Oatmeal bars

Mix together well:

1 c. butter

2 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla

Add to mixture:

2 1/2 c. flour

1 t. soda

1 t. salt

3 c. quick oats

Take 2/3 of the mixture and press into the bottom of a jelly roll pan.

Melt in the microwave:

2 c. chocolate chips

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 T. butter

Add:

1 t. vanilla to choc. chip mixture after it is melted.

Spread choc. chip mixture over the pressed dough in the pan.  Crumble the remaining 1/3 mixture on the top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Taco pizza

1 teaspoon Active Dry Yeast

1-½ cup Warm Water

4 cups All-purpose Flour

1 teaspoon Kosher Salt

⅓ cups Olive Oil

1 can (14 Ounce) Black Beans

1 teaspoon Taco Seasoning (prepared, Or Make Your Own)

4 whole Corn Tortillas, Sliced Into Thin Strips

½ cups Canola Oil, For Frying

1 cup Grated Sharp Cheddar

1 cup Grated Monterey Jack Cheese

1 head Green Leaf Lettuce, Sliced/shredded Thin

2 whole Ripe Tomatoes, Diced

½ cups Cilantro Leaves

¼ cups Sour Cream

3 Tablespoons Hot Sauce (more To Taste)

Make the pizza dough: Mix yeast with warm water and set aside for 8 to 10 minutes. Mix flour, salt, and olive oil in a mixing bowl. With speed on low, drizzle in yeast/water mixture. Allow to mix until totally combined. Cover bowl with a towel and set bowl in a warm, draft-free place. Allow to rise for 1 to 2 hours.
Pour black beans into a saucepan. Add seasonings to taste and heat up beans over medium-low heat. Use a potato masher to mash the beans to desired texture. Continue cooking/heating beans over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until no longer runny (should be the texture of refried beans. Set aside.
In a small skillet, heat canola oil over medium heat. When hot enough to fry, drop in the tortilla strips in batches, frying quickly and removing from oil with a fork when crisp–about 30 to 45 seconds per batch. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Set aside.
Place oven rack in the bottom position in the oven. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
Remove half the pizza dough from the bowl. Place remaining half in a large plastic bag and refrigerate, saving for another use. With hands, spread pizza dough on an oiled baking sheet, making sure it’s relatively thin. Spread layer of refried beans all over pizza crust. Sprinkle mixed grated cheeses over the top. Place pan in the oven (in the bottom half of the oven) and bake for 9 to 12 minutes. Watch it to make sure crust doesn’t burn.
Remove pizza from oven. Sprinkle on shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, and cilantro leaves.
Mix together sour cream and hot sauce, adding enough hot sauce to make the mixture pourable. With a spoon (or you can put it in a pastry bag) drizzle mixture over finished pizza.
Sprinkle with tortilla strips. Cut into squares and serve immediately with good quality salsa.

Rolls

• 1 1/2 cups of milk
• 3/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons yeast
• 2 cups of warm water
• about 9-10 cups of all purpose flour
• at least 1 cup of butter

