The first time I saw chestnuts was in American pre-Christmas movies in which the main characters walk down the Christmas lighted, snowy streets of a small city and eat hot roast chestnuts from a paper bag. Sometimes they take a break from skating to eat this snack (obviously wearing colourful sweaters and without helmets or guards ). During one of our autumn trips, we tried roast chestnuts and we fell in love with them.

Chestnuts are rich in starch and contain a lot of fibre and vitamin B. They are recommended for people who have coeliac syndrome and anaemia.

Apparently, you can eat fresh and new chestnuts raw. I have never eaten them raw, but for sure you may boil, roast (for 40 minutes in the oven heated up to 180C) or fry them in a pan. You have to cut crosses into them, so that they don't explode while roasting or shelling. Sometimes the Italian and French put roast chestnuts into red wine to aromatize them. I haven't done so, but I know that they are excellent with a glass of good dry red wine.

We like spaghetti the most with tomato sauce. Recently, when I had to prepare spaghetti bolognese again, my love of this dish got a bit smaller. Eventually, even our most favourite meal may get boring. This time I enriched the classical Neapolitan sauce with some anchovies, capers and black olives. This way I prepared my version of spaghetti alla puttanesca. "Alla puttanesca" literally translates as "the way the prostitutes do it". The legend tells us that this Neapolitan dish was prepared by prostitutes for their customers to reenergise.

Regardless of this story, I recommend this dish to everybody who likes strong and nonobvious flavours. If you don't have spaghetti, serve this sauce with penne, bucatini or linguine.

Ingredients:
250g of spaghetti
1 tin of tomatoes
3-4 anchovies
3 cloves of garlic
1 onion
a fistful of black olives
a fistful of capers
1 tablespoon of oregano
chili pepper
1 tablespoon of butter
salt and pepper

In every city there are the famous, cult places, where many people can buy something yummy and unique. Recently, I remembered that the most flavoursome toasties with mushrooms I have ever eaten were from the Old Town in Warsaw. They were long (because they were made from baguettes), perfectly crunchy, with mushrooms, cheese and spicy ketchup. They didn't have any sophisticated ingredients, but no others toasties taste so excellent.

These memories gave me an appetite, so I decided to prepare my own toasties with mushrooms. I didn't try to recreate that flavour, but my toasties with mushrooms and avocado were yummy. I recommend them for a crunchy snack or fast dinner, absolutely with a huge amount of the parsley.

Ingredients
1 baguette
2 tablespoons of butter
500g of mushroom
chili pepper
1 avocado
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon of clarified butter
150g of grated mozzarella
4 tablespoons of chopped parsley
salt and pepper

New Year's Eve is an amazing time. Everybody should spend it the way they like. Some people will go to a buzzing party, and some will choose binge-watching films or an absorbing book. One thing unites all of these: yummy food. Everybody prepares something special and tasty to eat. After all, this day only comes once a year. The best dishes are the ones which don't need a lot of work. Many of us spend New Year's afternoon in different ways. The New Year's dishes should be bite-size. We pick them up on the fly between one dance and the next. And the ingredients – the less creamy the better. A "picturesque" blob of whipped cream or sauce on our evening dress isn't what merrymakers dream of.

That's why today I would like to share with you the recipe for sweet chocolate pralines with nut butter inside. They look amazing and are excellent. Both small and adult merrymakers love them. Prepare them the day before to let the chocolate congeal. You may use small paper muffin moulds or special silicon praline cases.

Ingredients (for 30 pralines)
400g of plain chocolate
10 teaspoons of nut butter
2 teaspoons of caster sugar
a pinch of salt
70g of white chocolate
colourful sugar decorations

We like herrings. Everybody except for my son, but he basically doesn't like anything so I don't care about it. We like traditional herrings with onion the most, but every year for Christmas Eve I try to prepare a new herring dish. This year, thanks to www.igraszkilosu.pl we had orange-cranberry herrings with chili pepper and rosemary on our table. Preparing this meal only takes a little while. The most difficult thing is waiting. You have to leave the herrings in the fridge for the whole night. I have to say it is worth the wait. The herrings are gentle but definitely smell nice and are tasty with the orange and slightly sour cranberries. A smattering of chili pepper, which isn't in the original recipe, spices them up nicely.

Ingredients:
4 pieces of herring in oil
100g of fresh cranberries
orange peel
juice of 2 oranges
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 red onion
1 chili pepper
125ml of oil
1 twig of rosemary