Cream Cheese Brownies

Description:
This recipe is directly from my Betty Crocker cookbook... more or less. ;-)

It's so good that I'm making it for the third time this week. Plan for gooey brownies, though. If you want clean fingers when you're done, eat these with a fork.

Ingredients:
brownies
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1 package chocolate chips cookies (Betty calls for 5 oz. of chocolate, but she's obviously not thinking straight. The chocolate chips I use, Rapunzel, come in 10 oz. bags.)
2/3 c. butter
1 3/4 c. sucanut (or sugar if all you have is the chemically bleached stuff)
2 t. vanilla
3 large eggs
1 c. whole wheat flour (or the chemically bleached stuff)

cream cheese filling
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2 packages of cream cheese (8 oz. each)
1/2 c. sucanut
2 t. vanilla
1 large egg

Directions:
heat oven to 350 F. grease bottom and sides of brownie pan. (betty says to use a 9-inch square pan. but i've been using something closer to 9 x 13 and the brownies have been coming out fine.)

melt butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly. cool 5 minutes.

in medium bowl, beat sugar, vanilla and eggs with electric mixer on high speed for 5 minutes. beat in chocolate mixture on low speed, scraping the bowl occasionally. beat in flour just until blended. (stir in walnuts if you're nutty enough to want that kind of thing. i'm not.) spread in pan.

for cream cheese filling: mix softened cheese (cream cheese isn't really cheese. did you know that?), sucanut, vanilla and egg. spread on top of the brownie mixture and, using a spatula, spread the lumps out a bit to cover as much of the top of the brownie mixture as possible.

bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

Modified Fruit Cake (Trail Mix Version)

Description:
For her birthday, my grandmother decided she wanted a fruitcake. So, though I couldn't marinate it for months, I decided to make one anyway. It turned out to be a hit. Unfortunately, I didn't save the page that I got the recipe from. So today I decided to make my own version of fruit cake -- a sort of trail mix version, without the peanuts.

Ingredients:
1/2 c. - 1 c. currants
1 T. orange rind
1/2 c. - 1 c. raisons
1/2 c. dried, sugared pineapple
1/2 c. dates
1/2 c. dried sweetened cherries (not the overly sugary candied variety)
1/2 c. dried papaya
4 c. pecans
2/3 c. oatmeal (i used thick-rolled oats)
1 3/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1 c. softened butter
1 c. sucanut
5 large eggs
rum or brandy

Directions:
soak the currents, raisons and orange peel overnight in rum or brandy. (i used just enough almost cover the fruit.)

set the oven to 250 degrees (F). beat the butter and sugar until well mixed. add eggs one at a time. scrape the bowl to make sure the eggs are well mixed in. add the flour and mix just until the flour is thoroughly mixed in. add the pecans, oats, and fruit.

pour into 2 loaf pans that have been lined with wax paper. cook for 2 1/2 hours.

serve with a light dusting of powdered sugar on top.