Though we would rather eat light dishes in the spring and summer, sometimes we need to eat something serious. It's best if we don't need to spend half the day in the kitchen and the result on the plate is excellent.

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a not too complicated, swift and very yummy dish – leek soup with mincemeat. My children were suspicious until they tried it. Then they asked for a second helping.

The recipe comes from the book "Ekspresowe potrawy rodzinne" ("Swift family dishes").

Ingredients:
2 leeks
500g of mincemeat
1l of vegetable stock
1 tin of sweetcorn
1 small onion
200ml of sweet cream
1 bay leaf
2 allspices
2 tablespoons of oil
salt and pepper
half a bunch of parsley

Shrimps, langoustine, lobster and mussels are our favourite ingredients of dishes. In Poland we buy them frozen. During the last long weekend in May we visited Valencia. This beautiful city, the third biggest in Spain, is situated on the Mediterranean coast, so we could easily buy fresh fish and seafood. If you want to buy fresh fish and seafood, you should look for big markets instead of small shops. We visited such a market every day in Valencia. We were enchanted with the friendly atmosphere. The salespeople already greeted us with a cheery "hola!" on the second day. When I asked a lady for an easy Spanish way of preparing seafood, she said "the easiest is with white wine , olive oil, garlic and parsley".

We decided to take advantage of the opportunity presented by a seaside city. We bought a lot of shrimps, langoustines, white wine, garlic, parsley and chili pepper and played at cooking. For our children we shelled the shrimps, leaving only the heads and tails. It was a lot of work, but the prospect of the yummy food and nice wine sugared the pill. We served the seafood with a fresh, crunchy baguette. It was excellent for mopping up the yummy sauce in the pan.

Ingredients:
1.5kg of seafood
300ml of dry white wine
4 cloves of garlic
a bunch of parsley
1 chili pepper
3 tablespoons of olive oil

"Mum, you haven't made pancakes for a long time". My son broke my train of thought. I was just thinking about what to prepare for lunch. Is he clairvoyant or something? Pancakes are great. They are swift, easy, I have all the ingredients close at hand and the children eat them without complaining. I decided to fulfill the order. So I prepared pancakes with courgette and sweetcorn, chopped chives and cranberry sauce. Fortunately, I prepared a double serving, which meant I wouldn't have to think about what to make for dinner.

Ingredients:
1 big courgette
1 tin of sweetcorn
1 egg
half a bunch of chives
6 tablespoons of corn flour
oil for frying
salt and pepper

We ate our first strawberries of the year at the beginning of May in Spain. It is hard to believe that they were the same Spanish strawberries which in Poland are fit only for decoration because they taste nothing like strawberries. In Spain they were beautiful, sweet and juicy, but it is not surprising that strawberries ripening on bushes in glorious sunshine are so delicious. Those which ripen during transport don't have a chance.

We already have beautiful, juicy and sweet strawberries in Poland. Even though the price is far from ideal, I couldn't resist. We will gladly eat the first strawberries fresh. When there are a lot of them and the price is much lower, we will put them into desserts, jellies and cakes. Today I have a recipe for a simple dessert in which strawberries are merely an attractive addition.

Ingredients (5 flowers)
1 pack of French pastry
2 tablespoons of milk
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
150g of mascarpone cheese
2 teaspoons of caster sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of lemon peel
5 strawberries
3 tablespoons of chopped pistachios

For spaghetti carbonara, just as in a lot of Italian dishes, you need a couple of basic ingredients and a little time, and you have an excellent meal. Some people say that for "proper" carbonara sauce you needn't add sweet cream. The sauce should be prepared with raw egg yolks. I think that all recipes are fine if the dish is yummy and we like it. In my home we don't eat raw egg yolks, so without doubt we make carbonara sauce with sweet cream. Regardless of the basis for the meal, carbonara spaghetti is an easy and swift dish. The best quality ingredients are the only necessity.

Ingredients:
200g of spaghetti
150g of smoked bacon or ham
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of olive oil
250ml of 30% sweet cream
2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
salt and pepper