A Cream Cheese Kinda Day

I have survived the great family get-together on the 4th of July and a visit from my sister's family over the subsequent week. And we have been crazy busy! We hit the beach, the Wildlife Animal Park, and we hit the snowcone stand three times! I rarely get a snowcone, preferring to dedicate those calories to a ice-cold can of Dr. Pepper, but it was so hot, and we were in line for so long, that I broke down. And I didn't mess around--I got a butterscotch snowcone drizzled in cream. Omigosh!--talk about yummy--and decadent! I may have to forego the Dr.P in weeks to come.

My husband and I have been discussing trying to rig some sort of contraption to shave our own ice. I'd like to try my hand at making my own snowcone syrups, like this uber-cool entrepreneur. What can I say...I'd love to have that adorable little trailer too!

If you happened to notice the title of this post, you may be wondering how any of this relates to cream cheese. You find out now:

I love cream cheese, could eat it on pretty much anything (okay, most things), but I think it really shines in (obviously) cheesecake, cream cheese frosting, and cream cheese danish--oh, how I love thee. My husband detests cream cheese and will not eat anything it's touched. (Rather unbelievably, his mother is still trying to sneak it in recipes after thirty-some-odd years).

My sister was here for her birthday, and she requested Butter Cheesecake as her birthday dessert, which, if you haven't had it, is basically a cake mix stirred up with a stick of butter, a couple of eggs and some pecans with a cream cheese/confectioners sugar concoction poured over the top of it. It's then baked till the edges are brown. So the two of us had been slowly working our way through this dessert since the beginning of the week. But I'd promised her a stop at the Kolache Bakery for some cream cheese topped kolaches. Yesterday, her last day with me, we finally picked them up, and as the lady was filling our bakery box, our eyes were caught by a huge cinnamon roll on the bottom rack of the glass case. Its characteristic swirl was hidden by a smear of something. Turns out it was cream cheese filling!! The bakery has started selling ginormous cinnamon rolls with their tops decked out in sweetened cream cheese. I nearly swooned on the spot. One shared look between us, and my sister and I agreed to toss one of those into the bag--to split. (I still haven't eaten my half, but I love knowing it's waiting for me...)

So then I drove her and her daughters into Houston proper to drop her with her in-laws, and on the way back home, I swung by Crave Cupcakes, having already forgotten all about the cream cheese heaven awaiting me at home. Well Crave varies their selection based on the day of the week, and I've never been on Saturday before, so I was facing some new taste sensations. I bought a half-dozen cupcakes, three stand-bys: vanilla-vanilla (cupcake-frosting), chocolate-vanilla, and dark chocolate. And then I had them add a pumpkin (my husband loves pumpkin), a banana (my husband loves banana), and a dark chocolate-coconut (my husband HATES coconut). Delighted with my purchase, I headed back home. I'm halfway there when I realize that my purchases might--just possibl--be contaminated with cream-cheese. I quickly check the cupcake key I'd picked up. Yep, the pumpkin cupcake is topped with 'cinnamon cream cheese frosting'. And the banana cupcake is topped with 'sweet cream cheese frosting'. And even the dark-chocolate coconut cupcake is topped with 'coconut cream cheese frosting'--a double whammy! So what does all this mean? Out of half a dozen cupcakes, I get three, and my husband and sons each get one. Seems fair, right?

LONG LIVE CREAM CHEESE!