Michael’s mom with bread and mint

“Is it the bread-soaked-in-meat-juice holiday?”

Such is the uncomely moniker I once used when Michael and I would receive the invitation to gather with his family, including an extended family of neighbours and friends, in early May. Not knowing much about the Portuguese Festa do Espirito Santo, or Festival of the Holy Spirit, I simply equated it ...
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Squash gargantua in Michael’s parents’ backyard garden

Last night’s salad was magnificent: a downy, tender pile of baby lettuces in green, burgundy, and purple mixed with young French tarragon shoots and sunrise-orange day-lily flowers. Optional toppings included roasted and crushed mixed nuts, fat sultanas, and crunchy day-lily buds. Once each of us had assembled our salads, we dressed them with raspberry-infused apple ...
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Well-used potluck cutlery

Just on the dry side of the weekend’s sopping weather, Friday night’s Withrow Park Potluck Supper — the second in this year’s trio of gatherings; in 2007 the potlucks will occur monthly from May through October — drew a good turnout of east-enders (as well as a few supporters from other areas of the city) for a tasty communal ...
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