The banana has been known in Europe since the XIX century and despite such a short history, it has gained ground on European tables through its excellent taste and rich nutritional value. It contains magnesium and potassium, which have a positive impact on our heart, and substances which reduce cholesterol.

When you have low spirits – get a banana. These fruits contain tryptophan – an amino acid which our body converts into serotonin – a happiness hormone.

People grow only 20 from almost 800 known species of banana, each of which differs in size, shape, colour and pulp and starch content. There are bananas which taste like apple, red bananas and inedible bananas which are used for the production of paper and rope.

In the kitchen bananas have universal application. In our latitude we use them mainly for desserts. We add them to salads, fruit cocktails and cakes. Until recently I didn't like hot bananas. Recently I have prepared grilled bananas with brown sugar and ice cream. This quick and simple dessert was very tasty. I decided to explore this further and prepared bananas in French pastry. Again I was not disappointed. I found an inspiring recipe on the blog arabeskawaniliowa.

Ingredients:

1 pack of chilled French pastry

6 bananas

In the wild, oyster mushrooms grow on tree trunks. We can find them in forests on dead deciduous trees literally all over the world (except Antarctica), but their homeland is China.

Oyster mushrooms have amazing health benefits. They supply easily assimilable protein, folic acid, amino acids, Vitamin B and mineral salts. Substances which reduce cholesterol and sugar level in the blood have been detected too. Japanese scientists demonstrated that extract from oyster mushrooms could decrease tumors. Slovakian scientists extracted from them a substance which improves the immune system.

Young mushrooms are the best for cooking. Older ones could be stringy. You should keep cleaning to a minimum because they easily soak up water. Oyster mushrooms can be fried or baked and they are an excellent filling for crepes and dumplings.

Up to now I have fried oyster mushrooms in butter and served with garlic and dill. For the first time, I decided to bake them. From a few ingredients I made a very tasty and distinctively flavorsome salad.

Ingredients (for two people):

250g of oyster mushrooms

100g of fresh young spinach

8 dried tomatoes in olive oil

2 tablespoons of dried thyme

A few weeks ago we spent one Sunday evening gathering walnuts. Two big trees and under them a carpet of leaves and walnuts. Literally, it was difficult to take a step and not crush any of the nutty treasure. When harvesting walnuts the whole family should take part. It soon turned, however, out that this activity is rather unexciting and our children's help was infinitesimal. I think that lack of motivation played a large part. Unlike us, our children don't like walnuts. Nonetheless, we managed to do it and for the next few days a significant part of our big living room was occupied by drying walnuts. Now packed in transparent sacks, they are waiting for winter.

Due to the abundance of this nutty treasure, I started to look for recipes with walnuts. For the first dishes I prepared morning porridge, salads and cakes. Today, inspired by the "arabeskawaniliowa" blog, I propose a classical combination of bananas, walnuts and chocolate. This set of ingredients puts me in mind of late autumn, when it is difficult to get seasonal fruits.

Ingredients:

100g of butter

320g of sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

3 big bananas

340g of flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

It seems to happen that shortly after candles and chrysanthemums disappear from shopping shelves, they begin to be full of Christmas trees, Christmas baubles and Santas. Every year this process starts earlier. In my opinion, merchants try to make us believe that if there are only two months until Christmas, you need to hurry up. Maybe we should bake ginger bread and buy carp already?

For sure you have dishes on your home menu which are on the table only for special occasions. In my home this dish, among others, is vegetable salad. I don't know why I prepare it so rarely; mainly just for Christmas. The ingredients are simple, available all year around and preparation is not really complicated. In my family's opinion, vegetable salad is the queen among all salads. It doesn't have a spectacular appearance, unique recipe or secret ingredients, yet I don't know anybody who doesn't like it.

Everybody knows the ingredients. The secret of every housewife is proportions which mean that the net result is sweet, spicy or dry. My salad is rather sweet and made a little more spicy by adding mustard.

Ingredients:

4 carrots

3 parsley roots

1 tin of peas

8 dill pickles

Since 1991, every year on 11 November there has been a street festival on St Martin Street. This day alludes to the medieval St Martin's Day. St. Martin was a bishop from Tours; a patron of children, hoteliers, riders, cavalry, hatters, smiths, tailors, millers, travellers, prisoners, beggars and soldiers. Traditionally on St Martin's Day in Poznań, people eat cakes called rogal świętomarciński and goose.

Goose breeding in Poland has a long tradition, reaching back to the XVII century. Nowadays, goose is treated as a posh, gourmet product and it really isn't one of the cheapest dishes around. Sometimes it is worth giving in to temptation because the taste of this meat is excellent. Not many people know that Poland is the biggest goose producer in Europe, and, along with apples and oscypek (local Polish sheep's cheese), organic goose meat has a chance to become a symbol of our cuisine.

Today's proposal for preparing goose thighs was inspired by Karol Okrasa. It takes quite a long time to roast, but thanks to this the goose fat renders, leaving the skin thin and juicy, and the meat soft.

Ingredients:

4 goose thighs

2 tablespoons of thyme

200ml of apple juice

200ml of apple cider

Salt and pepper

8 slices of American bacon

fistful of dried cranberries