pepper 200g of mozzarella cheese salt and pepper Cube the meat. Fry the diced onion, garlic and chili pepper in oil. Add the spiced-up-with-salt-and-pepper meat and fry on a low heat until the meat is soft. Cube the pepper. Drain the sweetcorn and red beans and slice the mozzarella cheese. Put the tortilla into a dry, heated pan. Arrange the meat, sweetcorn and red beans on it. Cover with the slices of the mozzarella cheese and the second tortilla. Fry on a low heat for a while. Turn it and fry a bit more until the cheese has melted. Put it on a plate and cut it into triangles. Enjoy your meal!

Afternoon tea with finger biscuits. With my children in mind I prepared an extremely simple dessert using natural yoghurt and biscuits as basic ingredients. It was supposed to be for children. By default, though, I prepared a bit more and we were all able to relish it. Ingredients (for 4 people) 400g of natural yoghurt 200g of finger biscuit 200g of raspberries 2 teaspoons of caster sugar Put aside a few nice raspberries and four finger biscuits. Crush the rest of the raspberries with a fork and mix them with the caster sugar. Crush the finger biscuits and blend them with the natural yoghurt. Put the raspberry mousse and then the biscuit mixture into a cup. Decorate the top of the dessert with the raspberries and peppermint leaves.

Granary pancakes with bilberry mousse Today I would like to share with you the recipe for "slimmed down" pancakes. Luckily, I don't have any problems with fruit in my children's diet; they like all kinds of fruit. But I know that for other parents pancakes could be the best way to sneak some vitamins into their food. I found the recipe for the pancakes at Polish "wegepedia.pl", and it appealed to me instantly because of the easy and basic preparation and the yummy look of the pancakes. Ingredients: 200g of granary flour one teaspoon and a half of baking powder 4 tablespoons of brown sugar 1 flat teaspoon of cinnamon 300ml of vegetable milkOther ingredients 100g of bilberries 30ml of water 3 dates Mix the sugar, flour, baking powder and cinnamon in a bowl. Pour the milk in and stir until you make a smooth dough. Put small portions of the dough into a pan (with a non-stick surface) and fry on both sides until the pancakes are golden. If you have another pan, use a bit of oil for frying. Use a handful of bilberries for decoration. Blend the rest of the clean fruit with the dates and water. Leave in the fridge for a while. Decorate the hot pancakes with the fruit mousse and bilberries. Serve at once.

Courgette cutlets I found the recipe for courgette cutlets at www.gotujzcukiereczkiem.pl. It appealed to me at once for three reasons. Firstly, the courgette is my favourite vegetable. Secondly, cutlets, pancakes and crumpets are my children's favourites dishes. Thirdly, this dish is fast, simple and is always a success. You must not use FB while frying, because it may end with you ordering pizza for dinner The cutlets are mild and their flavour is spiced up with feta cheese. You can complement them with your favourite herbs. In my kitchen there is always basil, dill, peppermint, rosemary and thyme. This time I chose dill (in accordance with the recipe) and thyme. Ingredients: 400g of courgette 1 egg 150g of feta cheese 110g of breadcrumbs (+ 4 tablespoons for the batter) 2 tablespoons of minced dill 1 tablespoon of thyme salt and pepper Wash the courgette and grate it. Add salt and leave it in a bowl for 15 minutes. Drain it then mix in the egg, feta cheese, breadcrumbs and herbs. Spice it up with salt and pepper. Make small cutlets with the mixture and fry in oil. Serve with natural yoghurt.

