When the stalls were buckling under the weight of all the fruit and vegetables, I prepared a couple of small jars with spicy apricot jam. I regret that I prepared so little, because the jam was so yummy and now it is only a memory. Next year I have to make lots of jam, or hide it cleverly and serve it when the autumn is finished and we need to cheer ourselves up. This jam looks like summer in a jar. It is strong, a bit spicy and sweet and sour. It was excellent with fresh bread and goat cottage cheese. I recommend it for winter breakfast.

The recipe for this jam comes from the magazine "Moje gotowanie" ("My cooking").

Ingredients:
750g of apricots
0.5kg of yellow tomatoes
chili pepper
50ml of lemon juice
50g of brown sugar

For a long time I haven't made fried pies or pancakes. Now is the time to catch up. I started the pancake season with a very autumnal dish. I recommend pancakes with chestnut flour, figs and goat cheese. I added walnuts and a bit of date syrup. Serve this dish to your family for autumn weekend breakfast. You will chase off the autumn blues.

I learnt how to make the original dish in France some years ago. The pancakes were made only with chestnut flour, water and salt. They were big, similar to crepes, fried almost without fat and served with spicy cottage cheese. My pancakes were smaller and thicker, but the slightly smoky caramel flavour is almost the same.

Ingredients:
200g of chestnut flour
150ml of water
150ml of milk
1 tablespoon of potato flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
for serving: goat cheese, figs, walnuts, date syrup

Recently, in a friendly market, I found a nice little courgette. I haven't seen them before. It is strange because every kind of courgette in the autumn and winter season is my favourite vegetable. Before I could decide what to do with the little courgettes, I already had some of them in my bag. It seemed to me the courgettes should stay whole, so as to fully enjoy their interesting shape. I decided to prepare the courgettes as simply as possible. I roasted them in a fragrant, spicy tomato sauce with smoked bacon. The grated mozzarella cheese was the finishing touch to my excellent dish. You can prepare a vegetarian version of this meal – just don't add the smoked bacon. Your dinner will also be great.

Ingredients (for 2 people)
1 tin of tomatoes
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
chili pepper
2 twigs of rosemary
2 twigs of thyme
100g of smoked bacon
8-10 small courgettes
150g of mozzarella cheese
basil leaves

Do you like rice with apples? I do. Sometimes I prepare this dish for winter supper for my children. I like it when the rice is slightly overcooked and very hot. I serve it with stewed apples and cold natural yoghurt. I thought that this dish would be similar to risotto. This time I prepared a sweet-coconut version of risotto with apples. An interesting addition was the crunchy coconut crumble topping. Unfortunately, I ate very little of the risotto, because my son ate most of it.

Ingredients:
risotto:
120g of arborio rice
400ml of coconut milk
250ml of water
a piece of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of butter
fruit
3 big apples
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
crumble topping
40g of desiccated coconut
20g of butter
1 tablespoon of sugar

The season for sleepy mornings is open. Today I tried to prepare breakfast porridge and morning coffee. I must have been very sleepy because I put the first teaspoon of instant coffee into the porridge instead of to my favourite cup. My first idea was to throw out the porridge but I decided to try it. Milk and coffee make a great couple, don't they? I discovered that coffee porridge is excellent. I don't know if my mornings will always be just as sleepy, but I will make coffee porridge more than once.

Ingredients (for 1 person)
250 ml of milk
4-5 teaspoons of oatmeal
2 teaspoons of instant coffee
3-4 tablespoons of maple syrup
fruit