Recipe - Lemon Zucchini Cookies (Betty Crocker, sort of)

 Lemon Zucchini Cookies

1/2 c. white sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. butter, softened

2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1/2 t. vanilla

2 t. lemon juice

1/2 t. nutmeg

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. ginger

2 eggs

1 1/2 c. shredded zucchini

2 1/2 c. flour (1 c. whole wheat + 1 1/2 c. white flour)

Beat sugars and butter until creamy. Add everything else except eggs, zucchini, and flour. Mix really well. Add eggs and zucchini. Mix together. Stir in flour. The dough will be really wet and sticky.

Scoop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375° for 9-11 minutes, until very lightly browned on edges.

Cool and drizzle with lemon glaze. Makes 3-5 dozen.

Lemon Glaze

1/4 c. butter, melted and very warm

1 T. lemon juice

2 c. powdered sugar

Mix together and beat until smooth. Work fast so the butter stays hot. Drizzle over cookies. It will set as it cools.

Recipe - Best ever White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

 No nuts, because I'm really not a fan of nuts in cookies. But the lemon zest really takes this over the top. Don't skip it!

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 1/2 c. sugar

zest of 1 lemon

1 t. vanilla

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

2 eggs

2 1/4 c. flour

1 1/2 c. white chocolate chips

1 c. dried cranberries

 Cream butter, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla together until light colored and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and keep creaming for another minute or so. Add in baking powder, baking soda, salt, and eggs. Beat together until very light colored and smooth, about 2-3 minutes, scrape down the sides a couple of times.

Add in flour, white chocolate chips, and cranberries. Stir just until it comes together as a dough. Cover and let it sit for about half an hour.

Heat oven to 375°F. Scoop cookie dough into balls, about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough per cookie. Place on lightly greased baking sheet with a couple inches between cookies, they will spread a bit. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until very light browned on the edges. Let cool before removing from the baking sheets.

Makes 3-4 dozen cookies.

Sugar Cookies

This is the best recipe I have ever used for sugar cookies. Once you add the flour, handle it as little as possible for the most tender cookies.

Sugar Cookies

1 c. butter, softened NOT melted
2 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 t. almond extract OPTIONAL
3 eggs
1/2 t. salt
4 c. flour

Cream butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. Add vanilla, almond extract, eggs, and salt. Beat well, another 2-3 minutes.

Very gently and by hand, stir in the flour to make a soft dough. Roll out and cut out shapes. Thicker dough results in softer cookies, thinner dough will make crispier cookies.  Place on greased cookie sheet.
OR scoop out by tablespoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Dip the bottom of a glass into sugar, then use to flatten the dough balls.

Bake at 400°F for 6-10 minutes, depending on thickness and how done you like your cookies.

Thursday Recipe - Gingersnaps

Sort of. These weren't snappy but they were delicious.

Gingersnaps

1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. shortening
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 t. baking soda
1/8 t. salt
1/4 c. molasses
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. ginger
1/2 t. allspice
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. white flour

Cream butter, shortening, and sugar until creamy. Add egg, baking soda, salt, molasses, and spices. Beat until lighter in color and very creamy. Stir in flour.

Scoop onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400° for 7-9 minutes.

Thursday Recipe - Eclipse Ring'O'Fire Cookies

I wanted to do something for the eclipse. I have not-so-fond memories of train wreck pudding from grade school. It involved chocolate pudding and whipped topping and sticking out your tongue. Now that I think about it, it was more than just gross. But moving on...

The total eclipse has a ring of light with a dark middle and dark outside. Chocolate and vanilla coming right up!

Eclipse Ring'O'Fire Cookies

1/2 c. butter, softened
1/3 c. shortening or coconut oil
2/3 c. white sugar
2/3 c. brown sugar
1 c. cocoa
4 eggs
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
3 c. flour (1 1/2 white and 1 1/2 whole wheat OR 1 1/2 rice flour and 1 1/2 almond flour)
18 large marshmallows
36 Hershey's kisses

Cream butter, shortening, and sugars. Add cocoa and beat well. Add eggs, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Cream until smooth and fluffy. Stir in flour.

Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 350°. Grease two baking sheets.

Scoop dough into 1 inch balls, it should make 36 cookies. Place them on the baking sheets. Bake for 8 minutes.

Pull the marshmallows in half. Push a half marshmallow onto the top of each cookie. Do it gently or the cookies will crumble too much. Bake the cookies for another minute.

Push a kiss into the middle of the marshmallow on each cookie, bottom side up. Let them sit and cool on the cookie sheets for 10 minutes.

Enjoy.

Game Review - Cookie Clicker

This is why my post is late, one of the reasons anyway. My family's been hit with the flu. I've been procrastinating because I'm dealing with other issues. The weekend got away from me. I forgot I didn't have anything scheduled to post today. Yeah, lots of excuses. And then I got distracted by Cookie Clicker.

It's a dumb idle game. You basically click to bake cookies which lets you save up to buy grandmas to make cookies for you, which lets you save up to buy more stuff to make more cookies. When I hit almost 2 billion cookies per second, I had to quit. It had been running on  my computer for over 80 hours straight and was slowing the processor down, especially since I'm trying to pull together some presentations for FyreCon this weekend. Photoshop does NOT like sharing processor power with anything.

But the game is amusing. Try it out HERE.

Or go play the other game that's got me distracted - Word Cookies. Make words with letter shaped cookies. Good for building vocabulary and frustrating yourself. If you like games like Boggle, you'll probably enjoy it. My only tip is to play it with data and wifi off on your phone. Otherwise the ads gets really creepy and annoying really fast.

I think I have cookies on my brain...

Thursday Recipe - Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is from my trusty old church cookbook. At least the original version is. I've changed things up a bit. They call it Mrs. Fields' Chocolate Chip Cookies. The story is that someone wrote to Mrs. Fields and asked for her recipe. She sent it along with a bill for $10,000. So the woman shared the recipe with everyone, figuring if she was going to pay that much for it, she was going to make sure everyone got their money's worth. The story probably isn't true, but this is still a very tasty version of chocolate chip cookies.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 c. butter, softened
1/4 c. shortening
1 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. white sugar
1/2 t. salt
2 t. baking powder
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1 c. white all-purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
2 1/2 c. oatmeal, instant or quick-cooking are best for this recipe
2 c. chocolate chips

Cream butter, shortening, and sugars until light and fluffy. Add salt, baking powder, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until very creamy. Stir in flours, oatmeal, and chocolate chips. Scoop onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375° for 8-9 minutes, until barely browned on the edges. Let cool for a few minutes before removing from the cookie sheet.

Thursday Recipe - Candy Cane Cookies

Here's my December cheer moment. These cookies are not those time-consuming, delectable butter cookie creations shaped like candy canes. These are my answer to all those candy canes lying around your house that no one will eat. It is also a great recipe for relieving stress and anger. And it tastes really good when you're done. Because they are chocolate chip cookies, nobody cares if they are lumpy and misshapen. So, don't stress. Not everything has to look perfect and tidy this month. You should see the way I'm wrapping presents this year. I'm letting the 7yo do it for me. I just need a lot more tape than normal...

Candy Cane Cookies

12-20 candy canes, any size but please don't mix the peppermint with the fruit. That's just plain nasty. Use one or the other.
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. shortening
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
3 c. flour
1 c. chocolate chips, milk preferred this time

Unwrap all the candy canes and stuff them into a plastic bag. Don't use a ziploc or anything that seals tightly. Clean bread bags are great. Triple bag the bag with candy canes in it. Twist the top loosely to keep them from exploding out the top. Take a rolling pin and beat them into smithereens. Work out all that built-up aggression. You want nothing bigger than a chocolate chip when you're through. Set the candy cane remnants aside.

