Do you remember the difficult days when we waited impatiently for information about a ship with citrus fruits heading to Poland, and when ham was only for Christmas and Easter? I still remember the taste and smell of exotic longed-for products and disappointment when every day we had cheese or egg on bread. Although my mum, like most housewives, went all out to diversify the home menu, we missed common sausages.

Times have changed. Luxury cold meat is a money issue only, and we can buy citrus fruits all year round. My children couldn't imagine anything else. They listen to my memories about food coupons, queues and lack of basic products like they were stories about dinosaurs. These changes have another aspect for me: Sometimes I would like something else for bread other than ham or summer sausage.

Due to such nostalgic deliberating in front of the open fridge, I made two pastes from smoked mackerel. The first one is more mellow but with a bit of mayonnaise and horseradish, and the second one more spicy with mustard and chili pepper. You should add the seasonings with care so as not to lose the distinctive taste of the smoked fish.

Paste 1

Ingredients:

smoked mackerel

2 dill pickles

a fistful of minced chives

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 tablespoon of mayonnaise

1 teaspoon of horseradish

salt and pepper

Everybody knows that we should eat fish. In Poland we most often go for salmon, trout, codfish or herrings. Zander, flounder and, less commonly, sole, turbot and rose fish take possession of our summer holiday table. During my seaside holiday I often buy smoked halibut. I like its delicate texture and, obviously, its inimitable taste. More rarely, halibut appears on our table as a dinner dish. This is a big mistake.

Halibut, like every sea fish, is a valuable source of iodine – an ingredient necessary for children's growth. If it is missing from our diet, it could contribute to difficulties in learning. Halibut also contains antibacterial copper, iron, zinc, calcium and phosphorus. Reportedly, fish oil soothes our trouble with rheumatic joints.

In one of my favorite trips with Karol Okrasa there appeared a recipe for rolls, or rather stuffed savoy cabbage with halibut. Today I decided to try it.

Ingredients:

400g of halibut fillets

4 leaves of savoy cabbage

a few sprigs of fresh dill

I wish that every young employee beginning their professional career could meet such a boss as the one I once had. I doesn't matter whether it is a job in a corporation or in a state or private company. The most important thing is to have a leader who can create a team, motivate them to work and at the same time engender a positive atmosphere. My first boss was just such a person.

She used to bring a cheesecake to Christmas meetings – fluffy, dainty and always fine. She shared the recipe for this cake with me. Its quality depends most of all on the kind of cheese you use. It shouldn't be too sour and runny or you will make a beautiful ... sad layer. Our team doesn't exist anymore; its members have spread all over the world, but I still have the recipe. If I don't make any mistakes or don't forget that the cake is in the oven ;-), it always turns out great.

Ingredients:

1kg of white cottage cheese for cheesecake

250g of sugar

4 eggs

50g of vanilla sugar

1 vanilla blancmange (without sugar)

150g of butter

fistful of raisins

fistful of minced dried apricots

You can discover an interesting recipe for a tasty dish in the most unlikely places. Usually, I don't take advertising leaflets from the shops I visit. This time I took one and, among the tens of proposals for ideal gifts for him and her, I found some recipes for Christmas Eve dishes.

We like herrings regardless of how they are prepared or served, and so this time I have another interesting proposal. The original name for herrings with curry powder and raisins was "aunt Basia's herring". According to the recipe, you should leave the dish to rest in the fridge before serving. It doesn't taste so good if you eat it immediately after preparing it.

Ingredients:

200g of herrings in oil

2 onions

2 tablespoons of tomato concentrate

2 tablespoons of mayonnaise

1 bay leaf

3 allspices

3 tablespoons of oil

a fistful of raisins

salt and pepper

In the dim and distant past, children were scared of wolves, old coots or Buka from "Moominvalley". Today's children don't fear anything. Watching certain cartoons I wonder who they are made for. Bogeymen, monsters, dragons ... and I miss classic Polish characters like Bolek, Lolek and Reksio. What do you think: what are modern parents afraid of? Apart from extreme things, maybe they are afraid of ordinary white sugar? Sometimes, without reflection, we add it to tea or coffee. Today we look for sugar everywhere and in most products we find it.

Mostly we worry about our children, visualizing them in the future with tooth decay and being hugely overweight. We could completely ban sweets. We could propose one "sweet day" in the week. There are as many solutions as there are parents. Sometimes we and our children would like to have something sweet. It is probably easier for most of us in most cases if we go for chocolate. If we add dried fruits and nuts to the chocolate it will be go some way towards soothing our conscience. Therefore, it is my proposal for today. Please remember, however, that to protect our children against sugar you should not eat all of it by yourself.

Ingredients:

150 g of chocolate

20 g of pumpkin seeds

60 g of sunflower seeds