ORANGE CREME BRULEE WITH MILLET GROATS One of our friends said recently that he doesn't cook for himself. He eats what his wife prepares: sometimes it is something healthy and other times something yummy. It was a joke, of course, because his wife cooks really well, but this sentence is now in our friendly canon of jokes. Inspired by our talk about groats, flakes and healthy food, I prepared a dessert which combines excellent taste and healthy ingredients. The original recipe comes from the Lidl cookery book. I would like to share with you my version of this dish. I recommend Crème brûlée with millet groats to everybody who counts calories. It is mild, not too sweet, wonderfully creamy inside and with an incredible crunchy crust on top. That's why we love crème brûlée, don't we? I prepared a cranberry-orange preserve to offset the sweetness of the dessert. The whole dessert looked beautiful and tasted perfect. Ingredients (for 4 people)crème brûlée 100g of dry millet groats 350ml of almond milk 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence 2-3 tablespoons of brown sugar (3 additional tablespoons for the sugar crust) juice and skin from one orange confiture: 150g of fresh cranberries juice and peel from one orange 4 tablespoons of brown sugar Put the millet groats in a sifter, clean them with cold water and then douse them with hot water. Put the groats, almond milk, sugar and vanilla essence into a saucepan with a heavy bottom. Boil it with the lid on without stirring for 15-18 minutes until the liquid has evaporated. Leave to cool down. Add the orange juice and peel, mix it in and blend until the mixture is perfectly smooth. Put the dessert into small bowls and leave in the fridge for one hour. Wash the cranberries. Add the orange juice and peel and the sugar and boil for 10-15 minutes. Try it and add some sugar if you think the dessert is too sour. Take out the bowls from the fridge. Sprinkle them with the sugar and burn it with a small kitchen burner to make a crunchy caramel crust. Decorate the dessert with a small teaspoon of the cranberry preserve. Serve the rest of the preserve separately in small dishes.

A SANDWICH TO GO Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a snack which you can grab and eat "on the go". I know that it is unhealthy. We should celebrate eating and eat calmly and with deliberation. However, sometimes the day is too short for everything on our schedule and we still have to eat. Admittedly, we can sin and go for some fast food, but it is healthier and tastier to prepare something quickly in our own kitchen. Today, Camembert cheese and cranberries in a fresh, crunchy roll take the lead role. It sounds easy and yummy, doesn't it? Try it and get on with your day . Today I used a homemade cranberry preserve which was left over from dessert, but if you like you can buy your own. Ingredients: 2 fresh rolls (your favourite ones) 150g of camembert cheese 1 handful of lettuce 2 teaspoons of butter 2 teaspoons of pine nuts or sunflower seedspreserve 100g of fresh cranberries 3 tablespoons of brown sugar 100ml of apple juice Wash the cranberries. Put the cranberries, sugar and apple juice into a pan with a heavy bottom and boil with the lid on for 10-12 minutes, stirring from time to time. Try it and if necessary add some sugar. Leave to cool down. Cut the rolls in half and spread with the butter. Put some lettuce on one half of the roll. Slice the camembert cheese and arrange it on the lettuce. Put a fair portion of the cranberry preserve on top of the cheese. Sprinkle with the roast pine nuts or sunflower seeds and cover with the second half of the roll. Enjoy your meal!

Even though I would like to change the situation, the winter is coming. Sooner or later there will be sharp winds, frost and unpleasant moisture. I don't know how you like to warm up at home, but on the first cold day I dust off my home recipe for hot and yummy winter teas. You can use my recipe or come up with your own proposals for fiery mixtures. Only one thing should be the same: your favourite tea must be strong and hot. Ingredients (for 2 teas)Raspberry-orange 8 cloves a piece of cinnamon 2 grains of cardamom 4 slices of orange 2 teaspoons of honey your favourite tea 50ml of raspberry juice or 30ml of raspberry juice and 30ml of raspberry liqueur Add 4 of the cloves, cinnamon and cardamom to some water and boil for a while to release their flavour and aroma. Remove the seasoning and brew the tea with this water. Crush two slices of orange with honey. Add the raspberry juice or a mixture of juice and liqueur to the tea. Next add the honey with orange. Mix it in. Decorate the tea with the rest of the cloves and orange. Lemon-ginger 8 cloves 3 slices of fresh ginger 2 grains of cardamom 50ml of ginger syrup or 30ml of ginger syrup and 30ml of ginger-lemon liqueur 4 slices of lemon 2 teaspoons of honey Add 4 of the cloves, ginger and cardamom to some water and boil for a while to release their flavour and aroma. Remove the seasoning and brew the tea with this water. Crush two slices of lemon with honey. Add the ginger syrup or mixture of syrup and liqueur to the tea. Next add honey with lemon. Mix it in. Decorate the tea with the rest of the cloves and lemon. Enjoy your drink!