Heat oven to 375° F. Cream butter, shortening, and sugars together. Add eggs, soda, salt, and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and candy cane bits. Scoop dough by tablespoonfuls onto well greased cookie sheet. Bake 8 - 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Let cool 1 - 2 minutes, then move to a cooling rack. Don't let them cool on the pan or you'll be sorry. Melted candy canes are not only VERY HOT but sticky and messy. They stick to cookie sheets when they set back up. Let the cookies cool at least 10 minutes before you eat them. Did I mention the candy cane bits will melt and get VERY HOT?

Have a great holiday. I'll have to post other traditional Christmas recipes as I remember them or my kids ask for them.

Thursday Recipe - Pumpkin, pumpkin and more pumpkin...

7yo daughter: Mom, is that Mr. Pumpkin? Are you going to chop him up? Are you putting him the oven?! Are you cooking Mr. Pumpkin?!?! Can I eat him now?

I had a 20+ lb pumpkin we bought for Halloween and never got around to carving. I finally got around to chopping it up and baking it the other day. Now, I've got pounds of pumpkin waiting to be used. I thought I'd share some pumpkin recipes for you. 'Tis the season and all that. Enjoy!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

After chopping the pumpkin in half, use your fingers to scoop out the seeds. Try to remove as much of the stringy orange goop as you can. Put the seeds in a flat bottomed colander. Fill a sink half full of cold water. Set the colander in the sink. Rinse the seeds, picking out any remaining goop. Lift the colander. See how easy it is to wash the seeds this way? Set the colander on a towel so the seeds can drain and dry for a while.

Meanwhile, scoop out the rest of the inside stringy goop from the pumpkin. Chop it smaller if needed. Line a baking sheet with foil, you want one with sides because pumpkins release lots of water while baking. Set the pumpkin pieces chopped side up on the baking sheet. Bake at 350° for about 1 - 2 hours, until pumpkin is soft. Set pumpkin aside to cool.

Heat 2 T. oil in a large frying pan. Add pumpkin seeds to the oil. Fry for 15 - 20 minutes. Dump seeds into a metal mixing bowl. Add 1 t. smoked paprika and 2 t. seasoned salt. Toss to coat.

Heat oven to 400°. Spread seasoned seeds on a baking sheet. Roast for 10-15 minutes. Seeds will start to make popping sounds and smell like popcorn. Watch closely when they start to do this, checking every minute or so. They burn easily. When they turn golden brown, remove from the oven and cool. They should be crispy.

Pumpkin Custard

1/2 c. brown sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ginger
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. salt
1 eggs
1 c. cooked pumpkin
1/2 c. orange juice or milk

Heat oven to 400°. Put everything in the blender. Whirl on high until smooth. Pour into a greased casserole - 2 quart for a single batch, 9x13 glass baking pan for double batch. Just use the blender twice and measure everything twice for a double batch. Don't try to double everything in the blender. It won't fit. Can you tell I tried once? Huge mess. And a hand mixer won't make it smooth enough.

Bake at 400° for 15 minutes. Don't remove it from the oven. Turn heat down to 325° and bake for 45 - 60 minutes longer, until it begins to crack on the top and a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Serve warm or cold with whipped cream. It's like pumpkin pie without the crust.

Variations: Play with the spices or the liquid you add. Whatever you do, don't add bananas. Trust me on that one.
You can also use other orange squash like butternut (really sweet and creamy), banana squash, acorn squash, or even yams/sweet potatoes.

Pumpkin Cookies

1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. shortening
1 c. brown sugar
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. ginger
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. salt
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1 egg
1 c. pumpkin
1/4 c. orange juice
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. white flour
1 c. quick oatmeal
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans, optional

Put pumpkin, egg, and orange juice in the blender. Run until smooth. Cream butter, shortening, sugar, and spices until smooth and light. Add baking powder, soda, and pumpkin mixture. Beat well. Add flours, oatmeal, and chocolate chips. Stir by hand until mixed. Drop onto greased cookie sheet by Tablespoonfuls. Bake in a 350° oven for 11 - 13 minutes, until set and not sticky on top. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet. Makes 5 - 6 dozen.

Enjoy the pumpkin goodies!

