Eclairs with vanilla filling



After watching an episode of the Polish edition of Masterchef in which the participants prepared eclairs I thought- well well, I have never made eclairs, how do they make them, anyway? I do not actually remember anybody inviting me and offering homemade eclairs. Indeed, hundreds of times there were cheesecakes, cookies, tarts, poppy seed cakes, and even donuts, but eclairs? My assumption was that you buy eclairs at the bakery...
Well, after conducting short interviews with friends and searching on the Internet I found out that ... people make eclairs! And they are not too difficult to make! So I accepted the challenge and this weekend I baked eclairs ... and they even turned out pretty good :) ... the disadvantage is that they are a bit time-consuming, but if you care about baking at home rather than buying it ready-made from the store ... it's nothing difficult!

Orange Hot Chocolate



Today morning on my way to the supermarket I heard a talk of two ladies: "...so I have magnesium deficiency...", "And what are you going to do?", "I am taking the magnesuim dietary supplements.". At once I thought about dark chocolate :) It's a rich source of magnesium. It also helps to improve memory, brightens your mind and boosts your energy level. It's also a good way to warm up in cold days. Besides, we cannot allow ourselves to let our magnesium level go rapidly down, can we? :) But seriously, we should not overuse chocolate of course, but today I allowed myself to have a moment of pleasure with a cup of orange hot chocolate. If you've never tried you DEFINITELY should! 

Polish Shortbread Mini Croissants with Plum Marmalade



It's one of the old recipes from my mum's notebook which she got from her colleague at work. I came across quite a dilema while translating the name of the dough the croissants are made of. It says in the notebook that it's "half-puff pastry" but I think it's much closer in the texture to shortbread and that's why I've decided to stick to it. If somebody knows about the exact name for this pastry in English please let me know in your comments!
Irrespective of the name, the croissants were extremely popular during our last family gathering. They are really delicious and literally melt in your mouth. If you add you home made plum marmalade (which I don't have this year, unfortunately)- they will disappear from the table very fast :)   

Red lentil soup


This soup is really easy and quick to prepare, and on top of that it consists almost only of fresh vegetables. I've recently found out that it's better to use fresh tomatoes instead of buying canned tomato paste in order to prepare soups and sauces. You can just buy fresh tomatoes, chop them, cook and blend. There's a big difference in the taste of fresh tomatos and tamato paste. If just like me, you did not have so much time in the summer to prepare you own tomato preserve in jars you can still get a similar result by using the fresh ones! I do not peel tomatoes and press them through the sieve on purpose. I believe that the most valuable vitamins are right under the skin, so why to get rid of them?! Besides the soup tastes better with some chunks to bite :)

Hot Ginger Lemonade


Hippocrates used to say that the food should be our medicine and that's why it is worth including ginger in our everyday diet- not olny due to its delicious taste but also because of its incredible medical properties. Since it's the season for cold and flue, it should be mentioned in the first place that ginger helps to recover from cold and flue and helps to prevent from getting sick. Ginger also helps to improve the blood circulation, concentration, fights migranes, travel sickness and joint problems.    
Ginger is widely known as a spice for cooking and baking but it can also be used for making hot infusions. Today I am sharing with you my favourite recipe for the delicious ginger lemonade.