Land of deliciousness.

So that it doesn't look like I despise the entire British cuisine, I'm following up the post from last week (you can read it here) with this list of delicious foods that I have discovered after moving to the UK. And there is a bunch of those! 

Trifle is by far my favourite dessert. I still haven't got the guts to try making it myself, but I've been known to eat the entire 6-serving bowl all on my own. I wouldn't recommend it, it might make you sick. But this is as much as I love trifle. For those of you who are not familiar with this concept, trifle is three layers of deliciousness: sponge, fruit and custard topped up with whipped cream.

On a similar note, I absolutely adore rhubarb crumble. I love the the combination of rather tart rhubarb which melts in a mouth with a sweet and a little crisp topping. It takes minutes to assemble and I really enjoy it topped with cream. Or custard. Though I think I prefer cream, it adds an extra flavour which is not purely sweet. It's a shame really that rhubarb is in season for such a short time, I can never get enough rhubarb when it's around.

Baked beans are a controversial one here. I know many people who have rather strong feelings about them. As far as I'm concerned, baked beans are a staple in my kitchen cupboards. Delicious for breakfast, can be easily turned into a quick dinner if need be. I love the convenience of those little tins.

Mr Magic got me a selection of cheeses for birthday a couple of years ago and I loved stilton, especially paired with almond and cherry toast. Apparently stilton is the king of English cheeses and I'm ready to believe that. Blue cheeses are not everybody's thing, but stilton is amazing, superior to gorgonzola in my opinion. I would happily eat it on its own as an afternoon snack.

Here it is then, I told you English cuisine is not all grim and unappealing. There are so many things that I've grown used to over the years. What is your favourite English food?

Land of culinary disappointments.

I love this country, but England is not on the top of my list for good food. When we travel, an Italian place is usually a safe culinary choice. Pizza and pasta are delicious. "Traditional English food" is not something I would be naturally attracted to. And this is because I have experienced so many culinary disappointments here! More so than in any other place where I spent an extended period of time. Here they are, in no particular order.

Tea

British people drink 165 million cups of tea each day. Before moving to the UK, I thought it was a land of delicious tea. I couldn't be more wrong. Most tea drunk at homes around the country is nothing more than a bag of powdered leaves with no taste whatsoever. It's only when I started buying more upscale tea that I could truly enjoy a cuppa. 

Fish and chips

This was another great disappointment, regardless where I eat, be it a chippy a pub or a restaurant, there is always too much batter on the fish and the chips are no good. I'm not sure why people religiously visit fish and chips shops on Friday nights rather than opt for something more tasty and more nutritious.

Bread

Most of bread in Poland is delicious and there is so much variety that is readily available in every bakery. Here, sliced toast bread is everywhere and I hate it. It has no taste, it doesn't hold any shape and there is no nutritional value in this bread. Thankfully, many places now sell sourdough and different types of bread which are actually nice. Even packed Polish bread sold in some supermarkets is better, with plenty of seeds and dense texture. And you can learn to make bread. I made a few attempts at making buttermilk soda bread. Delicious!

Sausages

I don't eat meat anymore, but when I did. sausages were a big disappointment. I couldn't really taste any meat at all in them. Just a blended mass of something gray. Even sausages from the butcher's are not amazing most of the time. I was generally not that keen on processed meats of any kind here.

Bread and butter pudding
This last one is a disappointment, because it such a hit and miss.I had some really tasty bread and butter puddings and some extremely stodgy and excessively sweet blocks of stale bread. Not impressive. Maybe I should try making it myself.

I feel like I need to follow this post up next week with all the delicious food that I only discovered when I moved to England. And there are many dishes that I enjoy. So stay tuned for next week.

Prepping for the Move: The kitchen.

I will be moving in a couple of weeks so I really need to try to declutter as much as I can as early as I can so that when it comes to the move itself, I can just pack up what I need rather than spend that little amount of time I will have thinking if I really need certain items. I have already shared my wardrobe declutter some time ago (I will definitely need round two of that) and now I'm sorting out my kitchen.

