There are two good reasons to visit The Cottage Bakery and Café: one is to be a part of the Cottage Bakery legacy which dates back to 1932 and the other is to savour their tasty fare. The history of the Bakery has been carefully written onto a large chalkboard which takes up a great deal of wall space. Both my lunch date and I read the entire history and at first I wondered why others in the café were not. With the bakery being close to a high school, all of the other patrons were regular customers, having seen the message many, many times.

I chose the Mediterranean pesto Panini melt and broccoli cheddar Soup. The gal serving us indicated that she had made the soup herself that very morning. I felt that I would be insulting her cooking if I didn’t taste it. The crunchy Panini was started with a chicken breast, roasted peppers and cheese (of course). What was unusual about the Panini was the inclusion of what I thought was an olive tapenade (which originates from the south of France), as opposed to a basil pesto. I am quite fond of the pungent tastes of a tapenade so was quite content. I also appreciated the crispy Panini which occurs when just the right amount of time and pressure is added to the Panini maker.

My lunch date also chose the soup and a chicken burger which looked to be on special that day. It too started with a chicken breast, coated and deep fried in this case, and was also adorned with cheese (unmelted).

Even though I don’t typically indulge in dessert, especially at lunch time, we were lunching in a bakery so of course we had to sample something! We decided upon splitting a date square. In Manitoba and other places on the prairies the date square is called matrimonial cake. I tried researching the roots of the wedding reference unsuccessfully. But I did come across the pun that “many dates lead to matrimony”. Sounds logical to me!

The Cottage Bakery and Café is located at 1382 Pembina Highway at Dowker Avenue. It is currently owned by Peyman and Ronak Esfehani. They have an all day menu available and are open Monday to Friday from 7:30 am until 6 pm. Saturday they close at 5 pm and Sunday they are open from 9 am until 5 pm. They are wheelchair accessible.

Kath’s quote: “If baking is any labor at all, it’s a labor of love. A love that gets passed from generation to generation”. –Regina Brett

Love never fails.

When Christmas comes it is so lovely to be able to carve out some extra time with good friends. Sometimes this is hard to do when one of your besties has a medical job where she is on call on a regular basis. With some advance planning though we were able to pull it off.

We were celebrating a Christmas birthday as well as exchanging Christmas gifts. The festivities were planned to take place at the home of one friend who has recently had knee surgery. By bringing supper and gifts to her place, she was able to be comfortable and stay put.

We had thrown around some ideas for a simple supper and then I struck upon the solution. I had been invited to the annual “party in a box” hosted by the Manitoba Chicken Producers the evening before. D was given instructions to stay out of the boxed goodies that I stacked up and brought home. As a result of his self-control, I was able to supply three wonderful chicken appetizers for the evening. In fact, we enjoyed the appetizers with a festive salad adorned with roasted sweet potatoes, goat cheese and cranberries and were delighted with our light supper.

Blue Moon Chicken Bites (recipe link here) were delectable chicken meatballs that we dunked into an easy to assemble mixture of hot sauce, ranch and blue cheese dressing.

A second dish was Curried Chicken & Cashew Bites  where chicken breasts were slowly roasted in cream and then tossed in mango chutney and a coating of crushed cashews.

My favourite were Chicken Tartlets topped with Cranberry Salsa.

As we assembled our plates of chicken treats and salad we congratulated ourselves on our festive meal that was also wholesome and nutritious. We saved our calories for dessert which I also had been gifted the evening before.

Christmas sugar cookies had been beautifully decorated by High Tea Bakery. We each chose one to go with another treat of Bernand Callebaut chocolates.

We didn’t linger at the table long because we had presents, presents and more presents to exchange and open.

Clean up was a breeze and I packed up the leftovers so that D could indulge in the tastes he had resisted the previous evening.

Kath’s quote: “The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of love and of generosity and of goodness. It illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world’s busy life and become more interested in people than in things”. -Thomas S. Monson

Love never fails.

This never gets tired.

