The winter in the kitchen smells of gingerbread, nuts, chocolate and cranberries. Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a dessert which excellently combines these ingredients. It is a great idea for dessert after Christmas dinner, but you may prepare it whenever you like. This dessert could be a way to use up the gingerbread cookies after Christmas when everybody has got bored with them. In my family it isn't possible. I have to hide our gingerbread cookies to have a few left for Christmas.

I prepare coconut-vanilla tapioca, white like the snow, for this dessert. But if you like, you can prepare chocolate tapioca or add some cinnamon when cooking.

Ingredients:
60g of tapioca
400ml of coconut milk
200ml of milk
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
a couple of gingerbread cookies
a couple of walnuts

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a classical Christmas cake. I recommend gingerbread, which takes exactly as much time to prepare as you need to heat the oven. Nobody needs to know about it except you, because the cake looks and tastes like it was professionally made. It is an excellent idea for rushed and busy people, so that they too can enjoy the taste and aroma of a homemade Christmas cake.

You can cut your cake and spread it with chocolate cream and plum stew and decorate it with chocolate icing. You could also just do nothing, and feast on the fragrant gingerbread just after baking.

The recipe for this cake comes from www.ilovebake.pl

Ingredients:
300g of flour
350 ml of milk
100ml of oil
2 tablespoons of plum stew
125g of sugar
2 tablespoons of cocoa
2 tablespoons of spices
1 teaspoon of baking powder
½ teaspoon of baking soda
plum stew to spread on the cake
chocolate cream to spread on the cake
chocolate icing for decoration

I think that everybody likes roast pork neck. It is juicy and fragrant and you may serve it hot or cold. Usually, I buy a slightly bigger piece of meat and after baking part of it I serve it as dinner, and the leftovers we eat cold with bread. It is a habit after difficult times in Poland, when we were scared of empty shelves in the shops, and roast pork neck saved us many times from sandwiches with cheese or egg spread.

I have used the same recipe for roast pork neck for many years. It is always excellent and when I use a thermometer to check the meat, I don't worry that the meat is raw or dry inside. You have medium roast pork when the temperature inside is 71-73C, and well done when the temperature is 77-93C. I take the pork out of the oven when the temperature is 87C and then the meat is soft and juicy. The sauce for the pork neck is based on gravy. I additionally add dark honey beer and plum stew to it.

Ingredients
meat:
1.5kg of pork neck
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of marjoram
6 cloves of garlic (4 with the skin)
1 onion
2 big twigs of rosemary
400ml of bouillon
100ml of dark beer
salt and pepper

We spend the time before Christmas rushing, looking for things, cleaning and cooking. Sometimes, even though we really don't want it to be, it can be irritating and unpleasant. But when the emotions subside, we just need to relax, rest and drink in the Christmas atmosphere. We like then to light up the fireplace and some candles and drink spicy mulled wine. It is so nice to sit back in an armchair and warm our hands with a warm, aromatic cup of wine. Mulled wine is an obligatory element of our Christmas menu. Sometimes we prepare it also when the autumn-winter weather takes its toll.

Ingredients
750l of dry red wine
a piece of cinnamon
a couple of cardamoms
a couple of cloves
2 star anises
50ml of ginger syrup
50ml or raspberry syrup
a couple of orange slices
2-3 tablespoons of maple syrup (optional)

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for something that is mega easy but extraordinary at the same time. I prepared this Christmas tree with French pastry for my children on 6 December. Santa Claus provided the presents and I prepared something sweet for afternoon tea. I'm sure that before Christmas I will make it more than once. If you decide to prepare it for Christmas, your guests will be delighted.

You really only need a few common ingredients and after half an hour you can enjoy a yummy and fairly sweet Christmas dessert. You may prepare the stuffing with chocolate and nuts, and this is the version I chose. Poppy seed or fruit stuffing would also be excellent.

Ingredients
2 packs of chilled French pastry
60g of chocolate
2 fistfuls of chopped nuts
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
3 tablespoons of milk