When a young couple starts their own home, they bring to it their own customs and habits, but also flavours from their home kitchens. Grandma's cake, a roast according to aunty's recipe, liqueur made by grandpa – everybody carries these tastes in their mind, and despite changes in life, would like to memorise, nurture and pass them on to their own children. The young housewife's cookery books are a combination of recipes for dishes from different homes, countries and cultures.

Today's recipe has a history like that. I received it from my husband's mum. It tastes best with horseradish or marinated mushrooms.

Ingredients:
600g of hake fillet
2 stale bread rolls
1 onion
2 tablespoons of butter
300ml of milk
A bunch of parsley
2 eggs
1.5 teaspoons of salt and pepper

Despite the name ("kapuśniaczek" in Polish it can mean small drops of rain as well) and the situation outside the window, today's entry isn't about the weather.

I received this recipe for yeasty buns stuffed with sauerkraut from the good ghost of our house. Miss Ania – called grandma by our children – has brought us a lot of dainties like Russian dumplings, cakes and small buns with sauerkraut. You can prepare a vegetarian version with sauerkraut and onion as the filling, or a meat version with sausages or bacon. They are tasty hot with borscht, but I like them cold. you may sprinkle the top of the buns with your favourite seasoning: poppy seeds, sesame seeds or caraway seeds.

Ingredients:
stuffing:
0.5 kg of sauerkraut
1 big onion
2 tablespoons of butter
1 bay leaf
2 allspices
2 pepper seeds
1 teaspoon of caraway seeds
200g of sausages or bacon

Hummus has been a staple ingredient of Middle East food for thousands of years. It is a kind of starter, a paste prepared from chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, garlic and lemon juice. You may use it as a spread for pita bread or as a side dish for meat or vegetable dishes.

I make two types of "hummus". One with just the basic ingredients and another with dried tomatoes. You may add some parsley or dill so that your spread will be a nice green color. In my son's kindergarten the teachers have been trying to introduce hummus to the kids' diet. Unfortunately, so far this has been unsuccessful, which is too bad because it is an excellent source of magnesium, phosphorus and iron.

When preparing this spread you may start by making tahini. You need to dry-roast some sesame seeds (put a lid on the frying pan so that they don't go brown and make the spread bitter) and then blend them with oil. I take a short cut by blending the dry-roasted sesame seeds together with the chickpeas.

Version 1
Ingredients:
1 tin of chickpeas
3 tablespoons of sesame seeds
2 tablespoons of oil
1 clove of garlic
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
salt and pepper

There are dishes which taste just as great hot as they do served cool. Do you like roast chicken? It is fantastic hot and flavoursome for dinner but tastes excellent cold in a salad. Pork chops with potatoes –the most famous Polish dinner bar none – is liked by everyone. Now imagine it in a crusty "Kaiser" roll with fresh tomato during a picnic. It sounds fantastic, doesn't it?

Another dish you may serve and eat hot or cold is Greek-style fish. Despite its name, it isn't known by the Greeks, but in my opinion they should try it.

Ingredients (for two people):
300g of white fish filets
2 carrots
2 parsley roots
half a celery
2 onions
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of tomato concentrate
2 bay leaves
3 allspices
salt and pepper

There are some products which you can't stop eating. For example, crisps, nuts, small cookies and popcorn at the cinema. Notwithstanding how many you put in the bowl, you have to eat everything. Is it the same for you? When we go to the cinema we even try to restrict ourselves. We go up to the counter with strong determination and willpower: I would like a small portion of popcorn and a small cola please." What is the answer? "If you pay 3 zloty more you can get a large portion of popcorn and a medium drink." What do we do? We buy them of course. It is only 3 zloty. So much for willpower. Then for a month we are fed up of popcorn and again we have strong determination that next time...

We know that salty snacks aren't healthy. Too much fat and salt and large portions disagree with everyone. When we plan a home film viewing, we can prepare our own popcorn which is less fatty and salty than at the cinema.

It is easy to make crisps in your own kitchen as well. I propose using kale for this.

Kale is a kind of cabbage. It contains the biggest amount of calcium of all the vegetables, and also doesn't contain oxalates. It is a valuable ingredient in preventing osteoporosis. Kale is a source of phosphorus, iron and ascorbic acid. Among the most popular vegetables only pepper contains more.