Pile of Vegetables

Has anyone been cooking this summer? This is what I make when I don't feel like doing anything at all.

Chop up various vegetables to about the same size. I like to use potatoes, beets, carrots, onions, broccoli, peppers, or really anything that I have around. The tough root vegetables will need longer to cook than things like broccoli and peppers, so they go on the pan first. Lay them out on a baking sheet with sides and sprinkle them with melted butter or olive oil, and some salt and whatever spices you like. Pop them into a 400 degree oven and add any left-out vegetables after 20 minutes. They should be done after 15-20 more minutes, but check them with a knife - if they're done, it'll go right through.

Oreo Cookie Pudding

1 package Oreo cookies
2 Large boxes vanilla instant pudding
5 cups milk (whole milk works best)
1 8oz container Cool Whip
1 8oz cream cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Soften cream cheese at room temp. Crush cookies and put half in the bottom of a large serving bowl, set aside. Mix softened cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth, set aside. In a seperate bowl beat together milk and pudding mix, add to cream cheese and powdered sugar mixture, fold in Cool Whip. Put pudding on top of crushed cookies and top with remaining crushed cookies.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

4 oz unsweetened chocolate (or bittersweet)
1 stick of butter, cut into tablespoons
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs

Melt chocolate with butter over low heat and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar. Add eggs one at a time and whisk in. Pour mixture into greased 8 inch cake pan and bake for 15* minutes at 375 degrees, until a thin crust forms on the top.

Cut into triangles and serve with whipped cream, or just eat it with a fork. Yum.

*the original recipe says 25 minutes, but this was too long for me. I dunno.

Kate's Bread

The famous homemade bread goes something like this:

2 T yeast
1 T sugar
2 cups warm water (I turn the tap on as hot as it will go so I don't kill the yeast!)
1 cup milk
2 T melted butter
1 T salt
6ish cups flour (sometimes I mix half whole-wheat and half white flour)

Dissolve yeast and sugar in water and wait until it gets foamy. Mix it into the milk and butter and salt, and start stirring in flour, one cup at a time. When the dough pulls away from the bowl, turn it onto a floured surface and begin kneading in the rest of the flour. Keep going until the dough isn't ridiculously sticky, and when you press it, it bounces back. Place in greased bowl and let it rise until it's about double the size it was. At this point, you can either put it in a bread pan or pull it into fist-sized chunks and put them on a cookie sheet. Wait a while for them to get puffy again, and stick 'em in an oven at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes for the loaf, and 15ish minutes for the buns.

They freeze well, make good sandwiches, and apparently make husbands very very happy :)

The Melting Pot

Hey y'all. Time to gather some recipes for us folks that can't give up our day jobs quite yet, eh?