Pumpkin pancakes with fig preserve, Once, when I planned pancakes for dinner, I always used to think about potato pancakes. I prepared them with onion and pepper and served them with sugar or cream. A few years ago, when I was carving a Jack O' Lantern, I made pumpkin pancakes for the first time. I prepared them like potato pancakes, but they were milder, and we liked them so much that we forgot about potato ones for a long time. Today I prepared these yummy and very simple pancakes. I used butternut squash, which is my new favourite food. You can prepare the fig preserve from fresh fruit. We brought some excellent fig preserve back from our summer holiday. It went very well with these summer pumpkin pancakes. For anyone who doesn't like fruit in their pancakes, I recommend maple syrup or natural yoghurt. Ingredients (for 20 pancakes) 600g of peeled pumpkin half an onion 5 tablespoons of flour 2 eggs salt and pepper oil for frying Peel the fresh pumpkin and grate it. Add salt and leave it in a bowl for an hour. Dice the onion. Drain the pumpkin, then mix in the eggs, flour and onion, and then spice it up with salt and pepper. Fry the pancakes on a low heat until golden. Serve with your favourite condiments.

Herrings in cream Herrings with potatoes is a very painful memory of the school canteen for many of us. Though we like herrings with onion, I rarely serve it for dinner. Today I decided to break this rule and prepared herrings for dinner. I served herrings and potatoes once again, but in a completely different way. I served baked jacket potatoes. The herrings were excellent with cream sauce and onion, apple and dill pickles. See for yourself if you like this way of preparing herrings. Ingredients (for 2 people) 6 potatoes 2 tablespoons of olive oil 200g of herrings in oil 200g of 18% cream 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise 1 tablespoon of mustard half an onion 1 apple 3 dill pickles 2 tablespoons of minced dill Heat the oven up to 180C. Boil the unpeeled potatoes in salty water until they are soft. Cut the potatoes into quarters, put them in a casserole dish, sprinkle them with olive oil and bake until they are golden. Dice the onion, apple, and dill pickles. Cut the herrings into smaller pieces. Arrange the baked potatoes with cream sauce on a plate along with the pieces of herrings. Decorate with sprigs of dill.

Feather-light chocolate whip with aquafaba There wouldn't be anything special in this dessert if it wasn't for its main ingredient. It was aquafaba - i.e. the liquid which is left after straining chickpeas from a tin. Up to now I have poured it away. From today I will never make this mistake. Joël Roessel, a French chef, was the discoverer of aquafaba. He wanted an alternative to eggs when preparing meringues. Protein and starch are the only ingredients of aquafaba. It doesn't have any other additives. Cold aquafaba can be whisked like an egg white. Next time I will try to prepare some meringues with aquafaba, but now I would like to share with you the recipe for an extremely simple chocolate whip. I served it with the sub acid from an apricot mousse. My children were delighted, and so were we. Ingredients (for 4 people) 200ml of aquafaba (from one tin of chickpeas) 2 teaspoons of caster sugar 150g of dark chocolate 6 apricots 2 tablespoons of lemon juice 2 tablespoons of brown sugar Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie and leave it to cool down a little. Whip the aquafaba in a very clean glass bowl. Add the sugar spoon by spoon and whip constantly until the foam is stiff and glossy. Add the chocolate and stir thoroughly but gently. Put the chocolate whip into some small bowls and leave in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Wash the apricots and remove the stones. Put them into a pan with the lemon juice and sugar. Boil until the apricots are soft and the juice has evaporated a bit. Blend the fruit. Leave to cool down. Put the apricots onto the chocolate whip and decorate with some peppermint leaves.

