It’s a happy day in our house when mom bakes (mom being me). It’s not a secret that I don’t bake very often. I have guilt about it sometimes but honestly, I don’t feel the need to handle all that sugar and butter very often. And the flour gets messy. And I have to measure perfectly or the recipe gets all messed up. That’s the one that gets me big time. I’m not great at perfectly measuring and I’ve learned that’s pretty important when it comes to baking. It is what it is. We are all good at what we are good at, right? What I do love about when I bake something is that it makes everyone in my house truly happy. It makes me happy because I know they are happy – plus I know exactly what went into the baked goods they are eating. That’s a big bonus. Quick breads are actually one of my favorite things to bake. Quick breads and muffins. They are easy enough to put together and usually are full of fruit and good stuff like oats or whole grain flour. I wanted to play around with this recipe for Pumpkin Raspberry Bread I found on my friend Sandy’s blog and turn it into an oatmeal type pumpkin bread but I didn’t quite have all the ingredients I needed. I instead adapted from it slightly adding apples and cinnamon, some of my favorite fall ingredients. I think I have a good excuse to experiment some more and bake another one. That’s a good thing because this Apple Pumpkin Bread lasted about 24 hours in our house. It was delicious and put smiles on everyone’s face. And that my friends is always a good thing. Have a great weekend! Bake some pumpkin bread! (more…)

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When my trip began all I remember was being scared to death. I was going so far away from home all myself not knowing anyone or what to expect. Talk about nervous. All the bloggers that attended the event were so nice and Aggie and I hit it off right from the start. We even got to cook together in the Culinary Institute of America Kitchen and it was so awesome. Aggie is such a great person but if you’re a reader of Aggie’s Kitchen then I am sure you already know that.

While we were in Napa we learned so many things about the power of beans. We learned how to incorporate them into different dishes and just how nutritious beans are. All that bean talk really got me excited about trying new recipes at home. I knew this was going to be a big challenge for me, because my youngest son Carson is the pickiest eater. Especially when it comes to eating beans and vegetables, so I knew had my work cut out for me. I was going to have to find a way to try and disguise them as best as I could if I wanted him to eat them.

My little guy loves muffins and quick breads so I thought maybe I could add beans to some baked goods and he just might eat them. Well I am happy to say it worked!!! So today I want to share with you two recipes that are a huge hit in our house. The first one is Homemade Black Bean Brownies made with pureed black beans

and the second is a recipe for Mini White Bean Banana Nut Breads

made with pureed White Cannellini Beans.

I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we do. If you like family favorite recipes and old fashioned classics then I hope you can pop over and visit Mommy’s Kitchen, because I would sure love to have you.

Gratefully, Tina

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