Hey Good Lookin'! Whatcha got cookin'?

Inspiration comes in many forms and mine is usually not found in the kitchen... until recently. It all started with a New Year's resolution to improve my cooking skills and learn how to create more homemade foods. I made Chloe's babyfood when she was an infant, but beyond the food processor, my kitchen skills were below average. My mother-in-law, who is an excellent cook, is my inspiration to learn more about food preparation along with the late Linda McCartney, whose cookbook I have used so much it has permanent food stains :)
So, what has been transpiring in my kitchen in the past few days?
Hand-made, no bread machine here, white bread!

here's what the inside looked like (notice I say "looked" because it's all gone!)


Tonight's specialty: Pizza! We bought the garlic-flavored dough from Trader Joe's (so you just add a bit of flour and roll it out) and the tomatoes I picked right from my garden!


Yesterday, when Will went to the grocery store, he picked up some "yucky" bananas. Every so often our little neigborhood store will bag up outdated bananas and sell 11-12 for 69cents!! I can make two loaves (or one loaf and 2 dozen muffins) for super cheap!
Here's what the bananas look like with all the ingredients (minus the flour):

All mixed up, ready to go:

And fresh out of the oven:

What does Chloe think about the banana bread dough? She's "helping" mommy clean up our baking mess :)

My banana bread recipe:
4-5 bananas
1 cup sugar
1 Tbs of milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
Mix in order. Bake 325 degrees for one hour.