Christmas Cookie Time!

  

I realized that it's been a LONG time since I've posted anything about any creative endeavors other than writing. So I decided to change it up a little. Yesterday I went to my monthly scrapbooking club, and following a several year tradition we had our annual Christmas cookie exchange. Since I do very little cooking in this house it's been quite a while since I've done anything in the kitchen (well, I do help out with the Thanksgiving carcass soup, but in the past few years Dear Hubby has taken that over too) I did my annual fretting about what to make.

First, I tried a recipe I'd found online that the poster promised would taste like a Butterfinger bar. Since I love those, I decided to try it. I made one batch and promptly decided I was not going to repeat the recipe enough times to make the four dozen I needed. And then I remembered a fabulously easy recipe shared by a marvelous flute player in the community orchestra I play in. This amazing treat isn't really a cookie, but it's close enough – and the best part is it has only THREE ingredients! Ha! I quickly ran to the store and bought enough for four batches (I wasn't sure how much each batch would make.

          So here's what I got for each batch: one bag of Oreos, one brick of cream cheese, and one bag of chocolate chips – that's it!

I crushed up the Oreos (store brand, of course) and then mixed it with the softened cream cheese. Then I rolled up the mess (using a sandwich baggie as a glove) into little balls. I put these out on the back porch to cool down for a few hours – no room in the fridge, and it's colder on the porch anyway! After that I melted the chocolate chips in a double boiler and rolled the balls in the chocolate.

YUM!

I set them out all night to harden and then packed them in these cute boxes that I learned how to make at the last scrapbooking retreat – so I not only made the "cookies" – which are made out of cookies and actually taste like cake pops – but I made the containers I gave them away in!

I am so proud of myself – I can't wait till my schedule calms down later this week so I can make more stuff! When I do I'll share.

In the meantime, I'm finally listening to Christmas music. Making those treats put me in the mood!