Today I have a recipe for those who would like to eat something more sophisticated than pieces of sausage on a stick, caught on the fly from the fridge (I do it myself sometimes), and who don't have enough time for shopping and cooking. In situations like this, the best dishes are the ones commonly known as a "review of the fridge". It could be a great opportunity to use items of shopping that were bought rather carelessly. Often hunger and an attractive promotion are our advisers when shopping, so we end up with strange sauces, snacks and exotic products that we don't have any idea how to use.

The basis of my dish could be groats, rice or pasta. I chose wholemeal penne. Grilled courgette, goat cheese, cherry tomatoes and black olives meant that the dish almost jumped onto the fork by itself. Even my children appreciated it.

Ingredients (for 4 people):
200g of wholemeal penne
2 small courgettes (about 500g)
100g of goat cheese with herbs for salads
16 cherry tomatoes
12 olives
4 sprigs of rosemary
3 tablespoons of oil
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of olive oil with chili pepper
half a clove of garlic
salt and pepper

In defiance of the outside weather, which reminds me more of October than April, on my table there are green things. I prepared beautiful green soup with spinach and a hint of garlic and served with hard-boiled egg. What a pity that I discovered it only now because it could be a light alternative to sour rye soup or borsch for Easter dinner.

I found the inspiration for preparing this soup in the "My cooking" newspaper. The dish looks extremely spring-like and decorative. Maybe it sounds trivial, but you should remember to clean the spinach thoroughly and remove the thick, hard stems. Grinding sand and unblended grains effectively ruin the tasty effect of the soup.

Ingredients:
400g of spinach
3 cloves of garlic
half an onion
2 potatoes
1l of vegetable stock
1 tablespoon of butter
100ml of 18% sweet cream
4 eggs

To this day I don't know how I managed to buy duck thighs instead of chicken ones. I only realised that I didn't have what I went out for when I was back home, standing at my fridge. Thinking that in any case it would be roasted, I decided not to go back to the shop to change it. After all, poultry is poultry. Thanks to this mistake, my Sunday dinner was princely.

I like the combination of meat with fruit. I usually add dried fruit when I roast pork neck, and I add apples with marjoram to fried chicken liver. This time I also used this proven method and I roasted my duck thighs with apples, oranges and cranberries. A hint of garlic and marjoram in the roasted meat completed the dish.

Ingredients:
4 duck thighs
2 tablespoons of marjoram
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of mustard
1 tablespoon of honey
3 tablespoons of oil
1 teaspoon of butter
4 cloves of garlic (unpeeled)
salt and pepper
fruit
4 apples
2 oranges
3 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of butter
a fistful of cranberries

There are dishes which we associate with particular extras. In my home a joint of meat has always been served with potatoes and horseradish or mustard; frikadelles with carrot and peas; and fish with sauerkraut. Even though I can imagine that roast chicken is excellent with fried beetroot, I will automatically serve it with lettuce and cream, and pork chops with cucumber salad.

Cooking stereotypes, or if you prefer - traditions, are nice to follow, but without a bit of madness there wouldn't be so many interesting and surprising combinations. Today I would like to share with you another way to serve traditional frikadelles. Of course, hamburgers aren't my idea (which is a pity because the financial profits would let me sleep better) and I associate them mostly with fast food restaurants. In pictures they look beautiful, but in reality we often get a sandwich which looks like somebody sat on it. Try to prepare it yourself at home. Your children will be delighted with this kind of dinner.

Apparently, hamburgers should be made from beef. Each to his own. I prefer something more exquisite so I use turkey. Choose for yourself. You can bake the roll at home or buy your favourite. I chose a kaiser roll with sesame seeds because we like them the most.

Ingredients:
frikadelles
350g of mince turkey
1 small onion
1 clove of garlic
250ml of milk
1 egg
1 dry kaiser roll
1 teaspoon of herby pepper
breadcrumbs
salt

Sometimes we find a recipe so splendid in its simplicity that we wonder why we didn't come across it earlier. We try it, and the prepared dish is like a poem. Then we would like to say the same as Mr. Zagłoba (one of the main characters in the most important Polish Trilogy by Henryk Sienkiewicz): "I, in all modesty, did it". This time it was the same.

In a culinary magazine I found an autumn recipe by Agnieszka Maciąg for baked white sausage with vegetables. Inspired, I prepared my own version of this dish. I didn't buy raw white sausage, which is a good idea because preparing the meal with ready white sausages is significantly less time consuming. You can use raw ones, but they take longer to bake.

Ingredients:
6 white sausages
1 red pepper
1 small courgette
2 shallots
4 cloves of garlic (in shells)
2 bunches small tomatoes
4 sprigs of rosemary
1 lemon
2 tablespoon of row sesame oil