Berry Cheesecake Brownies

This was a recipe we found in a King Soopers coupon mailer that turned out to be seriously tasty! Be warned - it's rather gooey. :-)


Berry Cheesecake Brownies

Ingredients:

Brownie batter:
2 (6 oz) pkg. dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup creamy butter
3/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup all-purpose flour

Cheesecake topping:
1 (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tsp lemon juice
2 cups fresh raspberries


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Combine chocolate and butter in a heavy saucepan; melt over low heat, stirring frequently. Cool and pour into a medium mixing bowl. Stir in 3/4 cup sugar. Whisk in 3 eggs, one at a time, 2 tsp vanilla, and salt. Stir in 3/4 cup flour; mix well and pour into the prepared pan.

For Cheesecake Topping: In a small mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar using an electric mixer at medium speed until fluffy. Add 1 egg, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 2 Tbsp flour, and lemon juice and mix until smooth. Spread in an even layer over brownie batter; sprinkle with berries. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until top is puffed and toothpick comes out with crumbs. Cool in pan on rack; refrigerate to set (about 6 hours) before serving.


Yield: 32 brownies

Fruit Salad (Ambrosia)

This is a recipe given to me by my (crazy) Aunt Karen. It's relatively easy to make and serves as an excellent addition to a big breakfast. Or it functions nicely as its own light breakfast. I often use it for breakfast potlucks since it make quite a lot!

Aunt Karen Fruit Salad

Ingredients:
1 can peaches, cut up
1 can pineapple tidbits
1 can mandarin oranges
handful of red grapes, halved
handful of marachino cherries, halved
2 bananas, sliced
1 box tapioca pudding (cooked variety)
1 box coconut pudding (cooked variety)

Directions:
1. Drain all canned fruit, reserving liquid to 3 cups (add water if needed).
2. Mix pudding with reserved liquid and whisk thoroughly.
3. Heat in microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes. Stir well. Repeat once more and again if needs thickening. Stir frequently.
4. Cool pudding mix in refrigerator.
5. Combine all fruit but cherries and bananas with cool pudding. Fold in with spatula.
6. Refrigerate for a couple of hours. Mix in remaining fruit just before serving.

Optional add-ins:
Handful of strawberries, sliced
Handful of dried coconut
Whatever else sounds good!


Notes: I will sometimes use vanilla pudding instead of coconut if I'm serving this to folks who aren't fans of coconut. It still comes out good!

Also, if you're going to add red fruits like cherries and strawberries (which I recommend), make sure you thoroughly rinse/wash and dry them off before adding to the rest of the mix. The red has a tendency to 'bleed' into the rest of the salad!