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Grain-Free Banana Blueberry Bundt Cake with Oranges

Here we go again. I’ve allowed my counter top to turn into a banana graveyard. My husband hates this. Mostly because, banana pranks. But, lucky for him, I’m kind of a wizard when it comes to using these mushy brown spotted naners.

If I was writing an important short bio, it might look like this:

Gina is a hard worker and first class worrier, living in the SF Bay Area. She has a complicated relationship with natural deodorant, and on occasion will transform the menagerie of rotting bananas on her counter into a mothertrucking cake. She likes jazz, as long as it isn’t too smooth, and kisses her dog on the mouth. She’s married to a man who likes sandwiches, and tends to fall asleep in his “nook”–the swoopy part along his side that is neither underarm nor lap. She does not excel at jumping rope or reading maps, but makes up for these short comings with questionable charisma.

Does this sound professional? In fact, the next time I’m published in a magazine I might just submit that to go along with it. Special skills are important to list. Plus, everyone likes it when you talk about your husband’s swoopy non-armpit parts. Not uncomfortable. […]

Chocolate + Banana Buckwheat Pancakes {Gluten-Free}

Pancakes were always a special treat growing up. The weekend would come, and my mom would bust out a griddle and and a box of Bisquick to make us all banana pancakes. Her knack for getting the pancakes to have those delectable crispy edges is unparalleled. I still don’t quite understand it. I’m just going to chalk it up to Mom having a sort of kitchen magic. I really hope that when I have kids I inherit this perfect-every-time-crispy-flapjack trait. It seems like one that would be useful. I also hope to inherit the I’m-looking-at-you-in-a-certain-way-and-now-you-should-probably-be-scared trait. Very effective in those times when your child (me) won’t stop asking you to make snow cones in January (I did have one of these…so….)  while you’re (my mom) on a business call. This look will halt the snow cone whining. Stat.   […]

Spicy Banana Scones With Caramel Glaze {Grain-Free + Gluten-Free}

Yesterday I baked my feelings.

I turned on some Ben Folds Five, preheated my oven, and mashed bananas together with eggs.  It seemed like the only way to make the day manageable. There was also a Fiona Apple and Shepherd’s Pie situation that occurred later that evening. I’m telling you, I really cooked my feelings into submission. Also, Fiona Apple brings the appropriate amount of angst to Shepherd’s Pie. It makes it edgy (dare I say, Criminal? Get it? #chickrockpuns #lilithfairkitchen) I highly recommend it.

I don’t know about you, but when things get hard, or my to-do list starts to span pages, I tend to drop everything and head into the kitchen. This is how I work things out. There’s meditation in there. You’re forced to clear your mind, focus on what’s in front of you, and if all goes right, deliver a satisfying result (that you can then eat–which is a much better outcome than doing laundry — you can’t eat your laundry).  […]

Banana Ice Cream Cake with Lemon Cheesecake Icing and Carrot Cake Crust {Raw, Paleo, Vegan, Gluten-Free}

You guys. I made a healthy ice cream cake!!

Okay, so this isn’t entirely true. I made a healthy ice cream + cheesecake + carrot cake. Yeah, I know, it got a little bonkers. But, I promise it got weird in the best way possible.

After finishing the Whole 30, my brain was swirling with desserts. Can you blame me? So when the folks from Paleo Parents sent me a very nice e-mail asking me to write a guest post for their blog, I decided to go big. My brain flipped the “LET THERE BE CAKE!!” switch. So here. Cake. All the cakes. Smashed together into one glorious no-bake cake. […]

Grain-Free Bourbon Peach Banana Bread

Having recently moved into a new home, I can tell you I have a lot of things. I’ve had to take stock of these things and move them from one location to another. This is the time where I might find boxes of high school love letters and poetry, a sweater someone from Norway once gave me as a gift, bins of yarn — some of it tangled — and two leather trench coats. I will tell you that all of those things I mentioned are still in my garage. In fact, a lot of things are still in my garage. It’s been about four weeks since we’ve moved into our new place and I haven’t needed any of those things. Part of me wants to set fire to the clutter and be rid of it (although I’m fairly certain my land lady would be pretty miffed). All of those boxes gone in one blaze of horrifying glory. Yes, this is the lazy part of my brain speaking. The part of my brain where arson seems like an easier out than organizing a craft closet. […]

Grain-Free Banana Walnut Cake

On Saturday morning I woke up in a funk. Before my feet even hit the floor I was angry and sullen. It was as if waking up tipped me into a full blown state of overwhelm. My mind raced and I just lay there with flashes of to-do lists and goals and problems and ideas washing over me at warp speed. It was like an internet screen with ALL the tabs open was living right underneath my eyeballs. […]

Grain-Free Banana Cranberry & Lemon Breakfast Cake

 

Hello. My name is Gina, and I am a banana hoarder.

