Taste of the Danforth is a yearly festival held in the Greektown area along Danforth Avenue for a period of three days in August, spawned from the Taste of Chicago.It is currently Canada's largest street festival. It started in 1993, and in 2018 completed its 25th year of this event which celebrates Greek food and culture.The owner of Papa's Grill, a Greek cuisine on the Danforth stated Taste of the Danforth has "grown exponentially and we are still experiencing growth 20 years to the day"
This event generally occurs the second weekend of August. Past attendance numbers have been reported as high as 1.6 million people over the three-day event. Approximately 1.6 kilometres of Danforth Avenue is closed from Broadview Avenue to past Jones Avenue for the festival.
Lots of fun activities for the kids and grown ups too. It was late morning so the crowds weren't too crazy.
All our sports teams had interactive displays. Maple Leafs.
A GIF shop...
Lego
Greek food includes pork, chicken, and beef souvlaki, spanakopita, loukoumades, gyros, and roast quail. Attendees can also enjoy seated dining within the many restaurants throughout Danforth Avenue and enjoy such Greek favourites as saganaki (the "flaming" cheese), and delicious fresh Greek salads.
Toronto's Finest were out in force.
A makeshift memorial for the shooting victims was placed in front of St. Barnabas Anglican Church on Danforth Ave. during last weekend’s street festival. Two were killed and a dozen more were injured in a shooting rampage on July 22.
That memorial, featuring flowers, stuffed animals, candles and other items, was set to be moved this week to the nearby Logan Green Field Parkette.
I came across a recipe for a slow cooker jambalaya and realized we had not had jambalaya in forever! Then to discover I never posted my recipe from a cooking class in New Orleans on our first trip. RECTIFIED. Click here for the recipe with updated slow cooker instructions along with adding uncooked rice.
We had lots of blueberries so I made a crustless blueberry pie I spotted on Facebook last week and blueberry ice cream.
Pie is a keeper!
We went to bed last night watching a senseless shooting in our old beloved neighbourhood on Danforth in Greektown.
Today was replacement day, we replaced our pillows and our microwave.
The pillows - it was time! We got the Miracle Bamboo. UPDATE loving the pillow.
The microwave was here when we moved in and I would guess it is at least 15 years old. The fan didn't work well, the plastic is falling off and the controls don't seem to work correctly.
OLD
NEW - we have to wait for the installer to pick it up and arrange a date.
The rest of the day went to John working out, doing laundry, reading and other chores.
We had a couple of outings in mind today but decided to go to the Danforth and have lunch.
Businesses had only reopened in this area today after the Monday police investigation.
It's one thing to watch the news but when you come upon the spot where one of the girls died, and the store front is boarded up, it is a totally different feeling.
The floral tributes have multiplied since we were there early on Tuesday.
We were early, it has grown!
This is now covered in flowers.
The second fatality.
This was our neighbourhood for 22 years so we took a walk.
I popped into KitchenStuff and found the pastry mat I have wanted.
Gorgeous houses and gardens along Gloucester between Church and Yonge.
BMO sponsored murals on Maitland for PRIDE.
I don't normally post about local politics, but after having the reality hit me in the eye when we looked at boarded up store fronts due to bullet holes on Tuesday this week, I am linking to some articles. CNN reported the Toronto city council vote to ban guns 41-4.
Watch the video and just ignore Ford's appearance.
Before I left I had prepared the filling for a steak and kidney pie.
Since we now cook gluten free, we were missing pastry. I had bought a package so I thought I would try it.
When I got home I prepared the Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pastry Mix, this is time consuming because the pastry needs an hour to chill after you mix it with a lot of butter! Fairly easy to roll out using my new pastry mat!
This pie turned out so well!!
Thursday
Thursday Doors on vacation until August 9
My our mission was Sugar today, for Sunday's One Word Challenge.
Shuttle to Front St. then we walked down to Yonge and Queen's Quay.
At the bottom of Yonge St are these markers.
We happen to have the Redpath Sugar Museum, so easy right?
Ever have a feeling? We walk in and the security guard says if you're here for the museum, he closed early...really? You couldn't have put that on the website today???
Oh well, had a back-up plan.
Corus Entertainment is a Canadian media and broadcasting company. Formed in 1999 as a spin-off from Shaw Communications, it is headquartered at Corus Quay, and has prominent holdings in the radio, publishing, and television industries. Corus Entertainment's voting majority is held by the company's founder JR Shaw and his family, and a 40% stake of Corus stock is owned by Shaw Communications.
It looked like we might get rained upon so we cut through the building and the storm blew over.
Checked out the George Brown dockside campus.
Had fun taking photo through their rose-tinted entrance.
Back in sunshine, sitting on Sugar Beach.
Redpath Sugar on the right.
Huge mural on the side of Redpath.
Condos on the waterfront.
John loved the look of this building.
Now walking west along Harbourfront.
The metal and concrete structure is called 'Sundial Folly' and rests in a pool of water. The water feeds a small waterfall that tumbles a few feet into Lake Ontario on the east side of the pier in Harbour Square Park. The 1995 art work is by John Fung and Paul Figueiredo. Coming in from the backside you can take a walk on the platform that leads into the sphere.
The storm is approaching, we took the inside route to the bus and boarded just as the first raindrops fell.
It's been a busy week with several outings so I had plenty to blog about and research. There was also the usual chores of cleaning and laundry and other mundane tasks we all know about so I took today to get caught up.
John played golf late afternoon. Plus we are going away for the weekend so needed to get that organized too! Dinner - wings and fries
