Banana Loaf Joy

Not much makes me happier than something yummy from the oven. I love baking, but have rarely ventured into cakes - I usually do bread, cinnamon rolls, muffins, or quickbreads. One of these days I will tackle cakes. I am not crazy about icing (I know, that's nuts, right?), although I do love a good moist cake. One day!

For today, though, I'm making a Banana Pecan Loaf from The Complete Canadian Living Baking Book. My hubby loves bananas, but sometimes doesn't finish the bunch before they start to get those brown spots. When that happens, I freeze them. But here's my tip - when freezing bananas, take a second to peel and slice the bananas into your freezer bag or container before sticking them in the freezer. It makes using them later so much easier, you don't have to deal with a brown skin that falls to pieces and a mushy, slippery banana. I usually pack 2-3 bananas, sliced, together in one bag - enough for any of my banana muffin or loaf recipes. Then I can just pull it out when I get up in the morning and leave it in the sink to thaw. By mid-morning the bananas are thawed and ready to go!

Oh, by the way - the Spicy Pickled Beans (from Recipezaar) and Spicy Pickled Beets (from my Small Batch Preserves cookbook) are a hit! Hubby was unsure about the beans, not being a big fan of beans, but one bite of these hot and pickly morsels had him hooked.

Okay, enough foodie rambling. Here are some giveaways for today!

For baby:

• Win a Britax car seat (!) at The Cloth Diaper Report. Ends August 12th.
• Win a Booroi diaper cover, wetbag, 3 bamboo wipes and a bamboo prefold at Dirty Diaper Laundry! Ends August 24th.
• Win an Adorabumz custom diaper cover at Newly Wed, Newly Bred. Ends August 24th.
  
• Win an Urban Backpack diaper bag from One Step Ahead at Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House. Ends August 28th.
• Win a pair of Turquoise Knit Ruffle Butt Bloomers at Organic Girl. Ends September 2nd.
• Win a pair of Ruffle Butt Bloomers at My Mom's View, too! Ends August 21st.
  

For anyone:

• Win some Crunchy Clean laundry detergent at Your Mama Reviews. It comes in great scents like Buttercream Cupcake! Mmm. Ends August 18th.
• Win a Hain Celestial healthy foods pack at MomFuse! Ends August 14th.
• I know you've been seeing this out there in blogland today - win a pair of Ugg boots at Whooga Boots by posting their badge on your blog. I hear they're comfy!