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Holiday baking is memorable. Baking to give and, if you are lucky, to receive. Sharing your home baked goods brings a cheery smile from the recipient. My step-mother, Dorothy, baked Christmas cookies and candies for two weeks. She would have a small box handy, lined with wax paper to put in her assortment of sweets. Her generosity instilled in me to share my home baked goods, home cooked meals and simple groceries with others. Since the start of COVID-19, my husband and I have shared food with twenty-one families. It might be a box of groceries or some smoked salmon. In these precarious times, we must look out for each other.

Ingredients

Sugar, ½ cup granulated

Butter, 1 cup

Cream cheese, ¾ of an 8 ounce block

Flour, 2 cups

Powdered sugar, ½ cup

Maraschino cherries, 1 jar, 10 ounces

Preparation

Prep the powdered sugar by placing in a shallow bowl.

To cut the cream cheese, first I cut it in half and then I cut one of the halves in half.

Soften the butter and cream cheese by sitting in a bowl, at room temperature.

The time depends on the temperature of your home; our home is warm, so 2 hours.

Mix until creamy.

Add flour, ½ cup at a time.

Mix well before adding the next ½ cup.

Continue until it is all mixed in.

Using your hands, roll into small balls, about an inch in diameter.

Roll each in the powdered sugar.

Place on an ungreased baking sheet.

Use the back of a teaspoon to press the cookie down and create a small circular indenture in the center.

Press one maraschino cherry into each center.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 10 to 13 minutes.

They will be soft but firm.