Sometimes, only pastries will do!

    Most women have some kind of cleaning schedule throughout the week that they follow to keep their house looking tip-top and to preserve their precious sanity. A little here, a little there, and everything stays clean. Rather than create a schedule, I, during a brief moment of insanity, decided that ALL CHORES must be done on Friday afternoons. So, for about three hours every Friday, my calm exterior falls apart, and I become a human tornado, racing through my house armed with bleach, dusters, vacuum attachments, microfiber cloths, and a killer playlist on my ipod. I have this routine down to a fine art. I haul in the 5 or 6 bags of groceries from the car, drop them on the counter, and RUN up my stairs to move laundry from washer to dryer, scoop the cat box, and throw my tumbleweed of curly hair into a ponytail. On my way back down, I run a vacuum over the stairs. Then, I put away the groceries, wipe down all the counters and kitchen sink, vacuum downstairs and mop the tile. By then, load 1 of 2 is tumbled-dry and laundry folding commences. By the time my to-do list is checked off (and yes, I still make one every week, even though the routine NEVER changes), I am droopy, hungry, and ready to devour a snack. I look around my sparkling kitchen and think, "You know what would mess up all this clean? PASTRIES!" Sometimes, even a clean kitchen can't compete with rolling out buttery pastry dough and filling it with a creamy, tangy, delectable filling. (It's the same kind of "I don't care" moment that I experience when I have sugary, syrupy French Toast for dinner and still need dessert two hours later). So, on this Friday, I pulled a sheet of puff pastry from my freezer, let it thaw for an hour or so (the perfect amount of time to catch Project Runway on my DVR), and set to work. Making homemade pastry is so easy and just as good as the bakery stuff. First, I rolled the sheet out until it was a very thin rectangle. Then I used a pizza cutter to cut it into 4 squares. I put these squares on a baking sheet. To make a filling, I softened a block of cream cheese and added sugar, vanilla and lemon zest, along with 1 egg until I got the desired sweetness. (I think plain old cream cheese makes everything better, so I didn't use much sugar, but if you love the sweetness of a cream cheese frosting, add more)! I spooned 2 big tablespoons of this filling into the center of each square and folded two opposite corners over it until they overlapped. Seal these with water, or your delicious creamy filling could become a disastrous, creamy puddle all over your baking sheet. This could be your last step, but I decided, since it had been a long week at work and I was so fabulous, that I deserved cherries with my cheese danish. I popped open a jar of cherry pie filling and scooped a dollop (don't you just love that word)? on either open end of my pastries. Now, I dreamed this up as I went along, so, I guesstimated the cooking temp and set my oven to 350 degrees. Then I popped them in the oven and stayed nearby, checking them every 5 minutes. I think 12 to 14 minutes was all mine needed, but make sure the pastry is puffed and golden before pulling from the oven. Allow to cool, or your pretty little tongue could get scorched. (I won't tell you how I know that...) I enjoyed one as quickly as I could and as my glazed-over eyes began to clear, I saw the globs of cream cheese filling on my counters, the bits of flaky pastry on my kitchen floor, and the dirty dishes in my sink....Sigh...I think I need another pastry.