Summer Days Berry Dessert

SUMMER DAYS is coming out in less than two weeks. The last couple of weeks before a new book comes out, time slows way down. I am so excited to introduce readers to the Stryker brothers. You know that feeling you get when you set up your best friend on a blind date with a great guy, and you wait breathlessly for her to call, so you can find out how it went? That’s how I feel now, waiting to find out whether readers will love the Stryker brothers as much as I do.

Rafe is up first. Rafe is a high-powered entrepreneur, but he didn’t start life that way. In fact, the Stryker kids were the poorest kids in Fool’s Gold. I adore a self-made millionaire. A man who refused to give in to the odds stacked against him. Rafe is smart, savvy, and sexy, and I want readers to meet him NOW!

But I’ll have to wait until May 29, when SUMMER DAYS lands in stores. I decided to distract myself with something sweet. In these situations, I almost always turn to chocolate. But SUMMER DAYS called for a summery dessert. Fresh berries, prepared simply. Ice cream. And just a tiny bit of crunch in the topping. Delicious! I sent the recipe to my assistant for testing, as I often do. She made it on her barbecue grill, which means you won’t have to turn on your oven during the hot summer days. A perfect dessert for a Memorial Day picnic!

Recipe: Summer Days Berry Dessert

6 C fresh strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries
1 T brown sugar
2 T Cointreau or other orange-flavored liqueur
3 slices of bread or 2 dinner rolls
2 T butter, softened
1 T brown sugar
1/8 t teaspoon cinnamon

Wash and drain the berries. Cut the strawberries into pieces. Toss the berries in a bowl with 1 T brown sugar and liqueur. Put into a deep pie pan if you plan to bake it in the oven, or into an aluminum pie pan if you plan to cook it on the grill. In that case, build up the sides of the aluminum pan with aluminum foil so the bread layer won’t fall out.

Tear the bread into pieces. Pulse in a food processor with the remaining ingredients. Sprinkle breading layer over the fruit. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or the same amount of time over indirect heat on a warm but not hot grill.

Donna Alward's Daffodil Cake

Donna Alward is on the blog today! Donna writes books with fabulous cowboy heroes - and you KNOW how I love cowboys! Donna's men are everything I love about cowboys - strong, protective, rugged. Her latest book is THE LAST REAL COWBOY from Harlequin Romance. Pick it up today!
Donna is going to share her recipe for delicious Daffodil Cake, but first...

Three Random Questions for Author Donna Alward

HER LONE COWBOY, one of your 2010 books, won all sorts of awards, including the Booksellers’ Best (your second, right?) Congratulations! What did readers love about that story?

HER LONE COWBOY was a fairy dust book - it just seemed to write itself at times, probably because I was totally in love with the hero, Noah. I knew I was taking a risk writing an amputee hero, so right off the bat I told myself that he had to still lead and not wallow in his injury and the potential loss of his career. Getting that straight at the beginning helped a lot, and of course I needed a heroine who was no pushover, either. I think readers responded to that combination as well as the realism in the characters (or at least that's what I've heard!). And it didn't hurt that there were a few scenes that felt like magic to write and made me reach for tissues - namely a dance scene and a scene where Noah reveals all his scars to Lily. I was thrilled with the positive response it got - winning the Bookseller's Best (yes, my 2nd!), the Colorado Award of Excellence and finalling in the Golden Quill. :-)

You can read my first Bookseller's Best winning book HIRED BY THE COWBOY for free right now at www.tryharlequin.com.

You have lots of recipes on your website. How would you describe your cooking style? Are you a gourmand, or do you stick with the basics? Have you ever had a spectacular failure in the kitchen?

Definitely not a gourmand, and in some ways it's funny that I have a recipe page on my site. Not that I don't cook - I do, and a lot! I'm kind of a "comfort" food kind of person, so you won't find a lot that's frilly and fancy but you will find plentiful and delicious. My "style" is very "measure? Schmeasure!" I'm a dumper. Especially with supper dishes and those sorts of things. Baking is more precise, of course. So to sit down and actually figure out how much of something I put in is actually a big chore! The good part of that is that some of the recipes are ones I've tweaked because I'm willing to experiment.

