piles o' berries pie

Ingredients:
4 cups strawberries (you may need more than this depending on how high you want to pile them)
1 cups red raspberries
1 cup blackberries
1 cup blueberries
3/4-1 cup granulated sugar
2-3 tablespoons cornstarch
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup water
whipped topping
1 no-bake shortbread pie shell (i prefer shortbread, but if you go to central market they have 'nilla wafer, which is also good. as a last resort i will use graham cracker).

Directions:
1) wash and destem the berries, but leave them whole.

2) pile half of the strawberries and all of the other berries into the pie crust.

3) in a sauce pan, combine 2 cups of the strawberries, a little bit of water, combine 3/4 cup sugar, 2 tbspn cornstarch and 1 tbspn lemon juice. stir the mixture over medium heat until smooth and the mixture comes to a boil. Boil for 1 minute.IMPORTANT: you have to mix the cornstarch with some COLD water before you add it or it will get lumpy. add more sugar and/or lemon if needed (taste it to determine this). if you want it to be thicker, add more cornstarch.

4) Remove from heat and pour over the berries in the pie crust.

5) Refrigerate until cool (apprx. 2 hours). Serve with whipped topping.

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Jesus Balls

recipe thanks to h. willaday...

So, to make the Jesus Balls get yourself a package of Oreos and a package of cream cheese (I used fat free to try to make myself feel better about eating Oreos, but that's sort of like ordering a cheeseburger and diet coke, so it's whatever). Blend the Oreos, cream and all, in the blender until they're a fine powder. When I had a shitty blender, I had to do this half a row at a time and dump it into a bowl or my blender blades would get all gunked up with Oreos, but now that I have an amazing wedding present blender, I can do like a row and a half at a time! Do not use Stephen's magic bullet. I did that once and it was disastrous. When you get all your Oreos into a powder and into a bowl, fold the cream cheese in. I've found this works best just to do with your hands. Once it's mixed well together, roll 'em into balls. Melt some vanilla almond bark and pour over the tops of them. You could even add some sprinkles if you're feeling festive. Store them in the fridge when you're done so you don't get ill from unrefrigerated cream cheese.

Happy Jesus Balls!

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Pumpkin Cake

Holly's Favorite

1 large 29 oz can pumpkin
1 box yellow cake mix
1 cup milk
1 and 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1-2 cups of walnuts finely chopped

Prepare pumpkin mixture pour in a 9" by 13" cake pan. Sprinkle yellow cake mix over pumpkin mixture. Melt butter pour half over yellow cake. Top with chopped walnuts and pour the rest of the butter over this. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Great hot or cold.

Best with whipped cream.

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Impromptu Vegan Gravy

Today we woke up craving biscuits and gravy. We had bisquick, but no gravy, so we decided to make up a recipe. The result was outstanding! Here's what we did:

Mix the following ingredients in the Magic Bullet:
1 ish cups of soy milk
2-3 tablespoons of oil
2 1/2 tablespoons of bisquick
some salt and pepper
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder

Simmer on medium/low for about 5 minutes or until thick. Stir or whisk so it doesn't clump.

Yum!

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