Millet groats cookies with tahini and chocolate. This time I prepared millet groats cookies with tahini and chocolate. They are not so sweet, have lots of sesame seeds and are crunchy with a beautiful, homely smell. Ingredients (30 cookies) 3 tablespoons of tahini 120g of brown sugar 100g of butter 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence a pinch of salt 1 egg 130g of millet groats flakes 75g of flour ½ teaspoon of baking powder ½ of baking soda 100g of dark chocolate Heat the oven up to 180C. Cover a baking sheet with some baking paper. Pulp the butter with the brown sugar, vanilla sugar and salt to make a fluffy mass. Pulping constantly, add the tahini and then the egg. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and millet groats flakes. Break up the chocolate and add it to the dough. Mix it in. Make little balls from the mixture, around the size of walnuts. Put them on the baking sheet. Keep the cookies separate. Bake for 15-17 minutes. Leave to cool down. Enjoy your meal!

Creamy soup with broad beans During my last visit to the fruit and vegetable market I bought so many broad beans that I didn't want to risk cooking everything at once. I prepared a rich, creamy soup with them. The green soup, served with a bit of thick yoghurt and nigella, was very tasty. Ingredients (for 5 people): 1 kg of broad beans half an onion 1 clove of garlic 1 tablespoon of butter 4 sprigs of thyme 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds vegetable stock 5 teaspoons of thick natural yoghurt 2 teaspoons of nigella 2 tablespoons of sunflowers seeds salt and pepper Cook the broad beans in salty water with the caraway seeds, drain and peel them. Try not to eat everything. Chop the onion and garlic and fry them in butter. Put the peeled broad beans, onion, garlic and sprigs of thyme into a saucepan. Pour in the vegetable stock to cover the vegetables and boil for 10 minutes. Take out the thyme and blend the soup to make a smooth cream. Add vegetable stock until you have the right consistence. Roast the sunflower seeds in a dry pan. Serve the soup with thick natural yoghurt, nigella and sunflower seeds. Enjoy your meal!

My Irish Coffee Today the children will have to forgive me, but adults also sometimes want a little pleasure. This is a recipe for people who don't have to drive a car or work, i.e. for lucky people or those who can rest at the weekend. Irish coffee is a drink made with strong coffee, Irish Whiskey, whipped cream and brown sugar. It is excellent on cold days. I recommend it after an autumn walk or when the lack of sun really gets you down. Basically, you can spike the coffee with any whiskey, but in my opinion Jameson Irish Whiskey is the best for this drink. If you don't like whiskey, instead you can prepare another kind of spiked coffee: French coffee with brandy, Spanish coffee with sherry, or Jamaican coffee with dark rum. Ingredients (for 2 drinks) 300ml of strong, hot coffee 40ml of Jameson Irish Whiskey 150ml of 30% sweet cream 4 teaspoons of coarse brown sugar 1 teaspoon of caster sugar 4 drops of vanilla essence Put two teaspoons of brown sugar into the bottom of two glasses. Brew some strong black coffee and pour it into the glasses. Warm the whiskey and add it to the coffee. Whisk the sweet cream with the caster sugar and vanilla essence. Put it gently on top so that it doesn't mix with the coffee. Enjoy your drink!

Pumpkin muffins with chocolate Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a dessert which was made with internet inspiration and the combination of two other recipes: carrot cake and pumpkin muffins with fruit stew. These muffins were an immediate hit at my Halloween party last year. I had to use baked and blended pumpkin for them. This time I used raw, grated pumpkin. I prepare carrot cake in exactly the same way. One of the ingredients in both desserts is cinnamon. It gives baked goods a slight taste of gingerbread. Thanks to the juicy vegetables, the muffins are moist and yummy even the next day. Ingredients (for 24 muffins) 210g of grated pumpkin 2 eggs 200g of flour 180ml of oil 180ml of milk 130g of brown sugar 1 teaspoon of baking powder 1 teaspoon of cinnamon 100g of chopped dark chocolate 150g of white chocolate Heat the oven up to 180C. Put some paper muffin moulds into the "dimples" of a baking pan for muffins. Mix together the dry ingredients of the muffins: flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix together the grated pumpkin, oil, milk and egg in a separate bowl. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix them in. Put the dough into some paper muffin moulds. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie. Decorate the muffins with the chocolate.

