What's your favorite quick and yummy recipe?

I have a favorite brownie recipe that never fails, and is super-easy. They're somewhere in between a fudgey and a cakey brownie, although consistency varies slightly depending on how long you let them bake. They're especially yummy if you use a good chocolate, i usually go for ghirardelli, because it's widely available and not too expensive, but using scharffen berger or lindt or some other high-class chocolate would yeild even richer results. here goes:

Brownies:

4 oz unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup butter (or margarine, but I only ever use butter)
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup nuts or chocolate chips or m&ms; as you wish (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. grease a 13x9 inch baking pan.

Microwave butter and chocolate together in a large bowl until melted, about a minute at a time. Should take about 2 minutes, depending on your microwave. Add sugar, stir until blended. Add eggs and vanilla. Add flour and any extras.

Spread into the pan and bake, 35 to 40 minutes. I used to always be scared of over-baking brownies, but really, give them at least 30 minutes before checking on them. A toothpick test should yield an almost-clean toothpick, with some sticky crumbs still clinging to it.

Baking my brownies for long enough changed them from a gooey (although still yummy) mess, to gorgeous and fudgey brownies that are wonderful warm, with ice cream. Frosting can be added if you wish, but I never bother. yum-yum!

Green bean and artichoke casserole

2 cans french cut green beans
1 can plain artichoke hearts
1 cup italian seasoned bread crumbs
3/4 cup grated parmesean
3/4 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves

Cut up artichoke hearts roughly into quarters. Drain veggies and mix ingredients. Spread in a baking dish. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. I generally wait until the top browns.

Enjoy!

Eggs in Purgatory

2 cups chunky tomato sauce (can be store-bought, or thrown together from a can of tomatoes and some sauteed veggies)
2 eggs
2 slices bread

Heat the tomato sauce in a small saucepan until boiling, then reduce to a simmer. One at a time, break the eggs into a small bowl, and then slip each egg into the boiling sauce. Let the eggs poach for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on how runny you like your yolks (3 minutes is a nice medium-firm yolk).

Meanwhile, toast the bread. When the eggs are done, put one on each slice of toast, and then cover with sauce. This is a great, easy dinner for when you haven't gone grocery shopping in a while! =)

Oh, and if you want to perfect your egg-poaching technique, there's a good how-to here. Have fun!

Fresh Gazpacho

Four large tomatoes (steam the skin off)
One clove garlic
Two hunks of bread
a little salt

Put it in a blender and beat it up

Add ice to chill
pepper the top with cut prosciutto and minced boiled eggs
Mix it up

It is yummy!

Insalada caprese:

Slice tomatoes (home-grown if possible) into 1/4 in. slices. Alternate slices of tomatoes with thin slices of red onion, leaves of fresh basil and slices of fresh mozzarella (bufala if available). Drizzle with high-quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Grind on some pepper and sprinkle with sea salt to taste.

All sounds great! Thanks. What a great community in Fluther.

Check out 101 recent recipes that take 10 minutes prep, from NYT.

http://tinyurl.com/2hrtsf

my latest summer favorite is tabbouleh (tabouli?). This recipe from my mother is much more hearty than your average tabbouleh salad, it can actually serve as a meal, not just a side dish. soaking the bulghar takes time but the rest is speedy. You can leave the bulghar to soak in the morning while you're away and then making this recipe at night is very easy. Note--you need to use the fresh herbs, not dried herbs.

3/4 cup bulghar , let it soak one hour in 1 cup very hot water, till light and fluffy. drain the excess water.
mix in:
1 cup finely chopped parsley
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh mint
2 carrots, scraped (not chopped)--scrape them right into the mix
1 or 2 large chopped tomatoes
a bunch of chopped white mushrooms
1 can of chickpeas

mix it all together

mix this dressing separately and pour on top:
juice of one large lemon
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

mix it all up and refrigerate. You can eat it at room temp but it's better cold.
Delicious!

Salami Crisp
Bake some salami at 325 for about 10 minutes after pulling it out place it on a paper towel it should be kind of crunchy. Place a fresh basil leaf on that and top it all off with a touch of sour cream. This is easy and awesome stuff.

I just made this tonight. I learned this from another forum (diabetes daily from a person named Ahhah)

On a parchment paper, put 4 inches diameter of shredded mozzerella cheese, sprinkle each dried oregano and dried parsley

Bake in 400 oven til sides turn golden brown

Take out of oven, put your favorite spaghetti sauce and pizza toppings

pop back in oven til toppings melt.

Enjoy!

Jill, you say 4 inches diameter of mozzarella cheese, but don't mention how thick. Would, say, 8 inches be too much? One day I want to experiment and find the magical thickness where bacon becomes a fatty steak.

@hossman bacon is nice at a half inch thick. I get it cut like that for many uses. Its great for wraping stuff to cook when its thst thick. And yes you will need your knife to cut your bacon steak

Hi Hossman...
Good question...I think it was roughly .5 inch tall this evening. Or you can experiment to make it thicker, and bigger. I think that would work. Make sure have room on the cookie sheet if the 8 inches tall of cheese. LOL Let me know. Next time I will experiment to make a bigger one, like a regular pizza size.

Important to put on parchment paper, easy to remove as I noticed tonight.

Let me know if you like it, it is delicious!

Hi Jill E, et al, you might also want to try this recipe for quick and easy granola bars...you can improvise a lot and they're really yummy:
http://fluther.com/disc/2676/how-to-i-turn-granola-into-bars/

Occ..thanks will definately try the granola bars. You are creative.