I've had lots of spectacular failures! At both Christmastime and Thanksgiving we made cranberry sauce, but I totally forgot it was on the stove and burned it to the bottom of the pan. Bad enough I did it once, but twice? And back when I was pregnant with my first child, my husband had gone duck hunting. I remembered my Grandmother having duck now and then and since money was tight, I figured why waste a good duck? I had a great Italian recipe book that I used for several recipes, so I trusted it and made this duck dish that had bacon and rice and I don't know what else in it. It didn't smell the best as I was cooking it, but I chalked it up to pregnancy and my warped sense of smell. I served it up, took one bite and got a mouthful of shot. And that was the end of that. I haven't eaten duck since.

Since we're into spring, I'm going to share a recipe that my Mom used to make when we were kids - Daffodil Cake! The white and yellow layers are quite pretty.

Tell us a bit about your latest release, THE LAST REAL COWBOY. What do you love about your hero and heroine?
 
Sam and Angela seem like they're on opposite sides at the beginning of THE LAST REAL COWBOY. He's sexy and arrogant and in control of the money; she's Executive Director of a second-stage housing shelter being opened in Cadence Creek. Both of them have to get over their initial impressions of each other to see the real person inside. Sam's a bit larger than life but he's also gentle, and tries to do the right thing. I had a blast writing this duet - next month The Rebel Rancher is out and has Sam's "brother" Tyson as the hero. Tyson's the family rebel - ex-bull rider and according to some, womanizer. And Clara is very sweet and a nurturer. But she's also got a history that means that Ty has his work cut out for him. :-)

You can read excerpts on my site at www.donnaalward.com.

Recipe: Donna Alward's Daffodil Cake

Bottom: (Dark Part)
6 egg yolks + 2 tsp water
½ cup white sugar
½ cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla

Beat egg yolks and water until light and fluffy. Fold in sugar, flour and baking powder, salt and vanilla.
Pour in an ungreased pan, and add top layer.

Top: (White part)
6 egg whites
¾ tsp cream of tartar
½ cup sugar
½ cup flour
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla

Beat egg whites until light and fluffy. Add cream of tartar and beat until very stiff but not hard. Fold in sugar, flour, salt and vanilla. Pour carefully over dark part.

Bake at 300 degrees for ¾ hour.

RaeAnne Thayne's Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Welcome, guest author RaeAnne Thayne! RaeAnne is the USA Today bestselling author of more than 40 romance novels, including her latest, WOODROSE MOUNTAIN, the second book of the Hope's Crossing series.

Three Random Questions for RaeAnne Thayne

You worked at your local newspaper after getting your journalism degree. What’s the most interesting story you ever covered?

Tough question! I wrote hundreds of stories and can only remember a handful, alas. That part of my life seems like another world, since I’ve been writing fiction full-time for nearly fifteen years! One that has stuck with me was a story I did on how effective music therapy can for people with dementia. I observed a woman who was basically non-responsive most of the time but when her family would hand her a violin, she would play this gorgeous, heartbreaking music. She couldn’t remember her husband of more than forty years but Bach and Mozart somehow seeped out of her subconscious.

What kinds of activities were you involved in when you were in high school?

I was very involved in drama and debate in high school. We had a great program at my high school and actually had an off-campus repertory-type theater, where we put on a different play every month of the school year and a couple in the summer. It was a great experience and taught me so many skills I find myself using today as a novelist, like dialogue and character blocking. I intended to be a drama teacher until my junior year, when I was ended up on the school newspaper staff and decided this was where I belonged. Little known fact about me, I was also the scorer for our high school baseball team and traveled with the team. My first actual professional newspaper job was as a part-time sports writer while I was still in college.

In WOODROSE MOUNTAIN, your heroine Evie Blanchard moves from Los Angeles to Hope’s Crossing in search of a more peaceful life. Is your town more like L.A. or Hope’s Crossing? How so?

My town is very much like Hope’s Crossing, except we’re not really a tourist destination (though we should be!). I live in a gorgeous small town nestled in the mountains of northern Utah. We’ve lived in two different houses in this town and in our first home, we had a pasture next door. More than once, we would wake up to find the cows next door had broken through a fence and were wandering across our lawn. The main similarity between my town and Hope’s Crossing is the quiet pace and the inherent goodness of the people who live here. They might have the same weaknesses as everyone else, but most of my neighbors are genuinely kind people.