I will have more storage space in the new kitchen, but I really don't want to clutter it up with stuff I don't use. And so I've started a process of working out what I needed and what I could live without. Some things I had in my cupboards and decided to let them go. Some I've considered buying for a long time, but now I'm set on not getting any more stuff unless I can justify it properly. I have a plan for that kitchen so everything needs to fit into the designated cupboards. Here's my kitchen master plan:

And now for the kitchen declutter.

Appliances

Blender: I'm still considering buying a proper high powered blender, because I would like to make my own hummus and such stuff rather than keep buying ready made products from the store, but it's an investment of around £400, so I put that one on hold for now. I used to have a standing blender with three different types of attachments, but it was too bulky and took so much space while being rarely used that I've decided to sell it. I have an electric whisk for when I make cakes and a hand blender for making soup in winter. 

Waffle maker/panini press etc: I have to confess I used to be so into such stuff. Isn't that cute to make waffles on Sunday morning? But in reality, this is not what I do, so these sort of things needed to go, and fast.

Utensils

Knife set: Really, who needs 10 different knife types? I have four different knifes with different blade types and lengths, I might reduce the number to three actually, thinking about it now. That's sufficient for all my needs.

Single use tools: Egg separator/ poached egg maker, citrus press, egg slicer, apple corer, little nutmeg grater, pizza cutter. Generally anything that relates to egg preparation is largely redundant. You literally need two hands to separate the yolk from the white. All of the other items are also easily replaceable with more versatile kitchen utensils. My parents have (multiple) pizza cutters. I literally see no point in that: I cut pizza into slices using my regular kitchen knife, I find it much easier. As a rule of thumb, if you can do it with a knife, use a knife. And if you can use your hands, use your hands. 

Rolling pin is another one. Many a time I thought of buying one, you can get these cute thin wooden ones or those proper old school rolling pins with ceramic surface, but in all honesty, I've always used a wine bottle to roll out the pastry.

Multiples

I do need more than one set of cutlery, more than one plate and a mug, but do I really need five different wooden spatulas in addition to a turner and a skimmer? In short, no I don't. I rarely need two spatulas/spoons at a time. Also those wooden slotted spoons are impossible to clean properly.

I've also got rid of multiple chopping boards. I have a glass board, a plastic board and a smaller wooden board. The first one functions more as a surface protector than anything, the other one I use for chopping veggies etc, the last one is for bread. Simple. I suppose not eating meat helps, because I don't need yet another board for that purpose.

Random stuff

Coffee/tea mugs that are mismatched or you don't love + wine glasses and other glasses: I have gin glasses, and 5 wine glasses out of a set of 6 (no clue what happened to the 6th one). The thing is, I don't really drink at home, I don't really drink that much at all really, so I don't think there is much point in keeping so many of those. I have actually purchased a set of four glasses that can serve all the purposes of all the other glasses I had, so that I have less things in my kitchen.

I'm not even near tackling all the foods in my cupboards yet. It will be a massive task. I have a lot of food. I mean it. But that's for another time.

Culinary adventures in Shrewsbury.

The last time I visited Shrewsbury was a couple of months into my first year at uni and I didn't have much chance to actually explore the town at all. Now that I have spent the entire week here on my second school experience, I tried to make most of it and actually visit some of the restaurants that sprung up here in the meantime, and some that have been here for ages, but I never knew about them.

I've managed to visit two and both experiences have been brilliant.

Momo No Ki
This is a noodle bar in a lovely location just opposite Shrewsbury Abbey. You can either choose one of the pre-set options, or "pimp your noodle" and choose your own combination. I went for the latter option and had udon noodles with yakisoba sauce, peanut sprinkles and tofu.

I must say that the waitress Rebecca has made my visit particularly memorable: she patiently explained the food choices and even helped me to pick the best dessert ever. I was the only person in the restaurant for a while, since I've opted for an early supper, but she made me feel at ease.

Out goes sugar-free.

But this was the most delicious dessert.

From the left, lemon curd, pistachio cake and dark chocolate mousse

Another thing that I really liked about Momo No Ki was the music: a mix of jazz and mellow pop, ideal for relaxing after a stressful first day at school.