Thursday Recipe - Green Tomato Mincemeat Cookies

It's that time of year, when mother nature bites the garden with frost. It never fails. My tomato plants are just starting to really produce, then, WHAM! Frost and snow. What to do with all those green tomatoes hanging onto those forlorn vines? Make this recipe, of course.

The mincemeat can be made ahead, it's actually better if you let it sit for a day or two before making the cookies. If you're into canning, it can be bottled and processed. Follow the guidelines for your area if you decide to seal the bottles for storage.

Either way, 'tis the season for these flavors. Enjoy!

Green Tomato Mincemeat

9 c. finely chopped very green tomatoes
1 tart apple, like granny smith, peeled, cored, & chopped
1 c. raisins
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 T. minced orange zest, the orange part of the peel
1 t. salt
2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. ginger
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. vinegar
1/4 c. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a large, heavy stockpot. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to med-low and simmer about 1 1/2 hours until mixture is thick and goopy. Stir every ten minutes or so. Remove from heat and bottle, if desired. Otherwise, cool and refrigerate in covered containers. Makes about 5 pints. (You can cut the recipe in half if needed.)

Mincemeat cookies

1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 t. vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour

Cream butter, shortening, and sugar until very fluffy. Add in egg, baking powder, salt, and vanilla. Beat well. Stir in flour just until mixed. Form dough into two rolls about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap well with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 12 hours, or up to 2 months.

To make cookies:
Heat oven to 375°. Let dough defrost for about 15-20 minutes. Slice dough into 1/4 inch slices. Place on greased cookie sheet. Top each cookie with 1 T. mincemeat. Top with another cookie slice. Seal edges using a fork. Cut two or three slits in top crust. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until lightly browned on edges. Let cool before eating.

One cookie recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies and uses about 1 pint of green tomato mincemeat.

Thursday Recipe - No-Bake Cookies, or Gorilla Poops

I started cooking when I was nine. I distinctly remember my first batch of cupcakes from scratch. They looked odd and tasted funny, but I was so proud of them. My family grumbled a bit but ate them anyway. Later, I realized I'd mistaken 3 t. to mean 3 tablespoons. Three times too much baking soda equals not good cupcakes. Hey, I was nine.

Adventures in cooking continued. As a teen, I went on a weird cookie spree, trying out any and every recipe I had. Food coloring was my friend. The one cookie I've never really mastered? No-bake cookies. Despite careful measuring and stirring and cooking, I have no idea if they'll turn out soft and chewy or hard and crumbly. After one particularly crumbly, messy batch, I gave up trying to make it form cookies and just dumped the entire pot onto a cookie sheet in one big pile.

"What kind of cookie is that?" my sister asked.

"Elephant poop." And so the line of poop cookies were born.

(BTW, when these cookies turn out dry and crumbly, they make excellent ice cream topping or the basis of chocolate oatmeal for breakfast, just add some water and microwave for a minute or two.)

Gorilla poops are normal no-bake cookies. Elephant poops are when you're tired of scooping or it doesn't work so you dump the entire batch in one enormous cookie. Monkey poops are the peanut butter variety. Orangutan poops are chocolate AND peanut butter. Chimpanzee poops have extra goodies added. Are you sensing a theme here? Good, go make some gorilla poops for your kids.

Gorilla Poops

3 c. oatmeal, quick cooking if you've got it
1/2 c. coconut
1/2 c. butter
2 c. sugar
1/2 c. milk or water
1/3 c. cocoa
1 t. vanilla

Mix oatmeal and coconut in a large mixing bowl, set aside. Melt butter in medium saucepan. Add sugar, milk, and cocoa. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. We're talking a rolling boil here that you can't stir down. Boil and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add vanilla, then pour over oatmeal mixture. Stir quickly to coat the oatmeal. Scoop by teaspoons onto waxed paper. Cool for at least 15 minutes. If it's way too sticky, serve it on a spoon and call it spoon cookies. If it crumbles, make it into an elephant poop and serve over ice cream. If it turns out right, pat yourself on the back.

