It may look like August was pretty slow here on Planet Byn from the lack of posts (I’m totally going to backfill those later…I’m sneaky like that), but there was a lot of foodie deliciousness going on offline. Here’s a peek:

• I visited my friends the Radonsos in Winona (home of the Peach Festival), and brought this super easy, super delicious Blueberry Cheesecake Pie. There was an interesting convo around the table from those who claim to not like blueberries…but who had no problem polishing off a slice of this pie. Something about not liking them raw vs. cooked. Interesting, as I feel the reverse way about cherries.
• The Design Exchange is offering a $35 Design + Dine package where you get a ticket to their Christian Louboutin exhibit (AMAZE!) and a $25 gift voucher to Jump!. My friend Molly and I went over after work, and after drooling over all the shoes, hopped over to Jump. I haven’t been there in years, and I wasn’t fully blown away, but perhaps I’ve evolved past Jump? I did love the Smashed Cucumber and Watermelon Salad.
• I babysat my niece and nephew for a whole entire day (and night!) and we made these cookie pizzas from The Pioneer Woman as one of our afternoon activities. We just used straight marshmallow fluff for the “pizza sauce” and a variety of gummies, sprinkles and candy for the toppings. This was a great recipe to make with kids; they helped measure the ingredients, crack the egg, mix everything together, roll out the dough, cut out their shapes, and decorate of course. 
• Our friend Libby invited me to a media event at Cheesewerks, which is a grilled cheese resto near Front & Bathurst. I didn’t know they have a whole event side to their business though – trivia night, food tours, movie nights – pretty excited for a lot of these events this Fall.
• Danielle came for a visit, and we ate our way around Toronto, although not as much as last year. I plan on blogging about this separately, but for now let’s just say it involved doughnuts. Lots and lots of doughnuts.
• We met up with a big crew of FBCers and went on a foodie tour of Waterloo & St. Jacobs! First up was the St. Jacob’s farmer’s market, followed by a tour of Martin Family Fruit Farm, where we learned that there’s going to be a stellar apple crop this year!
• Nicole & Geoff threw a BBQ, and it was hands down the best meal I ate all summer. Geoff smoked ribs for about four hours, and Nicole made some amazing summer salads to go alongside. I didn’t take any pictures as I was up to my elbows in barbecue sauce, but you’ll just have to trust me, everything was absolutely incredible. Oh, I brought a S’mores Pie for dessert.
• I’m not ashamed to admit that I had an awesome lunch on the Earls patio with some former co-workers. Barry and I both had this Santa Fe Cajun Chicken Salad with a Peanut Lime Vinaigrette that we were both obsessing over. Guess I’m late to the party on this one, because when I googled it later, there were pages of copycat recipes that resulted. Have you had this salad? Why has no one told me about this?
• I finally (ha, finally, it’s been open for only a few weeks) hit up The Chase rooftop patio for after-work cocktails last Thursday. After catching some attitude at the door, which I won’t get into here, we grabbed a table in the sun and sipped some pretty delicious concoctions, like a vanilla bean vodka cocktail with muddled strawberries. Yummy!

Other non-foodie things I was obsessed with this month:

• BREAKING BAD. Enough said.
• This bracket on Grantland to determine the Best Song of the Millenium. I don’t agree with the outcome, and there were so many jams left off, but it was fun listening to all these songs and soul-searching to decide which ones I liked the most.
• I saw The Spectacular Now, after reading the book earlier in the summer and it was one of the rare cases where I liked the movie way more than the book. And not just because there are small parts played by Bubbles from The Wire, Saul from Breaking Bad and Coach from Friday Night Lights…although that was pretty awesome.
• Curtis Sittenfeld is one of my favourite authors, and she finally has a new book out this year after a three or four year wait. I thoroughly enjoyed Sisterland, and that’s all I’ll say, because you should pick it up and read it too!