Chocolate and nuts is a perfect duet. If we add an orange, we get a feast for the senses. On a grey sad afternoon, make some chocolate-nut cookies with a hint of orange. Now you need only a good book or movie and a cup of hot tea, and you can stand up to the rainy weather beyond the window. I don't recommend putting all of the cookies out at once. It may turn out that you haven't got any left before the end of the first chapter of your book.

In the recipe for cookies there is brown sugar. Don't leave it out. The brown sugar enhances the taste of the chocolate and orange combination.

Ingredients:
300g of wheat flour
75g of graham flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
½ teaspoon of salt
200g of butter
200g white sugar
100g brown sugar

Until restaurants with different kinds of dumplings appeared in Poland, dumplings for dinner were a feast at my home. I remember when I made dumplings with Mum and put them in rows of ten. For our big family we made a huge amount of these goodies. Now I most often make dumplings with meat and vegetables using the ingredients from broth. I serve them boiled with a browned onion or fried until golden.

The dough is the secret of home-made dumplings. Every housewife has her secret recipe which she uses to make soft and resilient dough. You can prepare the stuffing with everything. Today I have a recipe for dumplings with oyster mushrooms.

Ingredients:
Dough
0.5 kg of flour + flour for sprinkling a pastry board
½ teaspoon of salt
60ml oil
200ml of hot water

There are some products which you can't stop eating. For example, crisps, nuts, small cookies and popcorn at the cinema. Notwithstanding how many you put in the bowl, you have to eat everything. Is it the same for you? When we go to the cinema we even try to restrict ourselves. We go up to the counter with strong determination and willpower: I would like a small portion of popcorn and a small cola please." What is the answer? "If you pay 3 zloty more you can get a large portion of popcorn and a medium drink." What do we do? We buy them of course. It is only 3 zloty. So much for willpower. Then for a month we are fed up of popcorn and again we have strong determination that next time...

We know that salty snacks aren't healthy. Too much fat and salt and large portions disagree with everyone. When we plan a home film viewing, we can prepare our own popcorn which is less fatty and salty than at the cinema.

It is easy to make crisps in your own kitchen as well. I propose using kale for this.

Kale is a kind of cabbage. It contains the biggest amount of calcium of all the vegetables, and also doesn't contain oxalates. It is a valuable ingredient in preventing osteoporosis. Kale is a source of phosphorus, iron and ascorbic acid. Among the most popular vegetables only pepper contains more.

Valentine's Day is quite close. Certain people like it but others hate it. Red hearts, sweet teddy bears and tons of Valentine's Day sweets pour out from every shop front. Merchants try to convince us that everything could be a Valentine's Day gift; it just needs to have a heart stuck onto it. This could make the day a turn-off for even the most in love. However, if we were to treat it as an excuse for spending a pleasant day together and preparing a tasty candlelit dinner, maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

Opponents of Valentine's Day could say that we can do the same every day, and they are right. But if every day, why not on 14th February?

Today I would like to share with you a recipe for an easy but excellent dessert for two. The light sweet mousse from white chocolate goes well with cherry confiture. You may use a different one, but I recommend something that is not so sweet, because even on Valentine's Day too many sweets could be harmful.

Ingredients:
150ml of 30% sweet cream
100g of white chocolate
4 teaspoons of cherry confiture
fruit and peppermint leaves

Valentine's Day is coming. For some of us this is purely about selling commercial products, but for others it is an excuse to rejuvenate their relationship with their sweetheart. Do you know who Saint Valentine (from whom we get the name Valentine's Day) was?

A doctor and priest lived in the III century in the Roman Empire under Claudius II. The Emperor disqualified young men from marrying because without families they were better legionaries. This interdict was broken by Saint Valentine, who performed marriage rites for couples. He was thrown into prison where he fell in love with the blind daughter of his guard, who apparently girl regained her sight due to this love. The Emperor condemned Valentine to death. Before the execution Valentine wrote a letter to his beloved signed "from your Valentine". Valentine was executed on 14th February in the year 269.

I have never been interested in teddy bears with red hearts, but I like spending Valentine's Day in a more romantic way than on other ordinary days. Now that we have children, we prepare a candlelit dinner at home. Maybe you will like my proposal for a Valentine's Day menu. Today I would like to share with you a recipe for a salad with prawns. The next blog entry will be a recipe for something sweet for dessert.

Ingredients:
salad
400g of large cooked prawns
mixed lettuce
1 orange
1 grapefruit
1 avocado
1 fistful of cashew nuts