nana's strawberry surprise

ladies,

this recipe came from the grandmother of one of my parents' college friends. she's only been referred to as nana. she named the recipe "strawberry pretzel dessert." i'm going to rename it "nana's strawberry surprise."

here we go:

for the crust
2 cups crushed pretzels (chunky)
3/4 cup oleo (i used 1/2 C smart balance and 1/4 C real butter and it worked well)
3 tablespoons sugar

mix the ingredients together and press into a 9 x 13 pan. bake @ 375 for 8-10min. let cool

for the rest
8 oz. cream cheese
1 cup sugar
9 oz. cool whip
6 oz. strawberry jello
2 cups boiling water
2 10 oz. packages of frozen strawberries.

blend the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and a little fluffy looking - fold in the cool whip. spread over the pretzel crust

dissolve the jello into the 2 cups of boiling water. stir in the frozen strawberries. let sit for 10 minutes and pour over the cream cheese mixture.

refrigerate until set - but ideally, overnight.

i know, i know. you're thinking, "where's the surprise? you can't call it nana's strawberry surprise without a surprise ingredient." yeah, i know. the surprise is how delicious the pretzel crust turns out. really delicious.

Mystery Ingredient...revealed!

The mystery ingredient is indeed tomato soup. Congratulations for the correct answer go to librarymeow.

Mystery Cake

Can you guess what the secret ingredient is?!? I'll only post it once there are at least 3 guesses.

From Joy of Cooking: "This combination of ingredients makes a surprisingly good cake. But why shouldn't it? The deep secret is _____, which is, after all, a fruit; and curiously contains no eggs or milk."

Have all ingredients at room temperature, above 70 degrees farenheit. Pre-heat oven to 350. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan.

Whisk together thoroughly in a bowl:
2 c. sifted flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. grated or ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt

Beat in a large bowl at high speed until light and fluffy about five minutes:

1/4 c. unsalted butter
1 c. sugar

On low speed, beat in the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with:

[mystery ingredient] in two parts, beating until smooth. Fold in:

1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans
1 c. raisins

Scrape the batter into the pan, smoothing the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cool in pan, on rack. Top w/white icing, cream cheese frosting, or dust with confectioner's sugar.