[quote name='Rocko']Mmm, brownies.
Chika, could you PM me a recipe for cheesecake sometime? I need to make me some good normal NY cheesecake. Possibly with strawberries.
Although that Philadelphia cheesecake filling is good in a pinch.[/quote]
buy the Philadelphia "neufchatel" 1/3 less fat cream cheese. There is a recipe on it for "sour cream cheesecake". The instructions say to reserve half of the sour cream (plus a couple other things) to spead on top of the halfway baked cheesecake.

that and just mix it in and follow the ingredients otherwise. put a tray of water on the bottom shelf of the oven with the cheesecake on the rack above it (right in the middle of the oven) and bake it on 325 for about an hour or until you can gently touch the center of the cheesecake and it doesn't stick to your finger. it should wobble a bit and look a little underdone when you jiggle it, but it's good. turn the heat off and leave it in the oven for another hour or so. crack the oven and leave the cake in it until the oven is completely cool. then take the cheesecake out and leave it in the pan on top of a cooling rack for several hours until it's room temperature before refrigerating. if you don't go through a very slow cooling process the whole top will crack.
strawberry topping - remove stems and thinly slice fresh strawberries. wamix 2c water with 2 c sugar in a small pot and bring to a boil. boil until all sugar is dissolved and reduced by about 1/3. pour boiling liquid over strawberries in a mason(canning) jar and refrigerate overnight.
it's not the BEST i've ever had, but it's easy, cheap and pretty darn good. my grandmother's recipe makes a

in huge cake and takes HOURS to bake, too much hassle IMO