La Laterna is a little gem, tucked away behind St Alkmund's Church, with an unassuming entrance and delicious food. It was truly like a piece of Italy in the middle of Shropshire. Have a look:

A cosy interior...

As for the food, it was really good as well. I had Bruschetta Pomodoro for a starter, Ravioli ai funghi for main and homemade tiramisu for dessert.

Add a cheeky glass of house white wine and you have a perfect evening over marking Year 10 mini-assessments. BTW, this is a great conversation starter, it turned out that the waiter has done a Music PGCE, so we chatted a bit about the illusion of long teacher holiday and the pressure of GCSE results.

There are two other places that I really wanted to give a try, but didn't have enough time (or money!): Umami (Japanese restaurant) and AleOli (Spanish tapas café). Hopefully if I'm ever in Shrewsbury again I will have a chance to visit those two.

One more discovery: almond milk latte at Starbucks. It's so delicious. You need to pay an extra 40p for it, but I find it much nicer and definitely kinder to my tummy than regular milk latte.

No more sugar.

I decided to quit sugar for a variety of reasons. It coincided with my body image issues and reducing sugar consumption could lead directly to weight-loss (or at least no weight-gain), so it seemed like a relatively easy option. It was also because the medication that I was taking at the time could lead to increased appetite and I was conscious of my struggle to only have one biscuit. It was also because since childhood, Dad kept saying that sugar is white death (together with salt and flour), so you should avoid sugary foods.

And so I've dumped sugar in favour of protein and healthy fats. I got really creative with my baking, replacing sugar with malt syrup. Veggies filled my fridge and random bits of healthy foods took place in the cupboard.

Is it easy? Not at all.

You do require quite a bit of free will to resist all the rice puddings, biscuits, cakes

Is it worth it? Certainly.

You might ask why all that fuss, but I do believe that you are what you eat, so diet is something that I pay particular attention to now.

There's been visible benefits already. I'm generally less hungry and less tired. I did, admittedly, get a little grumpy for a while, but I'm slowly overcoming this. My body slowly realises, that sugar will not be its fuel. I'm more mindful of what I eat. Quick fixes (see that ready-made pizza) still happen, but much less frequently. I don't get headaches so much if I don't have time to eat regularly. Wins all on sides.

The key is to be reasonable and kind to yourself. I do eat normal desserts sometimes. But I take even more pleasure with them, and I appreciate them more, because it is such an usual occurrence these days.

And now for the recipes.

I've been exploring IQS website and there's been quite a few good finds on there. My favourite is pumpkin protein bars. I was sceptical, and modified the recipe slightly (no protein powder, and baked the thing for 30 minutes), but the result is really tasty, perfectly satisfying all my cravings in the morning. Sweet potato brownies were not bad either, but next time I will actually melt the chocolate rather than keep it in bits to make up for the lack of the slow cooker.

And so I continue the sugar free adventures. Experiments on the horizon include energy balls and pumpkin amaranth porridge!

Portsmouth Vegan Festival.

I'm not vegan, but when I found out there was a vegan festival just across the water, it was too good an opportunity to miss. I'm really into all sorts of alternative diets, maybe except raw vegan diet, so I was really excited about going to the Festival and trying all the delicious food. The venue was absolutely packed, and the queue outside ridiculously long, which probably proves how much demand there is for such events.

I have to say that cake and chocolate were the dominant food item at the stalls. No complaints here, I absolutely love cake. There was sheer insanity of different types of sweet treats, starting with classic cakes, like banoffee, through tarts, cheesecakes and biscuits, to energy balls and protein bars.

Cake! And more cake!

I tried blueberry no-cheesecake from the South Coast Confectionary. It was my first vegan cheesecake and I can't tell I was particularly impressed. The thing it, the cake was not particularly bad or anything (though the base made of dates was overly sweet and too strong a taste for my liking), but it just lacked the wonderful creaminess that a normal cheesecake has. It was sweet and did the job as an after lunch dessert, but I wouldn't actively choose it to have it again. Despite the high sugar content, I didn't want another piece. So I'm not particularly convinced by vegan baking: honey cinnamon cookies are fine, but in general I feel like I do prefer to have an option of adding eggs, butter or cream cheese in.

