Add crafting recipes to make some of our blocks with vanilla blocks (Dirt + Water -> Mud, Leaves -> Leaf Piles, etc.)

Add crafting recipes to make some vanilla blocks with our blocks (Dried Dirt + Water -> Dirt, etc.)

A couple of suggestions:
Quicksand (Oven) -> sand

If BIOP or vanilla had a press (as various tech and even cooking mods added in 1.7.10), I'd suggest Mud Block (Press) -> Clay block.

Absent a press, it might be Mud block (oven) -> Clay block or Mud block (Oven) -> dried dirt (or hardened dirt?)

Yeah, quicksand should have some kind of use, as it's basically just an annoyance at the moment.