We start to celebrate Shrovetide from Fat Thursday. Tuesday - known in Poland as "herring day" - is the last day of Shrovetide and carnival. It is a day on which we can have a royal time before Lent. In Poland the name of this day comes from one of the Lent dishes – herrings.

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a dish with herrings – it is a recipe for anyone who likes herrings as much as we do. You can prepare mini shortbread bowls for "herring day" or any other day. You could also use the idea for the stuffing as a salad. Use as many ingredients as you need for your meal.

Ingredients:
version 1
apple
fennel
chives
French mustard
honey
herrings in oil
Dice the apple and fennel. Mix them with the chopped chives. Spice it up with the French mustard and honey. Stir. Cut the herrings into small pieces. Put the salad on the bottom of some shortbread bowls. Put the herring pieces on top.

Borscht is one of our favourite soups. My children like it with small dumplings the most. This version can compete only with borscht with pasties. Sometimes I prepare small, yeasty pasties with sauerkraut which my children call "kapuśniaczki". They are time-consuming because the yeasty dough has its own requirements.

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for quick pasties with French pastry with sauerkraut. They were excellent. I also recommend preparing them with lentils, which also go very well with borscht.

Ingredients (20 pasties)
1 pack of chilled French pastry
2 tablespoons of milk
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds or nigella
stuffing
0.5kg of sauerkraut
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
200g of smoked bacon
1 teaspoon of caraway seeds
2 tablespoons of butter
salt and pepper

Everybody who every day wakes up early oversleeps at least once. I don't like such mornings. I know how much time I need to get my children and me ready and deviations from the routine cause a nervous atmosphere. Recently my daughter overslept. She ran to and fro nervously between the bedroom and bathroom, and didn't go into the kitchen once. It is obvious that if a teenager has to choose between washing and eating, she chooses the first one.

My housemates don't go out without breakfast, so this time I decided to help my raging daughter and prepared breakfast for her. It had to be a fast dish which she could grab and without wasting a second go to school. She only called out, "Thanks mum!", gave me a farewell peck on the cheek. There wasn't time for more.

It is ridiculous to talk about the recipe for this dish. The breakfast consists of a croissant (it may be a roll), a lettuce leaf, a slice of ham, scrambled eggs and chives. Everybody, even those who don't like the kitchen, has their own recipe for scrambled eggs. For this breakfast prepare scrambled eggs the way you like them or according to the amount of time you have.

Ingredients:
croissant
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of butter
leaf of lettuce
a slice of ham
1 tablespoon of chopped chives
salt and pepper

Breakfast should be the most important meal of the day. During the week it is difficult. People who wake up at the last minute and quickly drink a cup of coffee know it best. During the weekend when we have a bit more time, we more often celebrate our breakfast. We enjoy each other's company, cooking together and eating slowly. We like languorous mornings.

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for breakfast omelette with green peas and smoked salmon. My daughter likes this combination the most. You could leave out the smoked salmon or you could have smoked ham instead.

Ingredients (for one big omelette)
3 eggs
3 tablespoons of milk
2 tablespoons of Parmesan
4 tablespoons cooked green peas
1 tablespoon of butter
100g of smoked salmon
lettuce
cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons of capers
2 tablespoons of chopped chives

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.