Jackfruit was a great mystery to both my friend and myself, but it was everywhere! Apparently you can use as a substitute for anything, so we had bbq jackfruit bap. Interesting flavours, though I enjoyed kale coleslaw the most (rather surprisingly, because I'm not particularly fond of kale). Another discovery involves seitan, though this resembled fatty parts of meat too much for my liking.

Apart from food stalls, there were some stalls with assorted jewellery, vegan clothing, health and beauty products, animal rights information and so on.

 There were cookery demos as well: we went to Easy raw vegan dinner. I must say that although I could probably be convinced by raw chocolate and avocado mousse, raw curry is definitely a no-no. It simply doesn't taste like a curry, but rather like an overly-spiced salad. Not nice at all. Curry should be cooked, that's sort of the point of curry. However, there were some great things to eat there, for instance I gave sweet potatoes brownies a go and those were delicious.

This stall had sweet potato brownies, which I'm determined to make at some point, because they were DELICIOUS.

I have actually made the chocolate mousse at home, it's easy-peasy. Not too sweet, which is a good thing, because I'm quitting sugar (more about it in the near future). Definitely doesn't taste like a proper chocolate mousse, but it's good enough to satisfy my evening dessert cravings and can be classed as healthy, since it has avocados and (added) chia seeds.

Will I go to a vegan festival again? Definitely yes. There's a lot to see and learn there, even though I have no intention to actually go fully vegan. Eggs for breakfast help me to get through the day and the prospect of scrambled tofu is not particularly appealing. But it's definitely an interesting experience.

My top tips?

1. Get there early: to avoid standing at the back of a massive queue.
2. Get there hungry: because there is so much food to try, you really want to have enough space for a few snacks.
3. Get  round the entire venue first, if possible, to get a general feel as to what there is and what you would like to try.
4. Make most of the demos and talks.
5. Keep hydrated: I got a terrible headache that day, because in all this madness I forgot to drink!
6. Have your own containers to get some goodies back home and reduce waste at the same time.

A list of vegan festivals can be found here.

Trying to (b)eat the beet.

I love veggies, but one thing that I can't stand at all is beetroot.

It's simply the most revolting vegetable in the world.

And I did try my best to get to like the beets. I tried beetroot brownies, beetroot salad, beetroot this and beetroot that. All in vain. Beetroot still presents an insurmountable obstacle, in whatever form it appears on my plate.

The only beet related food that I can actually eat is beetroot soup that my mum makes. I will happily have it any time of the year. And that's  it. Beetroot in any other form cannot even physically get near to me. I mean it. The one time a piece of beetroot has made an unexpected appearance among my salad leaves, I went all pale and could not eat. Now I obsessively check the contents of salads, couscous mixes and vegetable crisps in case there is a beet hidden somewhere there. Beetroot vodka or beetroot pizza topping is definitely not for me...

Interestingly, people tend to have very black or white relationship with beetroots: you either love them or hate them. I had a friend who kept a stash in the kitchen: there were always beets there. It's beyond me why you would choose to eat a beetroot. Just to say, the search "how to make beets taste good" returns over 4 million results. Why would you eat a vegetable which needs to be so elaborately prepared to taste good? Why don't you eat a sweet potato instead? Or red pepper? Both fantastically tasty with barely any preparation.

I've given up on beets and instead I've made good friends with other vegetables. I recommend spinach and cashew pesto which is fantastic with wholemeal pasta. Spinach pesto is my go to dinner option, takes minutes to make. Simple and tasty.

It seems that I've been beaten by the beet this time. No need to worry, though, I've got enough veggies in my repertoire already. Beetroot can get lost (as long as it doesn't try doing it in my kitchen).

Easter madness.