Recipe: Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract (can omit and add one more teaspoon vanilla)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or prepare with parchment paper. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown and white sugars until smooth. Beat in the egg, vanilla and almond extract. Combine the flour and baking soda in a separate bowl; stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the white chocolate chips and cranberries. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Don’t overcook. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

English Trifle ala Susan Mallery

I decided to make an English trifle. I’ve never made one before. I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten one before. But I decided to make one because someone gave me a trifle bowl and, well, it seemed like I should use it for its intended purpose.

I started looking at trifle recipes online. Seemed pretty simple. Ladyfingers, pudding, some sort of fruit, and sometimes wine, brandy, or rum. I could do that.

I couldn’t find any ladyfingers at the store. What are they? Cookies? Cake? I looked up a recipe on my phone for ladyfingers, and wow, they’re fussy. You’re supposed to separate the eggs, whip the yolks, whisk the whites until peaks form. Too much work, I decided, so I bought a pound cake and headed home.

I forgot to get vanilla pudding when I was at the store. Sigh. How much did I want to make this trifle? I really, really didn’t want to go out again. On a whim, I looked up the recipe for homemade vanilla. It looked easy enough. So easy, I was ashamed I’d never made pudding from scratch before. Certainly easier than going back to the store. I’d have to let it chill overnight and make the trifle tomorrow, I thought, but that was okay.

Except the next day, my homemade vanilla pudding was the consistency of a melted milkshake. Now I can make instant pudding the rest of my life without shame. Back to the store, after all, whisked the instant pudding, and five minutes later, I was ready to put together this beautiful trifle. This recipe really is easy, as long as you get everything on your shopping list on the first trip.

Visit www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php for a printable PDF of this recipe and many more.

Recipe: English Trifle ala Susan Mallery

1 pound cake, the size of a small loaf of bread
½ C cherry-flavored brandy (red wine can be substituted)
2 small boxes of vanilla pudding, prepared
4-6 C fresh berries
Whipped cream
Cut the pound cake into 1-inch chunks. Put half in the bottom of a trifle bowl or any large bowl. Sprinkle with half of the brandy. Top with half the pudding, then half the fruit. Repeat the layers. Just before serving, top with whipped cream.

Quick & Easy Cranberry-Orange Muffins

If you want to print out this recipe, go to SusanMallery.com/recipes.php. 

I don’t bake very often. I don’t have the patience for it, or the time, and I’ve come to accept that carbs are evil. A dark, seductive evil. Resisting takes superhuman willpower. But it’s Christmas season, and my husband loves baked goods. So I decided to indulge his sweet tooth while indulging my love for sentimental holiday TV movies – I baked him these delicious little mini-muffins while Debbie Macomber’s Trading Christmas played on the TV. It was the perfect way to get into the holiday spirit!

A friend once made us a loaf of Cranberry-Orange Nut Bread. She would have given me the recipe, I’m sure, but making bread from scratch just seems so complicated. The movie was only two hours long – I didn’t have time to make bread from scratch. So I came up with a quick and easy alternative, using boxed cake mix, and I’m happy to say that they are truly delicious!

These Cranberry-Orange Mini-Muffins would be a great addition to any Christmas potluck, and I think they would look lovely on a plate of Christmas cookies, if you’re the kind of person who brings plates of cookies to the neighbors. (I’m not, so if any of my neighbors are reading this, don’t get your hopes up!)

Recipe: Quick and Easy Cranberry-Orange Mini-Muffins

1 box Duncan Hines classic white cake mix (18.25 oz)
3 large egg whites Juice of 2 oranges, plus enough water to equal 1 1/3 cups
2 T vegetable oil
Zest of one orange
1 C fresh cranberries, chopped

Blend all ingredients except cranberries on low speed until moistened, then beat at medium speed for two minutes. Fold in chopped cranberries. Put into muffin tins lined with paper and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. I made mini-muffins, and they took about 20 minutes, but you should start checking at 15 minutes. If you make regular size or jumbo muffins, they’ll need more time.

