OT Lazy Cooking with Cat!

[Catdancer]

Virginia, no, I just cut into chunks or slices. They don't take long, 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

[SalpalSally]

Baked sweet potatoes may be my new favorite food now.
Thanks you guys....yummmmmm!

[Cat Dancer]

Easy Fool-Proof Fudge:

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla
optional: 1-1/4 cup chopped nuts. Pecans, walnuts or almonds work well.

line an 8 x 8 pan with aluminum foil. Set aside.

In a microwave-safe bowl, stir together the chocolate chips and the sweetened condensed milk. Microwave for 3 minutes, on high. Remove from microwave. The chips will look like they're not melted. Trust me, they are! Stir the chips and milk together with a heavy spoon, until fully incorporated and mixture is smooth. Stir in vanilla, then the nuts if you want them.

Pour mixture into pan, spreading to even thickness. Chill at least 2 hours, until firm. Pull out of pan and peel off foil before cutting into pieces.

That's all! Fool-proof, one bowl. And if you've covered the pan with foil, you won't even need to wash it! :)

[SuzE-Q]

NOW we're talking!!

[stillstANNding]

Looking forward to this when I can chew again!

ANN

[Virginia]

Poor Ann. Maybe it will not be long - this does not look like it would be a hard food.

Suze, I am with you - if it is fool proof!

Cat, I plan to make this for my book club which does not meet until the last week of this month. However, I want to know if you promise this is really fool-proof. I do not plan to make it ahead of time. Just when I go. Sounds so good, I would like to make it now and then again at that time, but must cut back on my food intake, especially sweets.

[Cat Dancer]

Poor Ann. Maybe it will not be long - this does not look like it would be a hard food.

Suze, I am with you - if it is fool proof!

Cat, I plan to make this for my book club which does not meet until the last week of this month. However, I want to know if you promise this is really fool-proof. I do not plan to make it ahead of time. Just when I go. Sounds so good, I would like to make it now and then again at that time, but must cut back on my food intake, especially sweets.

I make it all the time, once every month or so. And a "ton" of it for holiday gifts. I've never had it fail. Do make it a bit before you go, though -- it needs 2 hours or more to chill before you can slice it into pieces.

Oh .. and it doesn't need chewing, ANN. Just stick a piece in your mouth, keep your mouth shut..it'll melt. :)

[stillstANNding]

Keep my mouth shut???
Never happens. Ask Peter or Agate.
A

[Cat Dancer]

Magic Cookie Bars. Or as Tom Cat calls them, "A Diabetic Nightmare".

We don't actually like these...WAY too sweet for us. But a friend with a real "sweet tooth" requests them all the time. And another friend makes them regularly for her grandkids:
1/2 cup butter
1-1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate bits
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 -1/3 cup flaked coconut
1 cup walnuts or pecans (almonds would work, too.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a 13 x 9 pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle crumbs and cinnamon over the butter, covering the bottom of the pan. Pour milk evenly over the crumbs. Top with remaining ingredients, in order listed, spreading evenly. Press down firmly. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until lightly browed. Cool, Cut into squares.

after eating, make an appointment with the dentist. You're bound to have cavities!! :)

[agate]

Keep my mouth shut???
Never happens. Ask Peter or Agate.
A

Nonsense! StillstANNding seemed like a rather quiet lady to me.

--This is the way I've often done sweet potatoes, learned from my mother.

Scrub the sweet potatoes, then grease their skins and spear them with a fork before baking. Bake them at 350' for 1 hour or more, till tender to the fork.

Cut them in half and remove the potato from the shells. Mash the potato but there's no need to make it ultra-smooth--just enough to get any lumps out.Stir in sherry, a bit of butter, maybe some salt, and chopped walnuts or pecans (raisins--optional).

Use real sherry, not cooking sherry, as cooking sherry has added salt. You want the potato flavor to predominate. The added ingredients are just touches of different flavors.

Return this mixture to the shells, top with bits of brown sugar and butter, and return to the warm oven just long enough for the brown sugar and butter to melt slightly together.

Instead of brown sugar you can use bread crumbs, again with butter dotted over the tops of the potatoes.

Another sweet potato idea that I haven't tried but it looks interesting:

Bake the sweet potatoes (skins on) at 375' for 45-55 minutes on each side, then leave them in the oven until they cool down to room temperature. They will come out all shriveled up but supposedly will taste great--with the skin.

[Virginia]

I've done the last one with letting them stay in the oven. They are great.

[SalpalSally]

That fudge sounds like one of my. Daily food groups!

Do you deliver?

[Virginia]

Cat where did you go? Are you talking about the small can of milk or the regular can (like vegetables come in). By the way, I am talking about the fudge.

[Catdancer]

Sweetened condensed milk, as far as I know, only comes in one size -- roughly 16 oz. can. Might be somewhat less than that, 13-1/2 oz. ****don't confuse this with evaporated milk, which does come in two sizes, 16 oz. And 8 oz. Or a large and small size!**** evaporated milk WILL NOT work in this recipe.

Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk is one brand; some stores have a generic brand. It will be in the baking aisle.

The difference? Both are milk from which the water has been removed (condensed), but the *sweetened* condensed milk has sugar added. Lots of sugar. It will pour out of the can like syrup, thick.

[Virginia]

Thanks Cat, you were very prompt! I am glad I asked because I might have confused the two milks. Now, I remember that is where I have seen the small cans.