Try thick slices of this dark, rich-tasting bread with baked beans and your favorite sausages for supper. If you like, you can make small cylindrical loaves by baking the bread in 1-pound vegetable or fruit cans instead of in a regular loaf pan.

3 Tbls butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 cups buttermilk
3 Tbls light molasses
2 cups whole wheat or graham flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup each raisins and chopped walnuts

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Then mix in buttermilk and molasses. In a separate bowl, stir together whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, wheat germ, baking soda, and salt until thoroughly blended; add to buttermilk mixture and beat until well combined. Stir in raisins and chopped nuts. Spoon batter into a well- greased and flour-dusted 1-pound cans, filling them no more than 2/3 full.

Bake in a preheated 350* oven (325* for a glass pan) for 1 hour and 20 minutes (45 minutes for 1-pound cans) or until bread begins to pull away from sides of pan and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan (or cans) for 10 minutes; then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. (If baked in cans, loosen crust around edges of cans with a thin knife, then slide bread out of cans onto rack to cool completely.) Makes 1 large loaf or 4 small loaves.