D has walked into town and I am contemplating the day. The breeze has died down and there are no clouds. Might be a hot one! To my surprise D has discovered how much he likes beachcombing saying that it is both relaxing and good exercise! I joined him for a while yesterday.

D made his fabulous ham omelets for brunch.

We were kicking around possibilities for the day when Boo & the Frenchman texted saying that they would love to come over again to sit in the shade and watch the waves. We went to fetch them in our golf cart and did exactly that.

D made cocktails. He and I were too hungry to chase down sunset so we went right to Brisas Grill. It was a busy place and we were lucky to get a table when we did. D had grouper and cilantro sauce and I had seafood pasta in a white wine sauce. We did not think that it was as good as when they were on the beach. We were home in time for a glass of wine and Suits on Netflix.

Kath’s quote: “When you make an omelet, as when you make love, affection counts for more than technique”.-Isabel Allende

Love never fails.

We were awake for a gorgeous sunrise.

One of our many Isla traditions is taking pouty face pictures of each other at the ferry terminal.

We scouted (in our golf cart) into town to see Sister #2, my BIL and nephew off

and then went back again to shop for breakfast.

Later we returned again to fetch another in law and her sister from Centro to took them to Luna d’Miel for a breakfast of ham and eggs.

The town was quiet that morning.

After breakfast we took the ladies on an island spin and ran into Joyce of Bob and Joyce. She had us in to see her kitchen reno.

We whiled away the afternoon in switching out between hammock, chair and shade.

For Happy Hour and to help us consume all our booze we went in the golf cart and fetched Boo and the Frenchman. D made kahluas and margaritas and the Frenchman became a very happy tequila man.

We finished off our chips and dip and mango salsa and then took off in the cart to across the airport strip to watch the sunset.

Once the beautiful display was over, we drove into Colonias to Bastos for Burgers Especiale and then home for a wine night cap.

Kath’s quote: “Man who invented the hamburger was smart; man who invented the cheeseburger was a genius”.-Matthew McConaughey

Love never fails.

One of my favourite cookbooks is “Jerusalem”. The book is as much an intriguing story about the people who dwell together in the ancient city as it is a catalogue of excellent recipes. The book is where I first came to know the egg and tomato sauce dish known as Shakshuka. The authors of “Jerusalem” state that the dish is actually Tunisian in origin.

I first tasted the dish prepared by a French trained, Italian chef in a little café called “The Fat Hen” in Seattle. I have also enjoyed it at a couple of spots in Winnipeg. The Bermax Café and Bistro is a kosher Italian Café that does a very good job with their version of Shakshuka.

I would have preferred my egg to have been slightly less firm so that I could have allowed the piping hot sauce to finish cooking the egg. This is not a complaint as the tomato sauce was out of this world with the unusual inclusion a smoky paprika and cumin. I plan on returning so that I can enjoy that sauce on a pasta dish.

My breakfast date chose a pineapple pancake when her request of a granola pancake was not available. Sweet chunks of pineapple were mixed into the batter as well as being served on top of the pancake. The cake also came garnished with cottage cheese. Was the dish a breakfast or a decadent dessert? At home we often enjoy pancakes with a generous scoop of cottage cheese, sliced bananas and maple syrup. My family has inherited my sweet and salty addiction!

I am actually surprised that I have resisted Bermax for as long as I have. The bistro is walking distance from my home and all my favourite foods are contained on one menu: black truffle, eggplant, artichokes, gnocchi and pizza. They even have a Shakshuka pizza!

The Bermax Caffe + Bistro is located at 1800 Corydon Ave. They have an extensive all day breakfast, lunch and dinner menu available. They are open Monday- Thursday 8 am until 9 pm. They close at 3 pm on Friday and are closed Saturday. The are open Sundays from 9 am until 9:00 pm and are wheelchair accessible.

Kath’s quote: With reference to shakshuka- “It sounds like the name of a comic book hero. Or some kind of fierce, long-forgotten martial art. Or perhaps something that said comic book hero would yell as they practiced this elaborate martial art, mid-leap with their fist in the air“.-Smitten Kitchen

Love never fails.