Monkey Poops - Omit cocoa. Reduce butter to 1/4 c. Add 1/2 c. peanut butter with the vanilla.

Orangutan Poops - Make Monkey Poops but leave in the cocoa.

Chimpanzee Poops - Reduce oatmeal to 2 c. Add 1 to 1 1/2 c. of whatever you want to the oatmeal mix. Suggestions - dried cranberries or cherries, mini-marshmallows, nuts, m&m's, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, crispy rice cereal, cheerios, fruity pebbles, captain crunch berry cereal, chow mein noodles, etc.

Bonus Cookie Recipe

These are so easy and fast. You can dress them up or down or whatever you want. Try different flavors of cake mixes with different mix-ins. Either way, you can't beat fresh, hot cookies.

Cake Mix Cookies

1 boxed cake mix, dry
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 eggs

Mix everything together until blended. Scoop by tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375° for 7 - 9 minutes, just until set.

Variations:

Oreos - use chocolate cake mix (double fudge if possible). Put two cookies together with Cream Cheese Filling: Cream 1/2 c. cream cheese with 1/2 c. powdered sugar and 1 T. vanilla. This should be very stiff.

Chocolate Chip - Use white or yellow cake mix and add 1 c. semisweet chocolate chips

Lemon Cream - use lemon cake mix. Frost with lemon glaze: mix 1 c. powdered sugar, 1 T. lemon juice, and 1/4 c. softened butter. Add water if needed to thin it out.

White chocolate, macadamia, cranberry - use yellow cake mix. Add 1 c. white chocolate chips, 1/2 c. chopped macadamias, and 1/2 c. Craisins.

Cherry Nut - use cherry cake mix. Add 1/2 c. chopped maraschino cherries and 1/2 c. chopped pecans.

What variations can you dream up? Go ahead and share in the comments!

Thursday Recipe - Monster Cookies

My youngest is allergic to wheat, dairy, and soy. Finding treats she can enjoy is a real challenge. Gluten-free snacks don't contain wheat, but many use dairy or soy to compensate. Besides, they're expensive. So when I found a cookie recipe that my daughter can eat, that everyone else enjoys, that doesn't cost a fortune, you can bet it became one of our family favorites. These cookies also contain protein and fiber, much like a granola bar, without the dry cardboard taste or weird bits of woody things and unidentifiable fibrous masses.

We've made these as small cookies, giant cookies, and bars. They freeze well. The recipe is easy to change around, too. If you don't like the butterscotch chips, substitute in a different flavor, just not mint. That's nasty. If you don't like coconut, replace it with oatmeal. If you don't have M&M's on hand, just add more chocolate chips. My friend can't eat chocolate, so we make these with butterscotch and white chips when she's around.

Be aware these are NOT gluten-free; oats do contain traces of gluten.

The name comes from the original recipe, which made a monstrously huge batch of cookies. Anything that takes 18 cups of oatmeal, 12 eggs, and 6 c. of peanut butter is a huge batch. I've reduced it to a manageable size. It still makes a lot of cookies, around 8 dozen regular size cookies, 3 dozen giant cookies, and 2 cookie sheets of bar cookies.

Monster Cookies

1/2 c. butter
2 c. peanut butter, creamy or chunky, your choice
1 1/3 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar (or just use 2 c. brown sugar and forget the white)
4 eggs
1 t. vanilla
2 1/2 t. soda
6 c. oatmeal, regular or quick, doesn't really matter, just don't use steel-cut
1 1/3 c. coconut (or use 1 c. oats and leave it out)
1 c. chocolate chips
1 c. butterscotch chips
2 c. M&M's

Heat oven 325° for bar cookies and giant cookies, 350° for regular size cookies. Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Add eggs, vanilla, and soda. Beat smooth. Add oatmeal, coconut, chocolate chips, other chips, and M&M's. Stir just until mixed. Scoop onto greased cookie sheet. Bake regular cookies 9 - 11 minutes at 350°. For giant cookies, use ice cream scoop or about 1/4 c. dough. Bake 12 - 15 minutes at 325°. For bar cookies, spread dough on two greased cookie sheets. Bake 20 - 25 minutes at 325°. FOR ALL COOKIES - Let cool on sheet at least 10 minutes. Cookies won't look browned when you take them out, but if you cook them long enough to brown, they will be burnt.

