Four random, quick, and easy recipes

I just came back from the grocery store. What a mess! Stay away if you can avoid it, hibernate for a few days, or join a community project helping folks who need the help. Whatever you do, stay away from the stores if you can help it. Here are some random recipes using ingredients that you probably have at home and that might help if you need something good to eat.

Shortbread

Preheat your oven to 325. Soften up one-half-pound of butter. No getting around it; this needs to be real butter. Cream the butter and add one-half-cup of powdered sugar. Mix it around 'til its fluffy. Add a pinch of salt. Add 2 cups of flour slowly. Mix it up. Press all of that into a 9-inch loaf pan. Put that in the freezer for about 30 minutes. When you take it out of the freezer after 30 minutes or so stick a fork in the center and in a few other places on the cake. You just need to get into the surface. Bake for 25 or 30 minutes, not longer. Cut it into squares while its still hot.

Potatoes

Mash 6 cups of real potatoes. Mix in 2 eggs and a package of cheap or leftover cheese. I don't think that it matters what kind you use, but cheddar works best. Pour that into a greased casserole. Cover that with flavored bread crumbs. Let it bake at 350 for 45 minutes or one hour.

Easy pudding and fruit salad

Mix up a couple cans of fruit that you have had in the house for awhile. drain, and set the juice aside. Pineapple chunks, mandarin oranges, and those cans of mixed fruit chunks are good to use here. Put that in a glass bowl. Mix some instant pudding up. I think that Jello instant pudding works best. Mix in the juices while you're making the pudding. Pour the pudding over the fruit in the glass bowl and stir it around.

Hot dog snack

Heat up some hot dogs and slice them into one-inch pieces. Mix together one-half-of-a-cup of brown sugar, three-quarters-of-a-cup of barbecue sauce and one T of lemon juice. If you don't have barbecue sauce made, try making some with ketchup, spices, vinegar, brown sugar, paprika, cumin, salt, and black pepper and anything else that you think belongs in it. Adjust the quantities to your liking. This is a quick recipe and you're not trying out for one of those celebrity chef shows. Put the hot dogs in the sauce and cook for about 15-20 minutes on the stove.