I wake up early in the morning to start zesting 5 medium-sized oranges. Zest plus oranges after peeling end up in a pot with ridiculous amount of sugar and a three hour long process of making orange jam. Stirring oranges with one hand, I extend my right arm to put the oven on to heat it up ready for shortcrust pastry. In the meantime I cook chickpeas for hummus, drain them, try mashing them with a potato masher (this is how they must have done it for years before food processors were invented), but it doesn't work. Still stirring the oranges. I take out a food processor and put chickpeas in. Too dry, food processor is not able to manage with these. I go over to get some olive oil and tahini, stirring oranges on my way there. Finally I decide to add some cold water to my chickpea mix, the consistency begins to look more like hummus and less like shoe paste. I stir the oranges a bit more (going into the second hour of stirring).

As a little miss multitasking, I start chopping peppers for lunch. They end up in the oven instead of pastry, which still isn't made. Dad starts boiling eggs for Easter breakfast and pours colourings into four glasses. There isn't enough room in the kitchen for two people trying to prepare five different things in parallel, but there is no time to spare. I wash spinach and start wilting it down. Dad makes a horrible mess with his colourings. I decide to simply ignore it to spare my nerves. Still stirring the oranges. I quickly whip together shortcrust pastry, it ends up in the fridge to rest a little. Back to my spinach tart now, ready made puff pastry ends up in the tart form and then spinach and peppers which I managed not to burn in the oven. I pour milk and egg mixture over the vegetables. Half of it end up around the tin. The tin has a spring bottom and somehow the pastry didn't stop it from leaking. Nevermind, I shuffle the tart into the oven, praying that some o the filling will set fast enough to remain in the tin. 

Back to stirring the oranges. After three hours the mixture is thick enough to turn the hob off. Thank goodness, since I'm covered with sweet sticky orange blobs. 

Tart goes out of the oven, I quickly whiz in my two pieces of tart, there's no time to spare. Shortcrust pastry is done and cooled, so I can begin decorating. I have sliced almonds and dried figs from which some random patterns begin to emerge. It will do, the cake will disappear before anyone notices the decorations anyway. Two more cakes to make. Yeast almost grows out of the giant bowl it is in, so quickly I whisk egg yolks with sugar, mix them with yeast and flour. I put the dough aside to rest, at which point I realise I forgot about raisins. I mix those in. At least there are no oranges to stir anymore.

10 hours later, it's all done. Nothing burned (too much). Finally I sit with a cuppa, watch telly and wait until I need to leave for Easter Vigil. Gosh, I need some domestic help in the future, or simply start going on holidays for Easter. Enough of Easter madness.

My term (almost) without meat.

I tried to go vegetarian a couple of years ago and it was a total failure. I was hungry all the time and generally not determined enough to keep it up in the face of delicious meat options.

This time, it was different. I've actually really enjoyed my diet this term. Meat has appeared on my plate only a handful of times, though I still keep some fish in the menu, but will try to phase it out next term. I definitely got some more variety in my meals: butternut squash peanut curry, stir-fires, potato and leek pie, pear and Stilton tart, veggie pasta sauces, fennel risotto... These were are delicious and filling. However, kidney bean burgers were a failure on both occasions when I attempted to make them, but maybe next time I'll be more successful. 

I'm really looking forward to making black bean spinach enchiladas and maybe I'll have enough courage to make something with tofu. I still stay away from falafel: I like it a lot, but when I tried to make it from scratch it was major disaster, even more so than the kidney bean burgers.

Admittedly, being a vegetarian is inconvenient, especially if you spend a lot of time with meat-eaters. It requires some planning, because I cannot simply heat up some hot dogs, but it is healthier for me. And for the environment too. I'm not sure about arguments for vegetarianism of a sort that it is cruel and painful for the animals. It probably it, though we still have more humane methods of killing food than a few centuries ago. I probably wouldn't like to kill my food with my own hands anyway. But I do worry about the planet, we produce so much meat these days, and it is simply not sustainable. You might think what sort of a difference I make as a single person, but if each one of us decided not to eat meat on a single day each week, the impact would be huge. But the choice is yours.

I'm not one of those fighting vegetarians who will keep telling you that it is one and only proper way to live, but it's worth looking beyond our own little lives and see the bigger impact we make. There's 7bn of us. We do make a huge impact with our daily choices.