To freeze - Let the cookies cool completely, then package 2 or 3 cookies per snack size ziploc. Chuck into the freezer. They never last more than a week at my house, so freezer burn isn't an issue. If it is at your house, then package the snack baggies into a larger plastic container or freezer bag.

Thursday Bonus - recipe and coupon!

Just for fun, here's an easy recipe to try:

Peanut Chews

1 c. corn syrup
1 c. sugar
1 c. peanut butter
6 c. cold cereal - corn flakes, cheerios, corn chex, something not too sweet

Bring corn syrup and sugar to a boil in medium saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter. Stir until smooth. Pour over cereal, stir to coat. Dump out onto sheet of waxed paper, smooth into rectangle about 1 inch thick. Let cool. Cut into squares and eat, but not too many. These babies are rich.

And the coupon: My book is on sale until April 21 on Smashwords - get the ebook version for only $2.99 Coupon code: TF69P https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/10672
The print version, signed and personalized, is only $15 (that includes shipping!) if you order direct from me through my website: http://www.nexuspoint.info

Happy Thursday!

Thursday Recipe and Blog Tour Schedule

Yep, it's Thursday and that means recipe day. Now to decide what deliciousness to share...

Meanwhile, I have a blog tour scheduled next week. New author interview every day. Anyone who posts a comment is automatically entered in a contest to win a free ebook copy of my novel. If I get enough comments, I may add a real print copy to the pot. Or chocolate. How about a chocolate rat on a stick? (Our April Fools Day joke of the day was chocolate rats for school teachers.)

Here's the schedule for my tour:
Monday April 5 - Trisha Wooldridge
Tuesday April 6 - Lynn Flewelling
Wednesday April 7 - Brenna Lyons
Thursday April 8 - Tracy Morris
Friday April 9 - Kaz Augustin
Saturday April 10 - Pauline Baird Jones

Great women and great authors! Check out their blogs and their books. Links will be posted with each interview.

Now for the recipe:

Easy and Quick Cookies

1 stick of butter, softened
2 eggs
1 box vanilla cake mix
Add-ins (1/2 c of any or all): white chocolate chips, chocolate chips, craisins, macadamia nuts, shredded coconut, dried cherries, dried blueberries, chopped almonds, chopped pecans

Mix together. Add whatever add-ins you want. Dough will be sticky. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 9 - 12 minutes, until set. Let cool on sheet. Makes about 3 - 4 dozen.

Dark and Dangerously Decadent. Cookies, That Is.

One conversation lately turned to dark and dangerous heroes and sexy villains. Why are we so attracted to those things that will hurt us? Watch people around a fire. It's hot. It will burn you. But it's so pretty. Same thing with our stories. Why do we create such dark and dangerous men for our heroes? Because we like to play with fire, no matter how much we might get burnt.

Frances Pauli, an author friend, said about a character in my novel Nexus Point, "Tayvis is definitely dark and dangerous AND sexy as all hell." I should return the favor for her book Roarke. The title character is definitely dangerous and sexy. Maybe being a closet romance writer isn't a bad thing when it comes to speculative fiction. Dangerous? Definitely, but the kind of burn that feels so good. Most definitely a guilty pleasure.

Much like these cookies. My kids dubbed them Death by Chocolate Overload. Eat them warm, if you dare.

Decadent Chocolate Chunks

1 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
3 eggs
1/2 T. vanilla
2/3 c. cocoa
1/2 T. baking powder
1/2 t. soda
1/2 t. salt
1 2/3 c. flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 bag semisweet choc. chips
1 bag M&M minis

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, vanilla, cocoa, baking powder, soda, and salt. Beat well. Add flour, chips, and M&M’s. Drop by Tablespoon onto cookie sheet, bake at 375° for 9-10 minutes. makes about 6 dozen.