Rosemary Chicken

Wonderful, delicate and moist chicken, representing a new flavour I haven't tried before. I strongly recommend preparing such dinner. We all fell in love with sweet potatoes! They are so soft, sweet and filling! And they make a perfect couple with rosemary.
What's more, rosemary gives the entire dish a unique taste and wonderful smell all around the house from the oven :)

Changed into easier version, recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 500g od sweet potatoes
• salt, pepper
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 2 twigs of rosemary
• 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

Preparation:

1. Wash chicken breasts cut out the fat and bones. Cut every breast into 2 thinner slices.
2. Take a bowl, put them inside and season with salt and pepper. Add 2 tablespoons of oil, leaves from 1 rosemary twig, 4 tablespoons of balsamic oil and mix thoroughtly. Set aside for at least 15 minutes.
3. Start preheating the oven to 220C.
4. Wash and peel sweet potatoes, cut into halves.
5. Take a casserole, put sweet potatoes inside, season with salt and pepper, add olive oil and rosemary leaves from another twig. 
6. Add chicken (with its marinade). Pour 1 tablespoon of honey on the chicken and add some more rosemary or seasoning if needed/desired. 
7. Bake for around 20-30 minutes, till potatoes are soft and chicken cooked well.
8. Serve for instance with green salad mix.
9. Bon appetit! :)

Shortcake - Mazurek

Traditional Polish Easter cake. Though its 'traditionally traditional' version is very flat, crunchy, with variety of toppings like mincemeat, my version, deriving from south part of Poland is much higher, with different filling, very easy and very sweet :) 
I do recommend, not only for Easter ;) Children should love it too :)

Recipe - thanks to my mum hand-written 'cookbook on a piece of paper' ;)

Ingredients:

• 500g of flour
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons of honey
• 100g of margarine
• 1 teaspoon of soda
• ½ glass of powdered sugar

Sweet semolina filling:

• 3 tablespoons of semolina
• 500ml of milk
• ½ glass of powdered sugar
• 100g of butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla/almond extract

Top:

• ready-made (or home-made) chocolate frosting

Preparation:

1. Put all the ingredients in a bowl. Knead them, till they link and divide into 3 parts.
2. Take rectangular baking pan and distribute all ovet it a baking paper.
3. Roll the 1^st part of the dough all over the pan.
4. Bake in 170C for 10-15 minutes(or longer if neccessary), till it gets gold.
5. Do the same with the remaining 2 pieces of the dough.

In the meantime, prepare the filling:

1. Take a pot, pour the milk inside and start boiling. When it reaches 100C, add semolina and keep stiring all the time (make sure that there are no lumps), still boiling it on a low heat (be careful it will thicken fast and may start burning on the bottom of the pot). 
2. Stir for a while, till it thickens completely, turn off, put aside and let it cool down.
3. Take a mixer and its bowl, add butter and powdered sugar, mix for around 7 minutes. 
4. After that time, start adding cooled down semolina, one spoon after another.
5. At the end, add extract mix precisely.

Finishing:

1. Take a plate on which you would like to store the cake (as later on it will be quite difficult to change the plate).
2. Put the first piece of dough on a plate. Cover with filling.
3. Put another piece of dough and use the remaining filling.
4. Cover with the last piece of dough.
5. Prepare the chocolate frosting and distribute all over the top of the cake.
6. Bon Appetit! ;)

Banana Pancakes

Fantastic! I finally managed to prepare them ;) With an irreplaceable help of Nigella's 'Feast' Book :)

I do recommend them, they're outrageous!
I slightly changed the original recipe as I personally prefer them without a banana.

Ingredients:

• 150g of flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 30g butter
• 1 egg
• 250ml of buttermilk*
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar

Optional ingredients:

• 1 banana

Additionals:

• maple syrup (I honestly do recommend it)
• honey
• more bananas
• shredded coconut
• jam
• etc ;)

* buttermilk makes pancakes springy, but I realize that it is fat, so you can easily add milk, 1,5-3,2% but then it is very important to add 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar


Preparation:

1. Take a bowl in which you can mix ingredients (preferably a bowl suitable for using a mixer or blender).
2. Melt the butter and put it aside to let it cool down.
3. Optionally - Wash and peel the banana, chop, put in the bowl and mix till smooth.
4. If you're using milk - put it in another bowl, add vinegar and leave for 5 minutes. After that time add all the ingredients (without butter, unless it is already cold) and mix, till smooth.
5. If you're using a buttermilk - add all the ingredients except for melted butter in a bowl. Mix to receive smooth mixture.
6. When the butter is cooled down, add it and whisk again, till smooth.
7. Take a frying pan, put some oil on it and distribute the oil using a paper towel (yes, pancakes aren't supposed to swim in that oil ;) the frying pan just needs to be greased).
8. Turn on the lowest heat. Wait a minute.
9. Put some dough on the frying pan, fry for a minute or two, till the colour is gold (keep paying attention to your pancake, they fry really fast), overturn.
10. Take it off from the frying pan, add your favourite additional ingredients. 
11. Bon Appetit! ;)