Instructions

1. Scald 1 1/2 cups of milk, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup of butter, in a microwave safe bowl, for about 2 minutes. Cutting the butter into pieces helps it melt faster. There will probably be some little cubes of butter still floating in the hot mixture, they will melt.
2. add yeast to this hot mixture, but it will be too hot to just dump the yeast straight in (it would kill it!). To cool it down stir in 1-2 cups of flour, then add 1 egg and 1 Tablespoon of salt, and leave it to cool for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, in a measuring cup dissolve 2 Tablespoons of yeast in 2 cups of warm water and 1 Tablespoon of sugar. Let it sit for a couple of minutes until it is bubbly.
3. Make sure your milk mixture is just warm, not boiling and add the yeast mixture!
4. Using a fork or wooden spoon, gradually stir in 9-10 cups of flour (counting the flour you have already added to cool it earlier). I would recommend only adding 2 cups at time and stirring in between. These rolls turn out so much better when they are mixed by hand.
5. At the end the dough will be dense and sticky, and may be hard to stir, you can use your hands to incorporate the rest of the flour if needed. Be sure not to add too much flour. Then smooth the dough out and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Leave it in a warm place and let it rise.
6. When your dough is close to raising completely, butter 2 cookie sheets and set them aside.
7. Let the dough raise until it has doubled in size.
8. Cover your working space with flour to prevent the dough from sticking. Dump your dough out and divide it into 4 balls. Eyeball the sizes, then lift them up and feel the weight of each ball. Try to make them even, but they don’t have to be perfect.
9. Using one ball of dough at a time: roll the dough into a circle on a floured counter. Once it is rolled out spread the top with butter from edge to edge. You will use about 2 Tablespoons per circle of dough.
10. Cut the dough into quarters using a pizza cutter.
11. Then cut each quarter into 3 pieces. You should end up with 12 triangles from each circle of dough.
12. Roll the dough starting with the wide end of the triangle
13. Tuck the tail of the triangle under the roll and place it on the buttered cookie sheet. You will make 3 rows, with 8 rolls per row. This will give you 24 rolls per pan. Two balls of dough will fill 1 pan. You will get a total of 48 rolls!
14. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Place the pans of rolls in a warm place (on top of the oven if possible) to let them rise. Once they are touching and full in size, cook (one pan at a time) in the oven ’till they are golden brown. About 10 – 15 minutes, It may take longer depending on how hot your oven cooks. Keep a close eye on your first pan to get the right time for the second.
15. While they are still hot and fresh out of the oven run a stick of butter over the tops of the rolls for a delicious buttery glaze.

Cheesy Chicken Quesadilla Pie

• 3 (10-inch) flour tortillas, white or wheat
• Vegetable or canola oil cooking spray
• 3 cups cooked, shredded chicken (I used about 1 1/2 pounds chicken and cooked it with this method)
• 8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 2 cups)
• 1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro
• Salt and pepper
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F, making sure an oven rack is in the middle position. Grease a 9-inch deep dish pie plate with cooking spray. Overlap and layer the three tortillas (kind of in a cloverleaf pattern), pressing them into the dish, so that the bottom and sides of the pie plate are evenly covered with tortilla. In a medium bowl, toss the shredded chicken with 1 cup of the cheese, cilantro, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Spread the mixture into the pie plate.
2. In the same bowl that the chicken mixture was in (no need to wash it), whisk together the eggs, milk, flour, baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt until smooth. Slowly pour this liquid mixture into the pie plate covering the chicken evenly. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake for 25 minutes, until the surface is golden brown. Let the casserole rest 5-10 minutes before serving

whipped chocolate frosting

2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup milk
1 cup real butter, softened
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
Optional: Additional cocoa powder as needed
Melt your chocolate chips if you haven’t already and set aside to cool. You obviously don’t want it so cool that it hardens, but you can get it close to room temperature and still have it be soft and stir-able.
In a small saucepan, whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa, and milk; bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Boil 1-3 minutes or until thickened like a thinned pudding. Remove pan from heat and strain mixture into a small bowl. Cool completely in the refrigerator or freezer.
When chocolate flour mixture is cooled, beat the butter until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture until well combined fluffy, about 1 minute. Finally add in melted chocolate and beat again until well combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes. If desired, add additional cocoa powder to taste, up to 4 tablespoons more. Spread or pipe frosting on to cupcakes or cake.
Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes.
Storage: Store unused frosting in fridge and bring to room temperature before using again. If needed, beat with an electric beater before using.

Slow cooker creamy herbed chicken stew

1 C baby carrots
Potato, cut into pieces
1/4 C chopped onion
1/4 C sliced celery
1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
chicken
3/4 C chicken broth
1/4 C whipping cream
2 TBS flour, cornstarch

Place carrots, potato, onion, and celery in crockpot.
Sprinkle 1/2 thyme, salt, pepper over veggies.  Place chicken on top and pour on broth.
Cover and cook low for 6-7 hours.  Remove chicken and veggies from slow cooker.  Mix whipping cream, flour and remaining thyme with liquid.  Cover and cook until thickened and pour over chicken and veggies.

Jello cheesecake

1 large pk lemon jello
2 pk cream cheese
Big tub of cool whip
3/4-1 C powdered sugar

Dissolve lemon jello in 1 cup of boiling water.  Put in 1 cup of ice cubes. Put in fridge.  Whip cream cheese.  Start putting in powdered sugar.  Blend until thickened.  Add jello and fold in whip cream.