Good Ol' Apple Pie.

Who doesn't like a good old apple pie? Dutch cuisine is not the most elaborate one (mashed potatoes and cabbage seem to be two most important ingredients), but I do like Dutch apple pie. In Amsterdam there is a cafe called Winkel 43, where they serve probably the best apple pie in the city. However, making a 40 minute train trip to Amsterdam every time you feel like having a piece of an apple pie might not be the most cost-effective way to deal with your sweet tooth. Alas!

Thankfully, making an apple pie is dead simple. Here is a recipe which I used to make mine this time. I've made it in a lasagne dish 22cm x 17cm, halving all the amounts from a recipe for 22cm round cake tin.

INGREDIENTS

Pastry

150g flour + extra for dusting

60g caster sugar

salt

100g chilled butter + extra for greasing

1 egg yolk

Apple filling

1/4cupbutter

1.5 tbls flour

1/8 cup water
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar

3-4 firm apples (Elsar, Jona Gold), peeled and sliced
handful of raisins (optional)

2 tsp cinnamon

METHOD

1. Combine flour, sugar and a pinch of salt. Dice butter and mix into the floor using a knife to cut butter into smaller pieces. Add egg yolk and knead everything together. Press 2/3 of the pastry into a bottom and sides of a 24cm spring form greased with butter. Refrigerate the form and remaining dough while you make the apple filling.

2. Preheat the over to 220C.

3. Melt butter in a pan. Add flour to make paste. Then add water, white sugar and brown sugar, bring to boil and then turn down the heat and simmer for a couple of minutes.

4. Combine apples, raisins and cinnamon. Mix with half of flour mixture. Spread over the pastry base.

5. Roll out the rest of the pastry and cut into 1 cm strips. Arrange a criss-cross pattern on the top of the apple mixture, pressing the pastry edges together. Slowly pour the rest of the

6. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn down the heat to 175C and bake for another 35-45 minutes until apples are soft. Let cool down so that the filling sets.

I think that my apple pie looks rather grand.

Enjoy!

Breakfast dinner logistics.

Captain America seemed pretty excited about the concept of having breakfast for dinner and last night was the time to indulge in a delicious full English breakfast for dinner.

There's been quiet a few things that had to be prepared for this dinner: sausages, bacon, hash browns, tomatoes, eggs, toast and baked beans, so a proper action plan was necessary to make sure everything is ready when it was supposed to be.

Of course there's no picture of the dinner itself, I was too hungry and excited to take any pictures. But it was absolutely delicious and it has been actually quite relaxing to prepare it. The last time I made a full English was over a year ago I think, but then it was made for around 12 people if I remember correctly, so I guess it can be counted for a few times.

I did get weird looks when preparing baked beans, eggs and bacon at 7 pm though!

I've also had my first German pretzels adventure today. In the past yeast dough was not my favourite, but I'm getting grips of it now. Apparently real pretzels are dipped in lye solution (also known as sodium hydroxide), but after some deliberation, I've decided to try with bicarbonate soda instead. Firstly, it's much easier to find, secondly, not as poisonous, which is quite important given my clumsiness. These didn't turn out exactly like pretzels I have when I visit Munich, but it was my first attempt and I'll count it as a success (plus Captain America was absolutely delighted that I've finally made pretzels, so I can also place a tick next to making him happy box).

Fish adventures.

Twice a week there is a market in Leiden and there are quite a few fish stands there, so I thought I would eat something different than pasta this time and purchased two mackerels. One ended up in the freezer, the other one was shuffled into the oven with some courgette, onion and potato wedges as a side. Since I had no lemon at home a tangerine had to do the job and I quite liked the subtle sweetness of it. I've never actually had mackerel other than a smoked one, so I was quite curious to taste it. 

And voila! My first fish adventure has resulted in a culinary success (and a full tummy). I would definitely try trout next time, add some carrots, and probably get a smaller fish or at least share with someone (;p), but it's such a good choice for dinner: it's cheap (I paid less than 3 euro for two fish), easy and quick to prepare and tastes really good. Now I'll probably reduce the amount of chicken eaten and switch to fish a couple of days a week, especially that it's so easy to get it fresh here.

