Hi, my name is Donika! It is an Albanian name…as a kid I wasn’t too fond of it, as it was so different from everyone else at school, but now I love it…especially because it’s so different from everyone else. 🙂
When Feta met Olive…
Two of my favourite ingredients. Growing up, those two things were always at the table. My grandfather Haxhi (pronounced Hajji) loved feta cheese with watermelon and olives with bread, it was a staple food at our house. I don’t remember a time in my life where there wasn’t a big 3 litre bucket of feta cheese in the fridge, and a variety of olives on the table.
Now that you know where the name came from, I will tell you a little about myself.
I’m Canadian born and raised, with Albanian roots.
My mom’s side was in the restaurant business for a long time. There was a time when my grandmother Roubia was known as the best pizza and pie maker in the county. I am blessed that she taught me how to make both! I was still young when my grandparents closed down their last restaurant to retire, but my family continued working in the business. It has always been a dream of mine to continue that legacy, but until then I shall share my recipes from here.
The recipes I share on the blog are from a variety of cultures. First off the Albanian recipes come from my grandparents and my mom. Some recipes have a Macedonian flare as that is where my mom grew up. The Turkish inspiration comes from my husbands family and my grandfather, who specialized in Turkish delights and baklava.
My inspiration and love for Italian food comes from my Aunt Angela. The love for Middle Eastern food comes from my childhood, my Lebanese and Palestinian neighbours and friends. Of course we must not leave out my love for South Asian food, the many recipes I learned from different regions of Pakistan and India over the years. You will also find Canadian and or American recipes, mostly desserts, recipes I grew up with and others that I came up with over the years, that comes from, well, being Canadian eh!
Thanks to my friends over the years I have learned new techniques and recipes from around the world. My recipes have grown to be so bright, colourful and full of flavour. My recipes are unique as they are so different from one another. You will find a variety of recipes, I am always trying new things and mixing it up!
The best part of growing up in such a diverse city like Windsor, you grow up with different cultures and learn about different foods from around the world. I can go anywhere and find ingredients that I need for my dishes, it’s wonderful!
I started writing my recipes in 2008 on a food group on Facebook. It was just for fun and written quickly in the comment section that went along with a photo. It was a group effort. When I switched over to my blog in 2010 I just added those recipes with the same old photos, so many old posts are in need of updating, but you can see how far I’ve come from when I first started, especially with the photographs! I have you to thank for keeping me going and continuing in writing and sharing, and improving as a food blogger.
Thank you for your support, and I hope you enjoy your visit at When Feta met Olive.
~ Enjoy Your Meal – Ju Befte Mire – Afiyet Olsun – Bon Appetit ~
To contact me you can email me at [email protected].
Donika has been blogging for years perfecting her craft in the kitchen.
Cooking from Albanian and Turkish backgrounds her recipes will definitely make their way
into your kitchen! 
hello new to your site and your pictures are beautiful, Dor sent me and told me to introduce myself. Well done for a lovely site
Just found your Blog and I'm really enjoying it as you seem to have a lot of Turkish recipes….especially for boreks. My husband is a Turk and I make boreks for him all the time….and pides.
Thank you for sharing your recipes and photos…….
erica-sweetonyou.blogspot.com
I am Greek and Italian! Keep the recipes coming! Beautiful stuff!
Hi Donica, just wondering why you don't right a cooking book, i am sure there would be lot of publishing company's who would jump at the chance publishing your recipe of dishes
Hi Donika! I am very lad to have found your blog! I come from the same region as you and now living abroad I love to cook the dishes I grew up with! I came across your blog looking for a spinach cake (something I was not sure exists) in my attempt to use natural dyes for food! Sweet tooth is common for the Balkans isn't it?!
Best regards and keep up the great work!
Snejana
Mashallah donika.. Love your site! First time on it. Pics look so professional can’t wait to try ur recipes.
Hi Donika,
Love your site and love its name. My kids do the same. It put a smile on my face. Anyway, I wanted to complement you on your site and I will spend some more time on it and seems you have done a great job with it. I also just shared one of your recipes on my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/albanianrecipes and I hope you do not mind. I am working on an Albanian Cookbook (the English Version) that is why I googled the Albanian Rice Pudding and your page came up. Thank you again. Have a great weekend.
Besa Kosova
Albanian Recipes
Shumë faleminderit for your site! My husband is from Kosovo and I am a MidWestern American. Learning to cook the foods he loves has been quite an adventure! Most of my success has been because of your website. He has explained a dish to me (such as Lakror) and I was able to recognize the recipe on your site. He was amazed that I have been able to cook his favorite foods! He has no family here in America so I have no mother/sister-in-laws here to teach me. Alhamdullilah for you and your wonderful site. Inshallah you will keep publishing these wonderful Albanian recipes for a long time.
Great site and recipes. Lira
Hey Sweetie, looking good.
This website is great Donika! Love it! Are you on instagram btw?
lots of love from your cousin in Turkey x
Sedanur
Hi Donika, I just wanted to say that I’m so happy to find your blog when searching for spinach cake. It is fantastic with so many recipes I want to try. BTW I don’t know what it means but I love the sound of your name! Cheers from Turkey!
