I have tried a few different soaked muffin recipes and had not found one that I was fond of.  Most resulted in a heavy, gummy end product.  Not good.  I finally stumbled across a banana bread recipe at The Nourishing Home that I fiddled with a bit to come up with this delicious soaked banana muffin [...]

***10/10/12: Giveaway closed.  The winner is Wild Orchid!  Congrats!  Thanks to all who entered!!*** I use coconut oil all the time.  It is a pantry staple, and I have tried several different brands and types over the years. I use it often in the place of butter when making whole wheat bread or muffins and [...]

We are at the end of another gardening season. *Sniff*  This is a bit of a sad time for me.  I am always very sad to see my garden get down to just a few fresh veggies.  The last few things I have coming out of the garden this time of year (that is not [...]

After several years of canning using regular lids, I decided that I was tired of having zillions of metal lids lying around that I could not reuse.  Many of them got tossed, although I did keep quite a few to use for things I stored in canning jars that didn’t need to be sealed.  The [...]

Due to my very prolific cucumber plants, I have been putting up pints and pints of dill pickles.  Canning pickles is a great way to preserve cucumbers for the winter.  But there was a couple of instances when I had too many pickles to eat but not enough to warrant filling up the canning pot [...]

This spring I tried out something new; I started my onions from seed instead of sets.  A package of heirloom Giant Zittau seeds cost me $2.00 which is pretty reasonable for 150 onion seeds.  Buying 150 sets usually costs in the ballpark of $5.00.  Starting onions from seed takes a little advance planning because they [...]

Here at Green Bean Gardens, I have cucumbers sticking out of my ears.  We eat multiple cucumbers every day and still can’t keep up with them.  I may have planted a few too many plants.  What to do with such a surplus?  Make pickles, of course!  After three seasons of fiddling with recipes and trying [...]

Last week my husband and I got back from a lovely trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.  This was our third trip to this amazing place this year. This year (in March) was our five year anniversary, and we decided to celebrate by taking a long canoe camping trip later in the summer.  We [...]

I love a good sweet bread.  There is nothing better than sitting down with a nice piece of banana bread and a cup of coffee in the morning.  However, most banana bread recipes have a ton of sugar in them and are not very good for you.  My (not so little) little brother (who follows [...]

Inevitably I can’t resist the pull of the dark beautiful Bing Cherries during the summer. Cherries are juicy and super tasty and are a perfect summer fruit.  However, somehow they always get pushed to the back of the fridge before I can eat them all and then weeks later I find myself throwing away molding [...]