Frost with orange-cream cheese frosting. (I bought a can of cream cheese frosting and added the zest of one orange to it.)

Linda Goodnight's Light Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Linda Goodnight is the author of heartwarming, inspirational romance novels, including her latest, THE CHRISTMAS CHILD. Linda has won the RITA Award for excellence in inspirational romance. Visit Linda online at www.lindagoodnight.com.

Linda, I love Christmas romances! Reading them is one of my favorite ways of getting into the holiday spirit. Would you please share the back cover blurb of THE CHRISTMAS CHILD?

Linda: I'd love to!

Who is little Davey?

A young boy is found huddled in a Dumpster in Redemption, Oklahoma, hungry, dirty and clutching a Christmas book. The scared, mute child captures Kade McKendrick’s guarded heart, and the undercover agent is determined to find answers. All he has is a name-Davey-and the boy’s trust of teacher, Sophie Bartholomew. As Christmas draws near, can sweet Sophie help the battle-scarred cop and the silent boy learn to smile-and maybe even to love-again?

In Redemption River, where healing flows...

Three Random Questions for Linda Goodnight

1. Share a random happy memory from childhood.

Let me tell you a story about a book, a mulberry tree, and a mama hog named Sally Ann. I have always been a bookworm and one of my secret escapes from two brothers was to take a book, hide somewhere on the farm and read all afternoon in peace and solitude. Sometimes I hid in the peach orchard and sometimes in the barn loft behind stacks of peanut hay with the barn cat, Bright Eyes. But this particular day I headed for the mulberry tree to indulge my taste buds in the sweet, ripe berries while I indulged my imagination in a book.

Everything went well that afternoon until my book ended and I was ready to climb down. You see, I’d forgotten one thing. The mulberry tree was inside a fence—a fence which happened to house a large Poland China sow and her six piglets. (To a nine year old she looked enormous.) Sally Ann was known to have a fierce temper but at the time I’d climbed up the tree she was nowhere around. Now, as I descended she spotted me and came squealing with jaws agape and evil intent. After scrambling back up, I hovered in the branches for a while and then tried again. Sally Ann was not to be challenged. She charged. I retreated. This went on for some time until I gave up the battle and decided if I was destined to die of old age in a mulberry tree at least I wouldn’t die hungry. After what seemed like hours, Sally Ann lost interest and wandered far enough away for me to escape.

Now, you’re probably wandering why that’s a happy memory. Truthfully, I don’t know why, but it is. I loved those lazy, innocent childhood days on the farm.

2. What kind of commercials make you cry, if any?

My family claims that I cry at anything-which is pretty much true. I am painfully sentimental which means sweet Christmas commercials from Hallmark and the Budweiser Clydesdales get me every time. I particularly love commercials where someone returns home after a long absence, especially if the returnee is a soldier in uniform. The minute I see him walking up to the door with that duffel bag in tow, music playing in the background, snow on the ground and a wreath on the door, I’m sniffling. I also get teary at commercials where the father of the bride fights emotion as gives his little girl away. Though I never remember what they’re advertising, I love those moments. Don’t you?

3. In what ways do you relate to the heroine of your latest book, and how are you different?

The heroine of THE CHRISTMAS CHILD, Sophie Bartholomew is a fifth grade teacher who loves Christmas, kids and baking cookies. That description fits me too, though I’m no longer teaching. We’re also both small town girls, but the similarities end there. Sophie is the eternal optimist, a character trait I envy but don’t have. She has a big, sweet smile and is a doer who thinks she can make the world a better place by giving to others. I wish I was more like her!


It seemed only fitting that I share a cookie recipe that Sophie and her students would make for their annual cookie sale. These are a light, sweet chocolate just perfect with a glass of cold milk.