Warming Up Lemons

Are you a person who freezes when the temperature falls below 10C? And a real horror starts when it falls below -10C? Are you slowly getting more and more hopeless trying to warm yourself up? Well - here is a perfect idea for an evening warm up, when you don't need to bother about driving anywhere (cause we all remember, no driving after alcohol :) ). These lemons are just a perfect match with a hot tea, during a cold, winter evening :) Easy, cheap, really works :) If you are not an adult or you would like to give it to your children - prepare it without Rum.

Why didn't my grandparents tell me about it earlier? Or - why didn't I think of it earlier? Well... better late than never ;)

Before preparing:

• Make sure your lemons are scalded precisely.
• Lemon's skin may give a little bitter taste, so the skin can be peeled to avoid it.

Ingredients:

• 0,5kg of lemons (4-5 lemons, choose those with thin skin, beautifully yellow, with no darker spots)
• 100-150g of honey
• 20-40ml of Golden Rum (or more, depending on a personal taste)
• 1-2 teaspoons of sugar (optionally)

Preparation:

1. Prepare a clean jar.
2. Wash lemons and scald them with hot, boiling water.
3. Cut both edges of every lemon, throw them away.
4. Cut lemons into slices, put inside the jar.
5. Take a glass, put honey inside, add Rum(optionally) and stir precisely.
6. If desired - add sugar and stir till it melts.
7. Pour the mixture to the jar with lemons.
8. Close the jar and leave it in peace for 2-3 days.
9. It is good to shake the jar from time to time (for example once a day).
10. Bon Appetit!! :)

Apple Pancakes

Old recipe, delicious meal. It is a little bit different way to prepare pancakes, especially, if you have too many apples in your basket :) It might be prepared in 2 ways: the dough + apple slices or the dough + grated apples :) both fantastic! and the second version is much better for children :) It might be served with many, many different additionals, which is its another big advantage :)
Recipe comes straight from '(Grand)Mum's kitchen' :) 

Ingredients:

• around 5-8 apples (grated apples/apples slices)
• 500 ml of milk
• around 300 g of flour
• 1-3 tablespoons of sugar
• 16 g of vanilla sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder (optional, but with it, they will grow, become more fluffy)

Additional ingredients: (top of the pancakes):

• Whipped cream
• Cinnamon
• Chocolate/caramel/fruit syrup
• Maple syrup
• Powdered sugar
• Golden syrup
• Marmalade
• Honey
• ..... :)

Preparation:

1. Take a big bowl. Put grated apples inside (or its slices). Put aside.
2. Take another big bowl. Put milk, flour, sugars, egg and baking powder inside, stir till smooth.
3. Mix with apples.
4. Take a frying pan, put some oil on it, start heating, on a very low heat.
5. Put some dough with apples on the frying pan (if slices - one slice per one pancake), distribute the dough on the frying pan, as with a classic pancake, fry for few minutes on each side (check the colour from time to time - when gold - overturn).
6. Dry on a paper towel (if you wish to filter the oil), put on a plate, sprinkle/decorate with your favourite additionals.
7. Bon Appetit! :)

Raspberry Lassi

This is sort of an idea for Mango Lassi leftovers or for something new, when you're bored with basic version. :) Worth trying, the taste is more intense thanks to raspberries. Recipe - my own idea, using what I have in my fridge :)

Ingredients (for 2 glasses):

• 1 mango
• 200-300 g of raspberries
• 1/2-1 greek yoghurt or natural yoghurt (around 150-300 ml)
• 1 tablespoon of Golden Syrup or honey
• 1 glass of cold/room temperature water (add only 1/2 glass of cold water if using ice cubes)

Optional ingredients:

• 1-2 teaspoons of sugar
• 1-2 pinch(es) of ground cardamom (definitely worth trying)
• 2-5 ice cubes
• mint leaves

Preparation:

1. Wash all the fruit and put on paper towels to dry.
2. If preparing it in a cold version - put the fruit in the freezer.
3. Take a blender and its cube cutter.
4. Wash and peel mango. Chop.
5. Put inside the cube cutter and mix till smooth.
6. Add raspberries, mix till smooth.
7. Add yoghurt, mix.
8. Add Golden Syrup/honey, sugar, water, ice cubes, cardamom. Mix again till smooth or even longer, to make a foam.
9. Decorate for instance with mint leaves.
10. Bon Appetit! :)

Mango Lassi

 After a quite long holiday break, it is time for something new and refreshing as we are still in holiday mood :)

Mango Lassi, deriving from India, it is based on a Mango fruit with yoghurt and water. Easy to prepare, will pamper your palate :) 

I haven't taken the recipe from anywhere, I've just read on the Internet about this drink and created my own recipe. It is possible to prepare as a cold coctail, as a soft drink or with alcohol.

