Did you notice the strange fact that during Christmas the extra centimetres around the waist grow easily and nicely, but losing them takes much more time, needs effort and is not so pleasant for everybody.

After every period of feasting comes the moment when we have to get back to daily life and lighter dishes. Fortunately, it doesn't mean that meals are less tasty or beautiful. I would like to share with you the recipe for a light and grand dinner, which will make the return to a normal diet really yummy and pleasant.

Ingredients (for 2 people):
200g of fusilli pasta
2 tablespoons of butter
3 cloves of garlic
half a chili pepper
200g of courgette
300g of fresh spinach
200g mozzarella cheese
8 walnuts
2 sprigs of thyme
1 sprig of rosemary
2 tablespoons of nigella
salt and pepper

Homemade pâté was an obligatory Christmas dish. My mum used to add carrots and parsley roots. My husband had his own recipe for a very meaty pâté which his grandma and mum used to prepare. Both of them are excellent, but recently I haven't prepared them. We try not to prepare too much food, so that afterwards we can eat with pleasure rather than duty. A few times I prepared also fish pâté and celery pâté.

This time I used my favourite red lentils. Lentil pâté is easy and it has the same texture as meat pâté, so with clean conscience I can also recommend it to vegetarians. Feel free to alter the recipe as required. Add nuts or cranberries and make your own yummy version.

The basic recipe comes from www.zjadam.pl.

Ingredients (25cm cake tin)
250g of red lentils
2 carrots
1 parsley root
half a small celery
1 onion
a piece of fresh ginger
3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Although the date has just changed and the amazing night of fun has passed, we can always find an opportunity to make something yummy and beautiful. If it is an equally simple dish – even better for us.

This dessert taught me submissiveness and patience. It is easy to prepare, but all the time it got on my nerves. It turned out that I didn't have some of the ingredients, even though I could have sworn I did have them, and I don't want to tell you how often I had to clean my kitchen. I didn't give up and prepared the dessert. We all found it yummy. For me this excellent taste was the taste of ... patience. A few times I had a half mind to bin everything and go to a bakery.

Ingredients (cake tin with recess):
250ml of 30% sweet cream
500g of mascarpone cheese
2 teaspoons of caster sugar
150g of white chocolate
200g of dark chocolate drops
fruity icing
300g of cherries without stones
3 tangerines
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of gelatine
chocolate icing
150g of dark chocolate
100ml of 30% sweet cream
small pieces of pomegranate

A few days before Christmas, every housewife does everything she can to plan and prepare treats for the Christmas table. Meats, fish, salads, pâtés, dishes with cabbage – on the first day everything is excellent, the second is great too, and even on the third day we eat heartily. After that, we gradually get fed up with these excellent, longed-for dishes. Every year I try to prepare meals in such amount to finish everything on Boxing Day and start preparing new delicacies. Sometimes I make a success of it...

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for using roasted or boiled meat. You may use any meat which you have after Sunday or Christmas dinner. Duck, turkey and even chicken will taste great. Try it.

Ingredients:
6 pieces of pita bread
500g of roasted or boiled meat
half a red onion
1 yellow pepper
a fistful of minced chives
6 leaves of Chinese cabbage or iceberg lettuce
half a chili pepper
3 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper

Children can be cruel. They can wound with words better than anybody, and only those who have felt this can say how deep the gashes are and how long they affect our life. Sometimes I think that children and teenagers are worse than adults, who have the good sense to hold back their words. Some people can deal with cruel words; they don't pay them any mind. Sometimes, words only ruin one's mood, but they can also motivate us and lead to life changes. Sometimes, the light scars stay for a long time and are opened up again with any scrape and don't let you function normally.

Santa Claus got my daughter the book "Pasztety do boju" ("Piglettes") by Clementine Beauvais. In a light-hearted way, this book shows the problems of modern teenagers. Three teenage girls are the main characters. They are the winners of an internet competition to find the ugliest girl. Each of them tries to deal with the stigma in their own way. Initially, they treat the final result of the competition as a disaster. Fortunately, only at the beginning, because the combined efforts of the Piglettes ends with success. With the whole world against them, the girls go on a bike trip to Paris. Together they beat the odds, arrange, prepare and realize their plan, but above all they become friends and support each other.

The blurb says that it is a funny story about adolescence and accepting yourself. I agree with what the book is about, but I have doubts about its comic value. I understood it somewhat differently. After all, it is book for teenagers. But for me it was laughter mixed with tears.