Recipe: Light Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 squares of unsweetened chocolate melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1 cup peanut butter chips
½ nuts optional

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream the butter and sugars. (I use a mixer.) Beat in the egg, chocolate, and vanilla. Mix in flour. Add the peanut butter chips and if desired, the nuts.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto lightly greased or sprayed baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Renee Ryan's Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake

I'd like to welcome Renee Ryan to the blog, whose next book from Love Inspired Historical, COURTING THE ENEMY, is an inspirational romance set during World War II. Visit Renee online at ReneeRyan.com

Three Random Questions for Renee Ryan

1. Tell us about something fun you did over the summer.
I had the pleasure of moving my daughter out of her dorm and into her very first apartment. Okay, I know that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, but I was able to reconnect with her after her first year of college. I hadn’t realized I would miss her as much as I did. We had a great time rushing around town, getting lost (on my part) and eating lots of frozen yogurt. I even enjoyed buying all the necessary items for her new apartment, especially the things for her kitchen. Who knew there were so many different sized pans?

2. What do you remember about the first date you ever went on?
We were both way under dressed. It was a semi-formal event for one of the high school clubs. We were naïve sophomores and thought semi-formal meant jeans without holes in them. At least we were both equally embarrassed when we walked into the room. I guess that helped the first-date jitters, or at least put the tension on the situation rather than each other. I dated that boy for months after that, forever in teenage years. :)

3. COURTING THE ENEMY is a World War II historical romance. Share an interesting fact that you learned while researching this time period.
One of the best things about writing COURTING THE ENEMY was that I was able to set it in the United States just a few miles from where I grew up as a child. The story is focused on a Nazi plot to bring the war to American soil. The Nazi’s actually did land a group of saboteurs off the coast of Florida, walking distance from my home. Thankfully, the attempt failed. Because my father is a WWII vet and lived close to where this real-life event occurred I was able to research the area with him by my side. A blessing all around.

Recipe: Renee Ryan's Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake

2 cans of cherry pie filling (21 ounces each)
1 box of chocolate cake mix
2 sticks of butter, sliced into 12 pieces each
2.25 ounce bag of chopped pecans
1/8 cup white sugar
This recipe is so easy and so delicious
Preheat the oven to 350.
In a 9 x 13 cake pan:
Dump the 2 cans of cherry pie filling into the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the box of chocolate cake mix evenly on top of that. Distribute the butter slices on top of the cake mix. Spread the pecans evenly over the butter and cake mix. Finally, sprinkle the sugar over all.

Bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes and serve warm.

Many variations: 2 cans peach pie filling and yellow cake mix, walnuts. Or 2 cans peach pie filling, white cake mix, pecans or other nuts (or no nuts)... use your imagination!

This is also delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Christmas Crackers

Last year for the first time, I made Magic Wands, which are pretzels dipped into melted white almond bark and then sprinkled with colored sugar. The salty-sweet flavor made them a big hit. Such a simple treat, and yet they were the first thing that many people reached for when they approached the plate of cookies. (You can find a printable version of the recipe for Magic Wands at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php.)

So this year, when I decided to try to make up a recipe for a new Christmas treat, that salty-sweet combination was on my mind. I opened my pantry, and there sat an unopened box of Ritz crackers. Perfect! I would create something using the Ritz as a base. Its shape and size would make it both pretty and portable.

I didn’t want to just dip it in almond bark and sprinkle it with sugar, though, because that would be cheating. This needed to be a whole new recipe, something that would make people slap their foreheads and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?!”

Often when I’m writing a book, I start out with a really great title and then try to come up with a story to fit the title. (And then my editor or the marketing department ask me to change the title because it turns out that I do not have a talent for titles. Even so… ) Before I started contemplating ingredients, I thought about what I could name my new treat.

Christmas Ritz?

Putting on the Ritz?

On Britzen?

Somehow, I stumbled upon Christmas Crackers, and felt that thrilling “Aha!” rush through me. I’ve always found the British tradition of Christmas crackers to be charming, those brightly colored little pockets of wrapping paper, which pop open to reveal candy and toys.

So I would make my own version of Christmas Crackers with a Ritz cracker as the base with melted chocolate hiding a surprise inside.

On the outside, these treats look nearly identical, but each one contains a different surprise under the layer of chocolate. I experimented with several options. Pictured below are Parmesan cheese, caramel bits, marshmallows, and chopped peanuts.

I tried both Parmesan on its own and Parmesan over a layer of orange marmalade. Both were okay, but they weren’t as good as the four options I settled upon for the recipe. (The printable version of this recipe with its multiple fillings is also available at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php.)