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for swift autumn cookies with French pastry and a sweet ginger-cinnamon-pear stuffing. Served with afternoon coffee they warm us up brilliantly and dispel the foul autumn weather. Ingredients (8 cookies) 1 pack of chilled French pastry 1 big pear 1 flat teaspoon of cinnamon 1 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger 2 tablespoons of brown sugar 1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar 2 tablespoons of milk Heat the oven up to 190C. Cover a baking sheet with some baking paper. Wash the pear, peel and cube it. Add the grated ginger, cinnamon, vanilla sugar and one tablespoon of the brown sugar. Mix them in. Cut 8 circles out of the French pastry. Cut half of every circle into parallel strips. Put the pear stuffing onto the other half of each circle. Roll up the cookies starting from the edges with the stuffing. Put them onto the baking paper and make them into cones. Smooth the top of the pastry with the milk and sprinkle with brown sugar. bake for 20-22 minutes. Enjoy your meal!

Small stracciatella cheesecake with fruit. Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a dessert which I prepared for the beginning of the holiday. The last school tests are behind us, the school reports received, the suitcases almost packed, so now it is time for a reward. My little stracciatella cheesecake isn't that healthy, but sometimes we can overlook one small culinary peccadillo. After all, it is supposed to be a reward. For sure it was light as air, fluffy and melted in the mouth. And the pieces of the dark chocolate were so nice and crunchy. Try it yourself and like me you will fall in love with this dessert. Ingredients (17cm cake tin) 100g of oatcakes 50g of butter 250g of mascarpone cheese 200g of 30% sweet cream 100g of white chocolate 100g of dark chocolate fruit for decoration Put the cookies in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin, and then put them into a small bowl and mix them with the melted butter. Cover a cake tin with the dough. Leave it in the fridge for an hour. Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie and leave to cool down. Break the dark chocolate into small pieces. Whisk the cream and then add the mascarpone cheese. Add the white and dark chocolate and stir it gingerly and thoroughly. Put the mixture on the bottom with the oatcakes and leave in the fridge overnight. Decorate with your favourite fruit. Enjoy your meal!

Beef stew with beer. Today, I would like to share with you the recipe for a beef stew with beer. I use Guinness, but you may use your favourite one. Ingredients: 0.5kg of beef for the stew 200ml of Guinness 1 onion 2 cloves of garlic 400g of small mushrooms 2 tomatoes half a chili pepper 3 tablespoons of oil 2 tablespoons of butter 2 tablespoons of flour 2 bay leaves 3 juniper berries salt and pepper Spice the cubed beef with pepper and sprinkle with flour. Fry it in oil at a high temperature. Put the meat into a saucepan with a thick bottom. Don't clean the pan. Melt the butter in the pan and fry the sliced onion, garlic and diced chili pepper. Add the small mushrooms and fry for a while. Add the vegetables to the meat. Add the bay leaves, juniper berries and pour in the beer. Top up with water or bullion to cover the meat. Stew until the meat is soft. Blanch the tomatoes and peel them. Remove the core and cube the rest. Add it to the stew. Spice it up with salt and pepper. Enjoy your meal!

