I wish you health and love because everybody needs them regardless of our situation.

I wish you also a happy, sunny and spring-like Easter;

yummy dishes on the Easter table, kindness and a relaxed meeting with family and friends.

I hope that every one of us will find in this Easter what they need most:

family atmosphere, rest and reflection.

Let the special atmosphere recharge our internal battery before the following busy days.

Happy Easter!

On the Polish Easter table there are Easter cakes, mazurka, cheese cakes and poppy seed cakes. Paschal dish is another typical Easter dessert. It comes from the north of Russia. Traditionally, it is prepared with cottage cheese, cream, butter, eggs, sugar and dried fruit.

My sister-in-law usually prepares paschal dish for Easter in our home. We like this sweet creamy dessert very much. I think that my husband loves it the most, because last year he asked for paschal dish for Christmas.

Today, I would like to share with you the recipe for a different, chocolatey version of paschal dish. We liked it. My children especially loved it. They asked for thick chocolate glaze on top. I made an excellent dish for chocolate lovers. It will be a permanent fixture on our menu, not only during Easter.

The recipe comes from the online Lidl cookery book.

Ingredients:
500g of cottage cheese
150g of dark chocolate
100g of butter
30g of cocoa
3 tablespoons of maple syrup
100g of dried cranberries
100g of nuts
1 tablespoon of lemon grated peel
chocolate glaze

During times of difficulty in Poland when the meat was rationed or there simply wasn't any at all, our mums had to be creative to prepare food for the family. In this time we ate many pancakes, cutlets with vegetables, beans or eggs.

Today I dusted off one of those recipes. I served egg cutlets in a fresh way with asparagus spears and a spicy cucumber-peppermint salsa. You can also make horseradish-, dill- or garlic sauce. They will be excellent with the cutlets.

Ingredients (for 10 cutlets)
6 eggs
50g of bulgur
2 tablespoons of semolina
half an onion
3 tablespoons of minced parsley
3 tablespoons of sesame seeds
salt and pepper
4 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
a bunch of asparagus spears
salsa:
1 cucumber
half a red pepper
half a chili pepper
3 tablespoons of chopped peppermint
3 tablespoons of chopped almonds
salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of maple syrup

Many dishes on the Easter table and those we put into the Easter basket are symbols. The egg is a symbol of new life; the bread symbolises Christ and also the bread which he used to feed people; the meat is a symbol of wealth; salt, pepper and horseradish symbolise the spice due to which our life is richer. Apparently, the Easter cake on the table symbolises the excellence we should aim for.

For a few years I have baked small Easter cakes, one of which I put into the Easter basket. I have used many recipes, but I wasn't satisfied with any of them. The cakes were great the first day, but then they lost their freshness. That was until I found a recipe at www.digotuje.pl which means I won't have to look for any others. I was surprised that one of the ingredients is mayonnaise. You can't taste the mayo at all, but the cake is fluffy and stays fresh longer.

Ingredients (for 6 small Easter cakes)
75g of flour
75g of potato flour
150g of sugar
3 eggs
3 flat tablespoons of mayonnaise
1.5 tablespoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of lemon essence
lemon icing

Could somebody who loves chocolate not like brownies? I think it isn't possible. The first recipes for brownies appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century. These very chocolatey American cakes, sometimes with nuts, are here to stay in Polish kitchens. My children love them. The best is hot and oven-fresh with ice cream. I don't blame them. I like them too.

The perfect brownie should be mega-chocolatey, sweet, have a crunchy piecrust and a moist heart. My recent brownie was just like that. I made it by following the recipe from http://www.jadlonomia.com.

Ingredients (20×20 cake tin)
200g of dark chocolate
180-200ml of coconut oil
2 espressos
aquafaba from one tin of chickpeas
125g of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
150g of flour
a pinch of salt
half a teaspoon of baking powder
a fistful of cashew nuts
8 pieces of dark chocolate