Hi Donika,
I saw your comment on the Green Chile Casserole recipe Bobbi Burleson posted on Bobbi’s Kozy Kitchen and wanted to reach out to offer you a box of our flame roasted, hand peeled green chile as well. We love to send chile to bloggers and don’t require anything in return. However, if you end up writing about using in in something we’d love a link in the ingredients section 🙂
If you decide you’d like a box, just reply with you shipping address and we’ll get a box shipped out on Wednesday.
All The Best,
Preston Mitchell
Hello, I love your site! It has helped me cook for my Albanian husband and brother in law. I am Welsh, British and my dinner offerings were not popular until I found your site! Ha!Ha!
S.A Great blog name,as a turkish mum of four I get the same question asked always. Your recipes are really delicious keep up the great work Ins
Hi Donika and I hope you’re having a great day!
As you may have noticed, we at Moore’s Marinades love Mom! What’s for dinner?, and all of your social media content! We seem to have many of the same interests, like good food and new recipes. Your recipe for Apple Cinnamon Rolls was one of our favorites!
You consistently have interesting and entertaining pieces that we really enjoy passing along to our audience, and we greatly appreciate you letting us share your content.
As a token of our appreciation, we’d love to send you a variety pack of Moore’s Marinades and Sauces for you to enjoy. Kindly email me your shipping address and #mooreflavor is on its way to you!
We look forward to hearing from you!
Thank you,
Lisa Hall
Hi Donika,
I just found your site and I love it. I lived in Turkey for almost 7 years. I love Turkish food and I also have a food blog with Turkish, Mediterranean, and American recipes. My daughter jokes that I am more Turkish than she is lol.
hosca kalin,
april
Hi April,
Thank you! Oh how wonderful! I love Turkish food too, what is the name of your blog?
~Donika
love your site!
p.s Im an albanian donika as well :)!
Hello Donika,
Great blog! I’m also of mixed heritage, with a Scottish father born in Canada and a Slovenian American mother. These last few years, I have been immersed in Slovenian cooking–and Balkan cooking in general. Just starting to discover Albanian food, but have learned there are few resources in English. My most recent adventure was trileqe or three milks cake–with my new Canadian/Kosovar Albanian daughter-in-law as my cooking partner 🙂 I look forward to trying some of your recipes soon.
Hi Blair,
Thank you. 🙂
How interesting, and your daughter in law is Albanian! I will have to check your cake out, thanks for sharing that with me.
Yes you are right, there isn’t much available in English, or in Albanian for that matter.
Hope to hear from you again. 🙂
~Donika
I follow you on Food Bloggers of Canada and I had no idea you were Albanian. Glad to find an Albanian Blogger. As well I am and Albanian Canadian… keep up the good work.
Cheers
How do I sign up for your blog ? I don’t see a place to sign up….this Cranberry Orange Loaf Cake looks great….also I sent you an email earlier asking where you got your heart cup & saucer…did you receive it ?
Thanks, Mona
Mirupafshim 🙂 I absolutely love love love your recipes. Gjithë është shumë bukur! Jam shumë i lumtur që ti je këtu!! I was looking at different photos of Albanian food on google images and clicked on something delicious-looking that happened to be yours and then chanced upon your incredible food library! It is SO difficult to find Albanian recipes in English with conversions for measurements. It’s also difficult to learn from my mother in-law who doesn’t follow recipes or speak much English! And sometimes there are dishes that only show up once a year and no one knows what they’re called, making it nearly impossible to find recipes online. As you can imagine, it’s an absolute must to be able to cook at least some of the traditional, nostalgic foods that your partner grew up with- having a few really great things at hand is going to be so helpful.
… Plus we seem to have similar influences in our cooking styles. I’m also Canadian, and my background is Italian on my mother’s side (what I grew up cooking), and Lebanese/Scottish/German on my father’s side (hence my last name Haddad). I’ve been experimenting with Lebanese cuisine since high school on my own. Now throw in my love of Northern Albanian food and voila… some sort of Middle-World mix. 🙂
Anyway, just sending out some love! Looking forward to many more lovely recipes and stories from your blog.
Hi Donika,
Beautiful website! I found your blog through instagram..and nominated your site for the Liebster award. Check out my recent post at bostongirlbakes.com to check it out! Beautiful photos and I love your cakes and desserts page!
Heather
Hello Donika, I am so happy I found your blog.I am Albanian too living in Uk and I study for fine dinning cuisine.Love your blog and all your recipes.Do you have an instagram page or facebook .Good luck with your beautiful blog.
Hi Donika! I’m Armenian–My family comes from Izmir, Turkey, so many of the foods I grew up with are Turkish/Armenian. I came across your blog when I was looking for an imam bayildi recipe with meat. I’m going to follow your recipe tonight. It looks delicious! All the best! Alexia
Hello Donika,
Love your recipes and beautiful pictures! Chef Koochooloo is teaching kids math, science and geography through international recipes and we would love to feature some of your Albanian recipes on our newly launched app: http://apple.co/1OvbbMk. Let us know what you think!
Have a great day 🙂 -Elise
Asalamu alaikum, I am so happy that I found your blog. I needed more inspiration in cooking lately because of my lack of energy. This should put me right on tracks in’sha’Allah 🙂
I love your blog! I just found it recently, but as a Greek married to an Albanian I find it SO helpful in mastering some of the foods my mother-in-law makes but can’t explain how she did it. haha Our cuisines are similar, but still many things are different. Every recipe I’ve tried has been a huge hit and I’m so thankful. I noticed most posts are older here though, so I hope you keep this active!