I peel before freezing.

As for ripeness, all of the bananas that I've used so far have been in the clearance bin, so they're pretty ripe, lots of brown spots, but not totally brown and squishy. Hope that helps!

Cool! I will add you to my google reader. I also read the ones you mentioned plus too many more to list. Some of them are "Carrots N Cake", "N Her Shoes", "Running with a Recipe", "The Inner Workings of a College Graduate", and more..... I get so many great ideas from these ladies!
Same here, I love all of those, too! I spend way too much time reading food blogs