Humus with or without oil

Coming Soon!

Donna's Kitchen in Viking

Jim and I were in Viking for a meeting. I googled Viking to see where we could have a cup of tea or coffee after the meeting. The Koffee Kafe came up, hours of operation from 9 am to 5 PM. We could not find the cafe and ended up at Donna's Kitchen on Main Street. Thinking this might be the Koffee Kafe in another reincarnation, I asked Donna if she closed at 5PM. She gave me this long look and stated, "every day I am here at 5 Am. If I am lucky I am out of here by 7 PM but if I get a call from a crew, I don't leave until they are fed, 9, 10, 11 PM. Nevertheless I am back up at 5 Am". When I told her about my google results she replied, "they have been closed for 11 or 12 years". So much for google.

Donna was sensibly dressed in black pants with a bit of flour smugged on the side of one pant leg and black rubber boots. She was a middle aged no nonsense kind of woman. We ordered cinnamon buns and coffee. She brought us four made-that-day cinnamon buns, sticky enough to eat with a fork and knife. Free refills on the coffee. The bill was $4.00 for Jim and I. I thought something was wrong when she said $4.00. She caters and that day had done a lunch in Bruce, I did not ask how much she had charged but I was curious.

Her business card reads, Food With Flair, Catering Service and Concession, Donna Brooke, Main Street, Viking, AB T0B 4N0 (780) 336-2476 "No occasion too big or too small" A nice find.

Baked Salmon

Why just have one kind of baked salmon? Tonight my son Tom made three kinds of baked salmon for our dinner: salmon baked in a lemon dill white sauce; another piece basted with teriyaki salmon sauce and the third fillet was cut into pieces, dipped in beaten egg and then rolled in panko crumbs seasoned with thyme, parsley, basil and a dash of garlic powder. With small roasted potatoes tossed in oil, butter, parsley, thyme and of a bit of sea salt and coarsely ground pepper and asparagus sauted in a bit of oil, we had one of those hello-weekend-unforgettable-Friday night dinners.

Tony's Pizza Palace

The restaurant with two names: Tony's Pizza Palace on the business card and website: www.tonyspizzapalace.com and Tony's Pizzeria e Ristorante Itlaliano EST. 1986 on the take out menu. My friend chose the restaurant at 9605 -111 Ave. It was his birthday. Three of us had never been there before. We asked our server, what are the three top dishes that most people order. He rattled the names off so quickly we had to ask another server if we had heard correctly. We did have the recommended and popular bruschetta. Delicious! Every thing was fresh - basil, tomatoes, garlic and all infused with olive oil on a crust that was light, crispy and of course freshly made. For the pasta dish I had the highly recommended fettucini carbonara tossed with eggs, back bacon and Parmesan cheese. Pure comfort on a minus 15 celsius night.

Our server with the perfect spiked and cut black hair told us that Tony senior had started the business in New York. His son brought the business to Edmonton and he and the other servers were friends with Tony's grandson. They all played soccer together. His short history lesson was like salt to the forth coming food, it put the restaurant offerings in context and changed our relationship to one of "just any pizza joint to there are friends making this food and they care".

I will be going back. There are 9 more pasta plates to try. Given the bruschetta crust, I think the pizzas must be sublime.

Papaya Chutney

We so enjoyed the rice and chutney dish that I posted last week, I decided to try a recipe inspired by Lucinda Quinn but changed her recipe to suit my interests and available ingredients. There must be thousands of chutney recipes but the idea of one made with papaya was intriguing.

4 cups of finely chopped papaya
1 and 1/2 cups of chopped cucumbers
1/2 green pepper finely chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
2 inch root of ginger peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp salt
1 cup vinegar
1 and 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups water

Place all ingredients in a pan and slowly cook for 2 hours. In Quinn's recipe she had half the amount of papaya and 3 tbsp salt. I could not abide that much salt. I increased the sugar by 1/4 cup because it tasted too tart. The contrast of colour between the green cucumber and peach orange of the papya was inviting. The smells of vinegar, salt and cucumbers made me think of pickling - a nice thought in the middle of winter.

The mixture took a great deal of time to reduce, so next time I would add less water. My daughter liked the outcome and will be using this chutney in her next rice, bean casserole.

Chewy Moist Lemon Muffins

My friend turned 65 this past year. To celebrate he decided to take his friends out for dinner. What do you give a man who has everything - why a birthday cake of course. What do you give a group that is no longer eating hefty slices of cake - why muffins of course. Since they were birthday muffins, I iced them with icing sugar moistened with lemon juice, just enough to make it spreadable. These are not normal muffins; they are dense, moist and explode with lemon flavour. By adding the pulp of the lemon, the muffin is heavier.

1/2 cup butter
2 cups of flour, sifted with
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 cup plain yogurt
zest and pulp of one lemon - remove seeds
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs

Beat the butter and add the sugar. In a blender, mix all the wet ingredients until the pulp is broken into fine threads. Sift the flour with the baking powder. Mix the wet and dry ingredients in shifts. Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins. I made 9 medium sized muffins. If you wanted smaller ones, you would spoon the batter into the 12 muffin holes. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Test with a toothpick before removing from the oven. Cool, then ice.

I took them to the restaurant in a square tin and provided a candle for each of us. The waiter took our picture. A little joy!