Ingredients (for 2-4 glasses - depending on the size of the glass):

• 2 mangos
• 1 greek yoghurt or natural yoghurt (around 300 ml)
• 1 tablespoon of Golden Syrup or honey
• 1 glass of cold/room temperature water (add only 1/2 glass of cold water if using ice cubes)

Optional ingredients:

• 1-2 teaspoons of sugar
• 1-2 pinch(es) of ground cardamom (definitely worth trying)
• 2-5 ice cubes
• 20-25 ml of Vanilla Vodka or Malibu
• mint leaves

Useful info:

• While using Golden Syrup it is advisable to heat it a little bit - for example by putting the right amount of it in a small bowl and then that bowl in another, with hot water.
• If the mango is really really ripe - then the sugar isn't that necessary, because the more ripe the fruit is the more sugar it contains.
• Trying things while preparing them is really a useful skill - you can decide on your own whether you want the taste of the fruit to be dominant or rather the yoghurt, etc. With coctails such as Mango Lassi, just add all the ingredients gratually, mix and taste it, using a clean spoon each time you try it, to make it suitable for you.

Preparation:

1. If preparing it in a cold version - put mangos in the freezer.
2. Take a blender and its cube cutter.
3. Wash and peel mangos. Chop.
4. Put inside the cube cutter and mix till smooth.
5. Add yoghurt, mix.
6. Add Golden Syrup/honey, sugar, water, ice cubes, cardamom. Mix again till smooth or even longer, to make a foam.
7. Decorate for instance with mint leaves.
8. Bon Appetit! :)

Honey Cinn Breakfast

I've read some articles about healthy lifestyle. It appears that among many different spices chilli, pepper, ginger, etc. which are very important) there is also a place for cinnamon with its magical powers to strenghten the immune system, improve health, help with losing some weight, regulate the amount of sugar in our blood and much much more! You can read a lot about it on the Internet, obviously, on trustworthy pages.

So here is another breakfast idea. I do enjoy it as I am a cinnamon fan. There is no sophisticated recipe, as you probably guess. I believe everybody knows how to prepare a decent sandwich ;)

Ingredients:

• bread
• butter (optional)
• honey
• cinnamon

Italian Almond Cookies

 These cookies were an absolute, astonishing surprise to me. Right after taking them out of the oven, my first thought was 'my God, what a disaster, it's burnt and hard'. And that is what I told my friends. Even so, I didn't throw them away. My mum and my friends tasted it and with a delight claimed that the cookies were really delicious. How come...? 
Well, it appeared that these cookies need some time to get soft and tasty (a couple of hours, every next day they get better ;) ). 
Must try. Quick, easy, delicious.
Recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients (for 50-70 cookies):

• 3 egg whites
• 300g of grounded almonds (= almond flour)
• 300g of powdered sugar (+some, to sprinkle the cookies)
• 1 tablespoon of honey or golden syrup (I used it instead of honey)
• filling: caramel sauce*, lemon curd, whipped cream, creme patissiere, Nutella, honey, etc.

* I used it, matches perfectly

Preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients using a food processor, till you get thick, malleable dough. It may be sticky. Cover it using a foil and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 
2. During that time, prepare your baking sheet - put some baking paper on it and - optionally - put a foil under the baking paper.*
3. Take the dough out of the fridge. 
4. Start forming small balls (around walnut's size), sprinkle it precisely with powdered sugar, put on a baking sheet and using something small with a round, smooth ending - make a hollow in every cookie (so that after baking, you can put the filling in there).
5. Leave some space between the cookies on the baking sheet - they double their size during baking. 
6. Bake in 160C for around 15 minutes.** 
7. Cool them down and then add the filling.
8. Bon Appetit ! :)

* Foil is important, if your oven likes to burn the bottom of the food. 

** Again, it depends on the oven. It is crucial to keep looking at cookies for these 15 minutes - don't let them get too gold (even though it is a little bit hard, because they remain white because of the powdered sugar). You can easily open the oven during baking (nothing bad will happen) and check(using a toothpick) or even taste one cookie to check if it is ready or not. It is advisable to lift one cookie, using for instance a fork, to check whether the bottom is burnt or not.