As usual during the weekend I prepared a cake. This time it was a strawberry shortbread cake with blancmange and crumble topping. Everything fit together nicely. I think that this cake could be excellent with more sour fruit. Cherries, redcurrants or plums come to mind. I have to realize this idea. The idea for this cake comes from www.moniamieszaigotuje.blogspot.com. Ingredients: dough 0.5 kg of flour 1 teaspoon of baking powder 200g of sugar 200g of butter 1 egg 1 egg yolk 3 tablespoons of cream blancmange 2 packets of powdered blancmange 0.75 ml of milk 3 tablespoons of sugar additional ingredients strawberries Heat the oven up to 180 degrees C. Put the flour on a baking board, make a large dimple in the flour and put the other ingredients of the dough inside it. Chop it all up with a knife. When you have the consistency of crumble topping, you have to knead the dough quickly. Divide the dough into two parts – 2/3 and 1/3. Cover the pieces of the dough with plastic wrap and put them into the freezer. Prepare the thick blancmange. Stir the blancmange powder in 250ml of milk and the sugar. Cook the rest of the milk. Take the milk off the heat and pour the blancmange mixture into it. Boil for a while, stirring constantly. Turn off the heat. Clean the strawberries and remove the shanks. Cut the bigger strawberries in half. Grate the bigger part of the dough onto a baking sheet. Put the hot blancmange onto it. Arrange the strawberries on the blancmange and grate the rest of the dough onto the top. Bake for 50 minutes. Enjoy your meal!

BAKED PANCAKES WITH MILLET GROATS AND CAULIFLOWER We like pancakes. My son likes them with sugar regardless of what kind of pancakes I prepare. Today I decided to encourage him to eat some pancakes with something else. I prepared spicy vegetable pancakes. Unfortunately, I underestimated my son. For him, sugar goes with every kind of pancake. The rest of our family ate them with natural Greek yoghurt. I think that they would be excellent with stew, cucumber salsa or fresh salad. One of the ingredients of these pancakes is nigella, which is increasingly in our kitchen. As well as the taste properties, nigella can be used as an alternative to pepper. Reportedly, it also has healing properties. It has a soothing effect on gastric mucosa, protects the liver and the kidneys and helps alleviate allergies and skin problems. Additionally, cauliflower acts as a decoration in pancakes with millet groats. The recipe comes from www.naszakasza.pl Ingredients (15 pancakes) 100g of millet groats 200g of cauliflower 4 tablespoons of wholemeal flour half an onion a clove of garlic 3 teaspoons of nigella 2 eggs salt and pepper Heat the oven up to 180C. Cover a baking sheet with some baking paper. Boil the millet groats in salty water. Dice the cauliflower and onion. Crush a clove of garlic. Mix together the groats, eggs, cauliflower, flour, onion, garlic and nigella. Spice it up with salt and pepper. Form small pancakes and put them on the baking paper. Bake for 20 minutes.

Omelette with courgette and tomato salsa. Today I added a bit of chili pepper to tomato-basil salsa. Because it was quite spicy I decided to add it to a mild dish. I prepared an omelette with courgette and goat cheese. The salsa added an excellent piquancy to it. I recommend this dish for a fast and light meal. Ingredients: omelette 3 eggs 150g of courgette 3-4 slices of goat cheese 2 tablespoons of milk 1 tablespoon of flour 1 tablespoon of butter salt and pepper salsa 2 tomatoes 3 tablespoons of minced basil quarter of an onion 2 cloves of garlic half a chili pepper 3 tablespoons of olive oil 2 tablespoons of lemon juice 1 teaspoon of honey Start by preparing the salsa. Cube the tomato and dice the garlic, onion and chili pepper. Mix the vegetables together. Make a sauce with the olive oil, lemon juice and honey. Add it to the vegetables and mix it in. Leave in the fridge. Slice the courgette very thin. Whisk the eggs with the milk and add the flour. Spice it up with salt and pepper. Melt the butter in a pan. Pour half the egg mass into it and fry for a while at medium heat. Arrange half of the courgette slices on top along with the slices of goat cheese and the rest of the courgette. Pour the rest of the egg mass onto it and fry it. When the eggs have congealed, turn the omelette upside down and fry for a few seconds. Serve at once with the tomato salsa. Enjoy your meal!