In any case, I’ve gone live again over on blogTO. I’ll be handling the Morning Brew for the next several weeks, and I posted a review of a nice new bakery a couple blocks up the street from us.

But enough blogging for the morning. I’ve got a ham bone in the fridge and split peas to get…. mmmm… no blog can come between me and my split pea soup.

For those of you into neighbourhood goings-on, our traditionally Polish neighbourhood is hosting their traditional Polish Festival. The main street is shut down for 1km+ and there’s all sorts of food, music and fun stuff. I wrote about rIAm’s and my visit this afternoon (before the rain came!) and embedded lots of photos through flickr.

I also paid a visit to the newly opened espresso bar in our neighbourhood, giving a first look for blogTO.

That Canadian election I mentioned? Yeah, broke that story on blogTO. There’s even a click poll so you can see who’s leading amongst blogTO readers.

Call me festival guy; last weekend we visited our friends linda & Dan in their ‘hood for Justin Rutledge at the Junction Arts Festival.

And I’ll plug it again because I like it so much… I did a profile of my current favourite Toronto chef, Rocco Agostino. He tends to my current favourite Toronto restaurant, Silver Spoon.

As always, you can stay tuned to my author page for all my blogTO work.

Well, all the work that went into finding the best deal and place to do that is now a blogTO post. Enjoy.

And for all you Chicago area readers, we’ll be in town next weekend. We’ll mostly be in Chicago proper, and we’ll be there with m+h, but it would be nice to see you.

Unfortuantely for thousands of Toronto bike riders, they cannot say the same. Fellow blogTO contributor Roger has had a series of great posts on the recent bike ring crackdown, and tonight I added my part with the news of the latest bike seizures.

Stealing bikes is just plain mean.

We’ve cooked some great meals – I discovered grilling cauliflower gets a wonderful tandoor-like flavour – and explored our neighbourhood, as well as eating at some of Toronto’s finest restaurants and catching a Toronto FC game. And, of course, we’ve done a lot to set up our apartment.

It’s been so nice to have a place of our own again. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed – despite some frustrating moments and trips to Home Hardware – assembling, installing and otherwise being the handyman. There’s one towel bar up that isn’t going to go anywhere. Ever. There’s a kitchen shelf I just hope holds after so many failed attempts, but I feel good about the chances. And there’s a wardrobe that I hope I can just sell to the next occupants one day. But there’s also the Tibetan prayer flags adorning our bay window, recipe books filling out two of Billy’s shelves and “new” vintage furniture we’re enjoying.

So amongst all of these rewarding pursuits I have just lately found some time to blog (the above link goes to one post on blogTO) and tonight I wrote about a local woman who decided that she should put in an eco driveway, and her story is simply wonderful. I gave her a call to get some photos and it was such a pleasant conversation; she seems so down to earth despite having some of the biggest names on the internet featuring her prominently.

I haven’t forgotten about our pastabroccoli readers; thanks for checking the site. I hope to have more regular content here in the coming weeks and months, with a “tour” of our new place on the short list.

In any case, check out my review of Vena’s Roti, where you can get some top notch stewed meat and/or veggies inside a perfect roti. And don’t miss my pre and re view of Toronto’s ribfest, which I visted last night with rIAm, Bianca and Colin. It’s still going through Tuesday, for those of you local readers.

Anyhow, I’ve been a bit busy over on blogTO, with several more posts coming soon.

I reviewed the generally lovely Joy Bistro on Toronto’s near east side, posted about a “festival” featuring Ontario strawberries, and today I blogged about a cool sustainable condo development that has been nixed by Toronto city planners.

Happy reading!