If you are afraid that it is baking too fast - decrease the temperature.

Pear breakfast with the scent of the cinammon

Well this is my own idea. I was fed up with the small amount of varieties I have when it comes to savour breakfast. So I upgraded my it :) I am also a big fan of cinnamon which explains its presence. But it does match here.

Ingredients:

• 150-250 ml of milk (measure your own amount - put as much as you always do while preparing cereals/cornflakes/etc)
• 1 pear (or 1 banana), washed, peeled and chopped
• from 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• cornflakes (preferably), some honey-cereals will be fine too, muesli, granola, etc (I used basic fibre flakes)

Preparation:

1. Boil the milk on a low heat (as much as you like). 
2. Wash, peel and chop the pear, put it in a bowl.
3. Put the milk in (the hotter the milk the faster your cereals will change into pulp)
4. Add cereals/other and cinammon to the bowl.
5. Bon Appetit!

Sweet Omelette

Delicate, like a sponge cake, magic mix of whites and yolk. If your parens have ever told you that you can't mix whisked, stiffed egg whites with yolks because it will be a complete disaster - prove that they were/are wrong ;) 

Thanks for Kwestia Smaku for this recipe -

The original recipe isn't for a sweet omelette. So I changed it a little.

Ingredients: (1 omelette)

• 2 eggs
• a pinch of salt
• 3 teaspoons of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• a little bit of butter 

On the top:

• powdered sugar
• golden syrup
• honey
• jam/marmalade
• fruit
• cinnamon
• cocoa

* If you have a really big frying pan, you can use 3 eggs and 3 tablespoons of flour.

Preparation:

1. Melt some butter on your frying pan. (butter must cover the entire frying pan, also sides)
2. Seperate whites and yolks. 
3. Stir the yolks.
4. Put the whites in a bigger bowl (food processor's bowl) add salt and start beating the egg whites(high speed of the mixer). After a few seconds add sugar. Keep beating, until the whites are stiff.
5. Reduce the speed of the mixer to average, without stopping the mixer add yolks (around 1/2 of a minute)
6. Reduce the speed of the mixer to the lowest and add flour. Mix only for a few (10) seconds, till it links.
7. Turn on the heat and put the omelette on the frying pan on a middle/low heat.
8. Look at it carefully - it is different than a pancake, it is harder to look if the bottom is ready or not. Frying every side will take around 3-4 minutes.
9. How to turn the side? You can either use one big spatula or two smaller  (not recommended, because it is a very delicate kind of cake) or you can take another greased frying pan (bigger preferably) and try to put them together and turn over. You can also take it out from the frying pan, put it on the plate, cover the plate with the frying pan and then flip so that the omelette is on the frying pan again.
10. Put it on a plate and add 'toppings' :)
11. Bon appetit! :)

* Well-prepared omelette should be stiff after frying and should neither crincle nor get softer.

British Crunches

This is a mouth-watering example of using the golden syrup :) Easy to prepare, quick to do, good for lunch and for coffee :)

Original recipe comes from this website, but I modified it a little bit.

Ingredients:

• 110 g butter 
• 120 g of sugar (preferably brown sugar) 
• 1 good tablespoon of golden syrup (you can use honey if you don't have it, but that will change the taste of crunches) 

Preparation:

1. Put all the ingredients in the pot, boil and stir till smooth. 
2. Take if off from the cooker. 

Ingredients:

• 150-200 g of rolled oats (not more than 225g) 
• 1-1,5 teaspoon(s) of ground ginger 
• some almond flakes 

1. Turn the oven on and set for 190 Celsius degrees, so that it has time to preheat 
2. Add the rolled oats and ginger to your pot. Stir. If you want some more rolled oats - add them. 
3. Prepare your baking form - if not made from silicone - put the baking paper in or grease it with butter 
4. Put the mixture in a baking form* and sprinkle the almond flakes on the top. 
5. If the oven is already heated to 190 Celsius degrees, put the form inside the oven and bake for 5-15 minutes** 
6. After baking, wait 10-20 minutes till it gets thicker, easier and generally possible to be divided into smaller parts. 
7. Bon appetit! :) 

* you can use any form you like - I do recommend flat (like for a tart) forms. You will get as thick/big cookies as your form is - if you will use tart form - cookies will be like mine - there will be a lot of them but they won't be thick. If you decide on a bread form - less cookies, but bigger(thicker).

** Look at them carefully. Very often the baking time depends on the oven. Sometimes, 6-7 minutes is perfectly enough.

How to check that ? Observe your crunch - if it is gold, you can take it out. Don't let the edges get burnt (golden dark) because these parts will be bitter and not really tasty. So if you see that it starts getting darker on the edges - take it out from the oven.