January 31, 2016 Baked Sunday Mornings Today the rest of the BSM crew is making Chinese Five Spice Scones for Chinese New Year. I actually bought the five-spice powder and sesame seeds last week, but just wasn’t feeling it. Five-spice powder is no joke: cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise and pepper. It’s STRONG. I’m not the […]

May 31, 2011 Top Chef Canada Thank you for all your comments after last week’s (rage-inducing) episode! Just one more interesting follow-up point before we get to this week’s show: Kristine remembered that on a Season 2 episode of Top Chef, the winner of the Elimination Challenge had their dish featured nationwide on the menu of T.G.I.Friday’s, so this wasn’t […]

May 17, 2011 Top Chef Canada You guys, I knew this was going to be a good episode when I saw my Food Network boyfriend in the preview on the weekend!  The show kicks off with a disclaimer that the food prepared in this episode may not appeal to all viewers and that all proteins […]

May 10, 2011 Top Chef Canada We open this episode with a topless Dale, and the ginormous tree tattoo that covers his entire back. Let’s just move on.   Our guest judge this week is Stephen Alexander of Cumbrae Farms. He’s a butcher, and Thea tells us he’s one of the most respected meat purveyors in […]

As I mentioned the other day, the most anticipated item from my Trader Joe’s haul was Cookie Butter. Everything I heard and read about it had me super excited and curious about the magic that would be unleashed when I cracked open a jar. First, let me try my best to describe Cookie Butter: it […]

It’s Messy Baker Monday!!! Today a bunch of my blogging friends have gotten together to celebrate the new cookbook from our friend Charmian Christie. I’ve gotten to know Charmian through various blogger events over the past year and a half, and even attended the launch party for The Messy Baker Cookbook last month. That’s where […]

It’s a raspberry round-up y’all! I seem to have really missed the window for raspberries this summer – these seasonal fruits give me a little bit of stress, to be honest. When I went to the farmer’s market about a month ago, they were everywhere, but last week, not a raspberry in sight. I really […]

  I have complicated feelings towards brunch, and I believe they date back to 1998-2002 in Waterloo, Ontario and a little joint called Mel’s Diner. Mel’s was the ideal place to feed your hangover on Sunday morning and for $2.99 you got a greasy plate of bacon or sausage, toast, eggs and homefries (or Mel’s […]

Baby Wall 2.0 is here! Lydia & Andrew’s new baby Dylan Jackson was born last Sunday afternoon, while I was stuck at the most vile hotel in history on my way back from my work trip. I had my fingers crossed for the two weeks I was away hoping that this little one would ignore his […]

I made these scones a few months ago, and they kind of got lost in the shuffle. I thought I would post them today, before it turns into summer fruit central around here. I’m that odd person that doesn’t drink coffee on a regular basis, but loves coffee flavoured things. For this reason, I’m that weirdo […]

July 27, 2012 Bakeries & Restaurants Quick post here on Paulette’s Original Donuts & Chicken. I read a review on Toronto Life the week before Danielle’s visit, and quickly added it to our schedule. I had the most amazing donuts of my life at The Doughnut Plant in NYC in ’09 and Jelly last summer in […]

July 23, 2012 Bakeries & Restaurants   You may have noticed a lack of restaurant reviews here on Planet Byn. This is for a couple of reasons, the main one being that I wouldn’t say I’m a super avid eater-outer. The reasons for this include, but are not limited to the following: I like to try to […]

July 3, 2012 Candy   I’m not sure I’m ever going to have the occasion to make 120 cups of candy-covered popcorn again in my life, but I thought I would document the process here just in case! This was for my childhood friend Marlena’s baby shower. We got to chatting back in April at Nicole’s house, […]

July 5, 2012 Cookies My not-so-little nephew turned SEVEN last week, and he requested Toronto Maple Leafs cookies for his family party. I knew I wasn’t going to have enough time during the week to go the whole royal icing route, so my brainstorm was to make the actual cookies bright blue and sandwich them […]