Send help.

You might be wondering, how does one identify themselves as such? Sure you’ve watched those shows where people collect newspapers and trinkets and hundreds of cats, but banana hoarding has yet to be seen as mainstream. I get it. So, let’s just say there comes a point in time when you open up your freezer in order to stash away this week’s leftover banana bounty, only to realize there is legitimately no more room due to your already overwhelming collection of frozen bananas. My husband is confused. We discussed this a little bit the last time I made you banana bread. I’ve since stopped letting my bananas rot in the dark corners of my kitchen counters and have instead moved on to extreme hoarding behaviors. You tell me which one is better. I’m just not completely sure. […]

Tipsy Blueberry Banana Bread {Gluten-Free & Paleo}

Nothing says “your four day weekend is officially over!” like waking up at 3:30am to the sound of your cat vomiting onto your bed sheets. It got way too real way too quickly this morning.
I mean, I know that not everyday can be farmer’s markets, painting the entire living room while listening to old Beck albums, beautiful Golden Gate Bridge views, fro-yo in the sun, grilling in the afternoon, marathon-ing Netflix, too many potato chips, drinking whiskey in your underpants because it’s so dang hot and summery kind of a day. I know. I get it. Without the routine of real life those four day weekends of glorious nothingness and everything-ness would not seem special. But… I still feel waking up to the sound of your cat retching suspiciously close to your ankles is not ideal. However, when this unfortunate event does happen, I will give you a pro-tip. Sure, you might be the first person to wake up at the cat’s heaving. Maybe your husband or partner is still snoring and fast asleep next to you. You can totally nudge them until they wake up and then pretend that YOU are sleeping. They will hear the terrible noises and rush to clean things up. Not that I have ever done this (I have). That is so rude (but totally effective). Being married is awesome.
You know what else is awesome? This slightly drunken loaf of blueberry banana heaven! Did you like that flawless segue? Naturally. Okay, so I might have baked this loaf of bread while it was close to 100 degrees outside. This is because 1) I am obviously slightly insane  and 2) My husband gets really angry when I don’t use the old bananas that I let rot into mush on the counter. These bananas are laying there browning and mushing because I always claim I’m going to make banana bread. Do you guys do that too? Pete has little tolerance for it anymore. I kind of get it. We have been doing this relationship thing for ten years. Those ten years have seen lots of rotting bananas that have NOT made their way into banana breads. It pets his peeve. Is that a thing? Do I have to say pet peeve together? I don’t think I like the sound of petting someones peeve. Perhaps that is my pet peeve. Full circle. […]

Banana Nut Granola With Quinoa

I am in the weeds, Friends. I will admit this to you wholeheartedly. I am truly behind. My kitchen has taken a backseat to life lately. Surely you understand this. I can’t be the only one who gets overwhelmed by life and ends up drinking one kind of smoothie, slapping ham on toast and eating handfuls of spinach straight out of the bag. This is a thing right? Besides baking different variations of this bread to cart off to my family, I have not exactly flexed the muscles in my food brain. It’s losing muscle mass. It’s sitting there in a smoothie rut. Flabby. We can’t have this, right? Let’s tell my food brain to wake up and go for a walk.
On Tuesday morning this is exactly what I did. I sprung out of bed and decided it was time to create something that was not toast. Also, my husband had been not so subtly hinting  for a couple of weeks that he would be utterly thrilled if I would replenish the granola stash. While we were grocery shopping he decided he might get some sort of sugary cereal, I told him I didn’t like his moves, he told me that if I made granola he wouldn’t even be considering it. Touche. Point taken. There was also a week where the empty granola canister kept appearing on the counter magically as if to say “GRANOLA! NOW!” I am not sure how it got there. I did not put it there. I don’t think the cat or the dog have the dexterity to grab the canister from out of the pantry and place it on the counter. This only leaves one human. I am not going to point fingers, but I will give you a hint…I am married to him. […]

Grain-Free Lemon Apricot Yogurt Cake + How Social Media Makes Me Feel Like A Big Fat Failure

Hello. How are you? I made you cake.

In truth, I made you this cake months ago, but I didn’t share it with you then. Rude. I know.

More truth.

I have two speeds when I’m overwhelmed. The first speed is the high speed of my Kitchen Aid mixer making something superfluous, or the low and slow bubbling of something rich and comforting (read: this eggplant parm). Yeah, the first speed happens somewhere in my kitchen. The second speed isn’t really a speed at all. It looks more like a scared, paralyzed possum who’s instinctively playing dead.  Yes, this is perhaps the slowest speed. It’s a dead (er…playing dead) stop. This is one functional step above lying on the floor of your closet with the lights off and the door closed, foraging a bed out of your impressively large worn-out sweater collection. […]