With a state-wide emergency declared on New Jersey (as well as Connecticut, New York, Virginia and North Carolina off the top of my head), we have been housebound since mid-day Saturday. I stocked up at the grocery store and we made Cheeseburger Soup (an old favorite), Chicken Fried Steak, mashed potatoes, OMG Fried Calamari, Buttermilk Pancakes, Four Ingredient Nutella Brownies, Meatloaf, steamers and Mexican Wedding Cookies. Thank God the storm has passed. Another day of being homebound and you’d have to roll me out of my front door. I totally got rid of my recent “I feel like I haven’t cooked in ages” guilt. Ten-fold. Unfortunately since we were housebound, I took hardly any pictures. I would say it’s because I was feeling lazy, but I also did four loads of the dishwasher and five loads of laundry. Oh and worked on a flooded basem*nt. Lazy, but not so much.
So instead of a flood (no pun intended) of weekend photos, will a new recipe work just as well? I made these cookies the other night when we had our completely Pinterest-inspired meal. Mystic is quite funny on his (growing) list of what he doesn’t eat. Well, I think it’s funny. Whenever I mention it, and add something else to the list, he just rolls his eyes. Which, of course, I ignore. This is one reason why we work. Methinks. When we first started dating, he mentioned he doesn’t eat sour cream. Or cream cheese. Or yogurt. It took me a second, and then I was all “hey, you don’t eat white foods?” What? What are you talking about? “Well, everything is white. Coincidence or deliberate?” I have nothing against the color. “Ok, then.” But then, I have come to find out that he doesn’t eat rice. Or coconut. Or oats. Or eggs. Um, yeah. Totally no white food theme here, right?
Sometimes I make him try a bite of something even though it has one of his listed whites in it. When I pulled these cookies out of the oven, I waited a few minutes for them to cool. ‘Cause I’m good like that. And then I broke one in half and put it in his mouth. He shot me a look and then chewed and nodded.
“Do you like it?”
Yeah, what is it?
“Cream cheese cookies.”
He laughed. And then minutes later, I caught him sneaking another one on his own. You know, without being force-fed.
So it seems there is a tad bit of flexibility on the whole growing list of white foods he doesn’t like. Thank goodness for that because I think it’s much easier to work with someone who just doesn’t eat vegetables. Mystic’s list happens to be ingredients in a lot of stuff, and a bit more of a challenge. But he’s a good sport and while I won’t make him eat the dreaded white item on its own, mostly because I’ve grown super fond of him and would like him to stick around, I’m happy to know that he will try it as part of a greater good.
Phew.
So. These cookies? Uber-simple to make. With ingredients you likely have on hand. Don’t you just love that? They’re pretty soft on the inside with just the tiniest hint of cream cheese.
Delicate little things. But good. Just ask Mystic.
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Best Ever Cream Cheese Cookies
Recipe courtesy of The Girl Creative via Pinterest
1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
3 oz. Regular Cream Cheese (room temperature)
1 1/2 Cups Confectioner’s Sugar
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Egg (room temperature)
1/2 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1 3/4 Cups All – Purpose Flour
Heat your oven to 375 degrees and line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place butter and cream cheese in your mixer bowl and beat for 1 minute. Beat in the sugar and baking powder. Add the egg and vanilla and ‘Beat Until Fluffy.’ Beat in the flour. Chill for 30 minutes for drop/roll cookies, one hour for cut-out cookies. Scoop by rounded teaspoon full and dredge drop cookies (roll balled cookies)in superfine sugar. Bake for 7 minutes. Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. You’ll get no less than 2 dozen dropped or rolled cookies out of this dough. The yield on cut-outs will depend on how big the shapes are (baking time remains the same).
