Songbirds in the Garden : Some House Finches Come to Visit
Lunch in the Market : Templeton’s Cafe
Just before Easter, when I wrote about going to a new-to-me shop in Kensington Market, called Good Egg (here) I mentioned that we'd had lunch with Andrea that same day. We went to a place called Templeton's Cafe, at 319 Augusta Avenue. Nick and I had been there before, last summer, when we took some friends who were visiting from out of town (shown here). That time we'd sat outside on their patio drinking beer. It was a good time and the experience left me wanting to come back and try out the food sometime. So that's where we went for a late lunch on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
Now I almost don't want to write about the place and keep it all to myself, because it's pretty small and I imagine it fills right up. We were able to get a table because we went at an odd time, and even then all the tables filled up quickly.
I loved the decor (just look at those paint colours), the pitchers of Sangria and the delicious food. They played excellent music while we were there too.
Party Food : Homemade Tomato Salsa and A Cheese Spread
Here are the recipes for the hors d'oeuvres that we served to friends before a recent dinner party (discussed in this post) : Tomato Salsa and a Cheese Spread
Both were made the evening before the event, making things very easy at party time.
First up is some Tomato Salsa to serve with plain tortilla chips.
I wanted to make something that had the right consistency for easy dipping without excessive dripping. I do love a 100% fresh salsa (known as Pico de Gallo) but have found that these can be a little messy to serve at parties, because they end up being quite watery. I wanted to add some thickness to the salsa, and found the best way to do that was to combine a cooked component with a fresh one. The recipe is further down.
Basically, I cooked some finely chopped onion and garlic in olive oil and then added finely chopped and well drained canned tomatoes. This mixture was seasoned with cumin, salt, fresh lemon juice and cooked until all the liquid was evaporated. Then, this mixture was allowed to cool. To that, I stirred in one chopped fresh tomato, (with its seeds and any liquid removed), and some fresh hot pepper to taste -- I used one cayenne pepper but a jalapeno or scotch bonnet would work too. If you'd like, some fresh coriander could also be added, however I left that out because I knew one of our guests wasn't big on the taste of it.
Table For Ten : Our First Larger Dinner Party
Out and About : Good Egg in Kensington Market
A week ago Sunday was a nice sunny day, so we hit the streets with Andrea. We ended up walking along Spadina, going out for lunch and then checking out a cool shop that Andrea had recently been to getting a baby gift for a friend. Good Egg is a place that she thought we'd really like and she was right.
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