A few weeks ago we spent one Sunday evening gathering walnuts. Two big trees and under them a carpet of leaves and walnuts. Literally, it was difficult to take a step and not crush any of the nutty treasure. When harvesting walnuts the whole family should take part. It soon turned, however, out that this activity is rather unexciting and our children's help was infinitesimal. I think that lack of motivation played a large part. Unlike us, our children don't like walnuts. Nonetheless, we managed to do it and for the next few days a significant part of our big living room was occupied by drying walnuts. Now packed in transparent sacks, they are waiting for winter.

Due to the abundance of this nutty treasure, I started to look for recipes with walnuts. For the first dishes I prepared morning porridge, salads and cakes. Today, inspired by the "arabeskawaniliowa" blog, I propose a classical combination of bananas, walnuts and chocolate. This set of ingredients puts me in mind of late autumn, when it is difficult to get seasonal fruits.

Ingredients:

100g of butter

320g of sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

3 big bananas

340g of flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

Even though I have lived in Warsaw since the day I was born, Praga has always been for me just a working district. For walks and sightseeing I preferred not to go there. Lately, by chance, I discovered that this was a big mistake. A few days ago I went walking along the unique streets of the Szmulki District. This disreputable part of Praga turned out to be a treasure. I found there remote and recent history, relics and some elements of modern architecture.

The name "Szmulowizna" comes from the owner of the local grounds Szmul (Samuel) Jakubowicz Sonnenberg, alias Zbytkower – a Jewish merchant, banker and protégé of the Polish king Stanisław August Poniatowski. This rich Warsaw Jew made big money from deliveries for the Russian army. In the beginning Zbytkower's farm name was Bojnówek, but later on, together with the surrounding parts (village and tavern), he adopted the owner's name, Szmulowizna. With the passage of time, the Szmulowizna grounds developed and industrial and residential buildings were built. Jewish families made up a significant part of the population living there.

After World War II, the flats left by Jewish families were taken over by poor people from Warsaw's suburbs, and the Praga neighborhood, Szmulki in particular - despite industrial and transport development - gained notoriety.  Today, after many years without proper care, the old houses have started to regain their old appearance. New housing estates are being built on Szmulki. Here you may find the longest building in Warsaw. The 508-meter-long apartment building is located near Kijowska street.

In the years 1907-1923, following Łukasz Wolski's design and with the support of the Radziwiłł family, a church was built, which was given the honourable name of Basilica. Accordingly to its founders wishes, starting from 1931, Salesians would take care of this building and do all the priestly work. Basilica was the biggest church in pre-war Warsaw. The temple is 65 meters in length, with a width of 30 meters, and is 22 meters high. Its size makes a really huge impression. Pope Pius XI used to say that this temple was the most beautiful church in Poland. Today the inside of the renovated Basilica is used as a concert hall.

It seems to happen that shortly after candles and chrysanthemums disappear from shopping shelves, they begin to be full of Christmas trees, Christmas baubles and Santas. Every year this process starts earlier. In my opinion, merchants try to make us believe that if there are only two months until Christmas, you need to hurry up. Maybe we should bake ginger bread and buy carp already?

For sure you have dishes on your home menu which are on the table only for special occasions. In my home this dish, among others, is vegetable salad. I don't know why I prepare it so rarely; mainly just for Christmas. The ingredients are simple, available all year around and preparation is not really complicated. In my family's opinion, vegetable salad is the queen among all salads. It doesn't have a spectacular appearance, unique recipe or secret ingredients, yet I don't know anybody who doesn't like it.

Everybody knows the ingredients. The secret of every housewife is proportions which mean that the net result is sweet, spicy or dry. My salad is rather sweet and made a little more spicy by adding mustard.

Ingredients:

4 carrots

3 parsley roots

1 tin of peas

8 dill pickles

Since 1991, every year on 11 November there has been a street festival on St Martin Street. This day alludes to the medieval St Martin's Day. St. Martin was a bishop from Tours; a patron of children, hoteliers, riders, cavalry, hatters, smiths, tailors, millers, travellers, prisoners, beggars and soldiers. Traditionally on St Martin's Day in Poznań, people eat cakes called rogal świętomarciński and goose.

Goose breeding in Poland has a long tradition, reaching back to the XVII century. Nowadays, goose is treated as a posh, gourmet product and it really isn't one of the cheapest dishes around. Sometimes it is worth giving in to temptation because the taste of this meat is excellent. Not many people know that Poland is the biggest goose producer in Europe, and, along with apples and oscypek (local Polish sheep's cheese), organic goose meat has a chance to become a symbol of our cuisine.

Today's proposal for preparing goose thighs was inspired by Karol Okrasa. It takes quite a long time to roast, but thanks to this the goose fat renders, leaving the skin thin and juicy, and the meat soft.

Ingredients:

4 goose thighs

2 tablespoons of thyme

200ml of apple juice

200ml of apple cider

Salt and pepper

8 slices of American bacon

fistful of dried cranberries

I had my guard up. I didn't want it, but it was sitting on a market stall, tempting me. Beautiful, big, with intensively orange pulp – a pumpkin. It enticed me once again, even though I have used a lot of them this year. Fortunately, the best season for pumpkins is in October and November, so we will have a chance to miss them until they come back again next year.

I have made soups and pancakes with pumpkins, and this time I decided to make a pumpkin salad. Preparing this dish is extremely simple and lasts as long as it takes to bake the pumpkin. If you plan on preparing this salad, you should bake the pumpkin earlier. The pumpkin should cool down before you mix it with the rest of the ingredients. It is up to you how you serve this dish. It is essentially a salad but I served it on toast.

The inspiration for this pumpkin salad was taken from a cookery book by Mlekowita.

Ingredients:

Salad

0.5kg of pumpkin

1 red pepper

1 tablespoon of dried thyme

200g of feta cheese

100g of butter

1 tablespoon of light wine vinegar

2 tablespoons of olive oil

salt and pepper

some leaves of fresh basil