Ready to go into the oven.

Tightly wrapped in alu foil, getting delicious at 190 degrees.

Delicate and moist, here comes my healthy dinner choice.

Lemon cake

I made this cake when I was craving something sweet and had to play with what I had in my kitchen cupboards. The original recipe used more butter, sugar and flour, but since I only had 200g of butter I had to play with what I had... and it turned out delicious: light, delicate and lemony. I managed to break it when taking out of the form (too hot!), but it was a hit nonetheless. So here comes the recipe:

Cake:
200g butter
200g caster sugar
3 eggs
zest 1 lemon
200g flour
1 tsp baking powder
dried cranberries

Drizzle topping:
1 1/2  lemon juice
85g caster sugar

Method

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.
Beat together: 200g softened unsalted butter and 200g caster sugar until the mixture becomes pale and creamy. Add 4 eggs (one at a time) slowly mixing through. Sift in 200g flour, then add the finely grated zest of 1 lemon, add cranberries and mix until well combined. I baked it in a small (~20cm) bundt form (I ended up with 4 extra muffins - a loaf form would work perfectly fine too) for 45-50 mins until a thin skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Before taking the cake out of the form, wait to cool down.

Mix the juice of 1 1/2 lemon and 85g caster sugar. Prick the warm cake and pour over the drizzle. Don't worry that the cake will get too moist: it will be just fine. Leave to cool down completely and eat it all!

The biggest sign of dedication of a Polish girl.

Making pierogi for Captain American seemed a bit risky for me at first, but it was inevitable that he would be totally immersed in my Polishness at some point, so I gave it a shot. The problem with Polish food is that it is really eastern-European and I'm quite anxious about serving such things to people: not everyone is a fan of potatoes, cabbage and other things of that sort.

My mum makes pierogi in no time, but I decided not to risk my guest sitting around very hungry, so I allowed sufficient time for making this (it turned out not to be that time-consuming, but  anything could go wrong, especially that I've made them by self only once). Especially that I also had to coordinate making tiramisu at the same time. It was actually quite fun to do and to some extent even relaxing.

And here comes my pierogi adventure in pictures:

Potato peel dominated the kitchen at first.

Onions and bacon: not something that my mum adds to pierogi, but I though I would give it a go.

Potato-cottage cheese filling ready.

Dough in the making...

Cutting out circles.

Nearly there!

Done! Over 40 beautiful pierogi prepared to be boiled!

And the dinner's ready!

Yes, definitely making pierogi is one of the biggest signs of dedication of a Polish girl, especially that it results in a hurting back, tired legs and aching fingers (and flour being everywhere. As a point of advice, do not make these in black clothes). In any case, Captain America loved it all, which I accepted with a great relief. Next on the list are latkes! Om nom nom.

Kitchen express: Carrot muffins

Staying in the cake-theme, desperate to have something sweet but relatively healthy for a snack I've decided to go for muffins. Muffins are not only great because they taste so good. They hardly ever take more than 30 minutes to make (including baking time!), you can put whatever you want inside and hardly anything can go wrong. Also, you should have all the necessary ingredients at home. My recipe makes 12 medium sized muffins.

You are supposed to add 100 grams of each flour, sugar and butter, though I tend to add less butter, I think it's unnecessary to add so much fat, so I usually go for about 80 grams instead. Add 2 eggs. Then 2 peeled and grated carrots, 1 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp baking soda (unless you use self-rising flour, then add much less of  these). Sultanas & cranberries (as much as you like), some almond flakes (optionally, I just fancied using them up) and done!* Now into the muffin tin lined with muffin cup liners. The oven should be heated up to 175 C (fan) and you need to wait another 20-25 minutes until they are done. Keep them in the oven until cooked through and golden brown.

So simple. I have to say that I used to be rather suspicious when it came to adding carrots to cakes, but nothing to worry about. Carrot cakes do not taste like carrot, but carrots give it a nice texture and colour.

* if you think the batter is too runny just add a bit more flour.

Straight out from the oven.

And straight into my tummy.