Cookie mogul Eden Hertzogshares recipes she enjoys with her family
What a weekend. I took about 20 photos of various put-together meals, but none of them really seemed worthy of a post, to be honest. The truth is – we’re not really cooking these days, are we?
No, because all of a sudden it’s summer. It’s completely, utterly gorgeous outside and that means we don’t really turn on the stove.
Let’s take Saturday as an example. It was over 20 degrees and sunny, plus balmy and breezy, so we went down to the lake, which, in our neighbourhood of Parkdale/Roncesvalles is a little bit, how do you say, ghetto? Like a ghost town. Anyhow, Cedar doesn’t care. He was happy to sit on the boardwalk and look at his water bottle.
Or hang out near his Mama in her funny upside-down pirate ship shirt. Read more...
Ed Sundukovsky shares stories from Toronto’s West End
We live in a pretty diverse neighborhood in Toronto. Parkdale has had a reputation for exemplifying many social issues including high crime and drug abuse rates as well as a marginalized lower middle class. These and other factors have contributed to making the rents low, drawing a larger than average immigrant population from some very poor and impoverished countries. Families that want a better life in the land of the “Strong and Free” come here for a fresh start.
I’m all for people starting over in Canada. Both my mother and father came to Canada with very little, fleeing communist Russia with essentially no money, having to bribe their way out of the “Iron Curtain.” When they finally landed on Canadian soil, they didn’t have two nickels to rub together. The only thing they brought with them was a strong work ethic. My dad at one point drove a cab, delivered pizzas and sold watermelons just to make ends meet before he learned to speak English well enough to get a white collar job. My mother who was proficient enough in English got a job in a hair salon. Read more...
On Saturday, Bunch sent Purple Shutter off to spend some time with the Meyer Odells (Gretel, Isaac, Tristan, Phelan and Dobby the dog), a super creative family of four . I make sure to follow these guys through their blog because they are always doing neat stuff: like when Gretel and Isaac used macaroni to explain coalition government to the kids or Tristan’s legendary blog about Chicken Pox.
The Meyer Odells live in the Village of Parkdale. This western Toronto neighbourhood was known for crime and drugs in the 80’s and 90‘s but is now a hotspot, both for families and twentysomething artists. In fact, Metric wrote a song about this hood:
After letting Shutter hang out in their living room until the rain blew over, Gretel and Tristan headed out for a ride, trading off wearing a red dragontail from Gretel’s line of dramatic play clothes, Fancy Pants Kids.
Here is what Gretel had to say about her family’s Purple Shutter adventure: Read more...
