The Best Combo Is a Great Book, a Delicious Cookie, & Sweet Tea

Picture it. My husband at a drive-thru with 9 kids in the van and an order as long as your arm. He begins.

“I’d like a Chicken, Bacon, and Swiss, two–”

“Would you like that as a combo?”

Concentration lost, he blinks at the screen before catching on.  “No, no.  Two, ham and cheese…”

As he consults his interrupted memory, the perky girl on the other end says, “Would you like those as combos…”

By this point, he hasn’t only forgotten how many roast beef sandwiches he was supposed to get. He’s also forgotten why he was buying so many and who all these people are in his vehicle.  He stares at me.  “Do I know you?”

Okay, so maybe it’s a bit of an exaggeration, but only a bit.  Seriously.  Even driving up and saying, “We have a large order and none of them are combos. Please don’t interrupt or we’ll forget a child and have social services to our house for cruelty to our underfed children.”

They never did find that funny…  (maybe because we never added that last bit about social services).

But seriously. We could feed our whole family for about twenty bucks back in the day. Or, with combos, thirty-five.  We never did the combos.  Shocker, I know.

Maybe if the combos included something soporific to allow everyone to sleep well for a few hours… But no, the combos never appealed.  But some… some do.

The Best Combo Is a Great Book, a Delicious Cookie, & Sweet Tea

Okay, I only put in “sweet tea” because the book I’m thinking of is Heart Pressed by Melissa Wardwell.  This second Elnora book features lots of great combos–including Dante and Amara!

But to celebrate the release of Melissa’s book, the authors have come together to create a fabulous “cookie hop!”  From blog to blog, you can find each author’s recipe.  I hope you’ll try them all.

As for me, my recipe is for “Island Cookies.”  You know, the recipe I put in Christmas on Breakers Point?  That one. Yesterday, we had a great day with half the island authors converging on a store in Greeneville, Tennessee and… we gave away little baggies of these Island Cookies made by Christa DelSorbo, the fabulous narrator of my island books!

Island Cookies

Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups white flour

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 cup shredded coconut

– – – –

1 cup sugar

3 oz room temp cream cheese—cubed

½ tsp vanilla

Zest of 1 lime (key limes may be preferred)

– – – –

½ cup (1 stick) melted butter (warm)

1 egg

1 TBS milk (whole is the most delicious… and half & half is even better)

1 TBS lime juice (again, some may prefer key limes)

 

½ cup powdered sugar  (reserved for rolling cookies in)

Directions: (oven preheats to 350)

Stir together the first five ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Set aside

Stir together sugar, cream cheese, and lime zest in a large mixing bowl. Cream butter in. Add vanilla. Repeat with egg, milk, and lime juice, one at a time. Make sure your ingredients are thoroughly mixed.

Add dry ingredients slowly. Mix well.

Roll dough into approximately 1” balls.  Roll each ball into powdered sugar and place on parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.

Bake for approximately 11-12 minutes until lightly golden.

Before you eat, close your eyes and imagine yourself beneath swaying palm trees with warm sand between your toes.

Don’t forget to visit all the authors and their blogs!

For more information about Heart Pressed: