Pink Lemonade bars

Pink lemonade bars, in honour of summer! These are quite tart, next time I will cut down on the lemon juice or increase the sugar. It's not as solid as a regular lemon bar, it could be due to egg whites vs egg yolks and/or excess liquid from raspberry juice. All in all it turned out lovely. The colour is a lovely raspberry red than pink, maybe even a bit magenta?

For the shortbread bottom:
4 oz unsalted butter
1/4 cup white sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
pinch salt

For the filling:
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 egg whites
1 egg
freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 4 lemons)
zest from 4 lemons
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 cups of raspberries
icing sugar to dust

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 8×8 square baking pan with a strip of parchment paper that covers the bottom and overlaps on either side.

2. Cream butter, sugar, and salt. Mix in flour. Press dough into 8×8″ square baking pan, to a 1/2" thickness.

3. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until slightly golden brown.
Filling:
4. Whisk sugar, egg whites, egg, lemon juice and zest, flour, and salt in a large bowl. Pour raspberries into a sieve and press through to extract all the pulp and juices. Whisk into lemon mixture and pour into crust. Bake for 30-35 minutes until filling is completely set. Let cool completely.  Dust with icing sugar.

Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria

*Update:  Take out: Sweet BBQ chicken and Conforto

Does anyone remember 'My Marvin's Deli'? No longer a deli, Famoso pizzeria has taken over. This chain, predominantly in Edmonton, has made its way to downtown Calgary. 

Pros and cons. Food is great. Service is so so. Ordering at the counter, not too sure why they don't have all or nothing. Here is what I mean about 'all or nothing'. I've been to restaurants that you order at the counter, they give you a number (Squat and Gobble) to take to your table and then bring your food out.  Instead Famoso have each table numbered, so when you go up to order, you have to remember your table number.  I think that they should go with the S&G way, it seems more logical.  Also, we were told by a server that after you have ordered from the counter, everything else is full service.  

So please explain to me why it's half and half?  It is a chain, and I believe that the rules are just followed, but it seems a bit silly to me.  Either order everything at the counter or none at all.  

Maybe it's just a little pet peeve but more importantly is the food quality.  Excellent. 

http://stomachtreatment.blogspot.com/2008/08/san-fransico-08-food-pier-39-neptunes.html

Absolutely, undoubtedly excellent pizza.  The pizza dough may appear thick from the crust, but it's actually hollow and puffed up.  The texture is thin but a little chewy.  It's pretty difficult to lift it up with your hands without the toppings falling off, so I would suggest eating pizza the improper way, for and knife.

The Vesuvio- basil, red peppers, spicy Italian salami 'sopressata' (much like pepperoni) and mushrooms.  When they say spicy, they mean it.  I probably wouldn't order this again, only because I'm not huge on really spicy (drink a gallon of water) pizza, but it was good to try out.   

Vittoria (Victory!)- chosen based on it being an award winner "Pizza of the Year"

Salsa sauce, chorizo sausage, chicken, pineapple and basil.  This one also has a spicy kick to its flavour, however, this is the kind I'd go for again.  They give you extra pineapple on the side, which really helps contrast the spiciness.  

We actually started with the Prosciutto wrapped mozza balls. Normally I don't like prosciutto, it's a bit salty, however this place does it right.  The pita looking bread is actually pizza crust. 

  Here is a shot of the view of the cathedral like roof, and the view of outside from our table. 

What you do with $0.78 of spinach.

Spanakopita.  

First attempt at my favourite Greek dish.  Thank you All recipes.

I think it turned out pretty well.  I definitely used more than 4 sheets of phylo for both the bottom and the top.  I lost track of time and made a nice layer of phylo sheets.  I will admit I hate working with phylo pastry, it is the most finicky material, however the end result... tasty! 

More brownie madness!

* And the Lightbulb goes on!- July 26, 2010 *
Let's combine 3 of Joy's brownie recipes and call it, the hangover brownie, or the morning after brownie, but I think that's a little too trite.  It's fully loaded (nuts, chocolate, marshmallows, graham crackers) and better the next day. Here are my alterations.  This is for a fudgey brownie. Follow the baking instructions for the S'mores brownies. (Except: bake for 40min and cool for a few hours, otherwise it falls apart.  This type of brownie tastes best the day after)

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 6 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup crushed graham crackers
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1 1/2 cup small marshmallows
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
• 2 handfuls of marshmallows, or rather enough to top 2, 9x9 square pans.  For under the broiler finishing touches.  

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Another fabulous recipe from Joy the Baker!  Oh and here is the walnut brownie recipe as well.
I altered the rocky road one:  2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, no walnuts, 1 cup crushed graham crackers, 1 chopped up chocolate bar, 4 eggs, brown sugar, 1/2 cup chocolate chips, 1/4 cup cocoa powder.
I've also learned that glass baking dishes are more ideal to use, they don't over bake and are easy to clean up.   

Mick & Angelo's

I actually ordered a calzone. Now this is a real calzone. Very different from the ones I've had before.  This was a Philly cheese steak calzone. Absolutely filling and delicious!

Hillebrand Winery Restaurant

We missed the lunch hours so they did a type of wine and cheese small plate meal.This winery is one of the top ranking in the country.  They even do a Jazz & Blues night with top notch artists like Emilie-Claire Barlow. Click here for their website.

Purple walnut bread with wine infused butter. 

I don't remember the name of this refreshing wine, but it is good in the summer. 

This was not my dish but if you can't see the menu: Organic watercress and arugula salad with mushrooms straw potato, toscano cheese, and baco noir balsamic dressing.

Artisan and farm house cheese, toasted fruit bread, candied walnuts and balsamic ice cream

Fresh and smoked sockeye salmon, with chardonnay infused shrimp, fennel cucumber and mint slaw with toasted sour dough.  Think of a type of salmon salad sandwich.