Christmas Crackers

1 box (4 sleeves) of Ritz crackers
1 36-oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1-2 T vegetable shortening or coconut oil

Line four cookie sheets with parchment paper. (If you don’t have four cookie sheets, you can just lay the parchment paper out on any flat surface. You only really need the cookie sheet for the sleeves of crackers that will have the marshmallow filling.) Lay all four sleeves of crackers out on the parchment paper and cover each of the crackers with one of the following fillings.

Melt the chocolate and shortening in a double-boiler. If you don’t have a double-boiler, then boil water in a small saucepan and carefully balance a medium-sized saucepan over it. Stir constantly until chocolate is melted.

Cover each cracker thoroughly, hiding the filling. Refrigerate until set.

Caramel Filling:
1 C caramel bits or caramel candy
½ T heavy cream

In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the caramel and the cream. Heat in 30-second increments until melted, stirring after each time. Drop by scant spoonful onto each cracker.

Marshmallow Filling:

Place 3 mini marshmallows of half of one large marshmallow on each cracker. Broil for one minute, then flatten with a spoon. I overdid the broiling a little bit, but they still tasted great.


Peanut Butter Filling:
Spread a thin layer of creamy peanut butter on each cracker, then sprinkle heavily with chopped peanuts.


Mint Crème Filling:
¼ C butter, softened to room temperature
1 C powdered sugar
1 T green crème de menthe

In a mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add crème de menthe and mix thoroughly. Spread a thin layer on each cracker.

Happy holidays!

Old Fashioned Peach Cobbler

Last week, I was in the mood for peach cobbler, so I asked my Facebook fans to tell me their favorite cooking blog or website. I wanted to find a recipe online that I could try because I’m all about making connections. One of my readers told me about the fabulous My Baking Addiction (thanks, Jessica!), and it just so happened that Jamie had made peach cobbler earlier this month.

The recipe calls for a 1.5-quart casserole. I had 1 quart, and I had 2.5 quart, but no 1.5 quart. Make less or make more? When in doubt, always make more.

My standard rule of thumb when it comes to peaches is to only buy them when I happen to smell them while walking through the store. I find that when they emit that lovely, peachy scent, they’re juicy and delicious. Otherwise, they’re likely to disappoint.

Sad to say, no scent. But I had already publicly committed to making the cobbler, and I could not back down.

Then it was time to peel, and I didn’t know the proper peach-peeling protocol. A potato peeler worked just fine, and I was off!

Simmering the peaches filled my house with the aroma of peachy goodness.

When it came time to spoon the peaches gently onto the batter, I was filled with angst. Was I gentle enough? I’m more of a “slap it down” kind of cook. “Gentle” doesn’t come naturally to me. Are they supposed to look like this?

I knew I would have to bake this longer because I had doubled the recipe, but I didn’t know how long. The recipe says the batter would rise to the top during baking, so I kept turning on the oven light to see whether the batter was at the top yet. I looked for a lovely golden brown crust.

Then I looked again. And again.

It never came. I don’t know what I was thinking. That the batter would sneak past the layer of peaches? What happened instead is that the batter firmed up beneath the peaches. From the top, it didn’t look much different than when I put it into the oven.

But ohhhh, did it taste like heaven!

Cookie S'Mores

Last week, while I was racing around to get ready for my book tour in Illinois, I had the TV tuned to the Cooking Channel. My attention was fractured. I was thinking about ALMOST PERFECT, the second Fool’s Gold book, which is available now. (Click the link to read a free excerpt. I’m so excited to hear what readers think of Liz. She’s a mystery writer, and she’s been killing her first love, Ethan Hendrix, over and over again in her books.) So there I was, thinking about ALMOST PERFECT and wondering whether anyone would notice my newly painted toenails.

The upshot is, I only caught the tail end of a barbecue segment. Paula Deen and others were eating dessert – s’mores made with cookies instead of graham crackers – but I had missed the recipe! I looked on their website, but I couldn’t find it there, either. I was disappointed – I wanted to share the recipe with you in time for 4th of July barbecues.

Then I thought to myself, “How hard could it be?”

That question has led to many kitchen disasters throughout my life, but I’m pleased to report that this time, the results were delicious. I must warn you, though: there’s so much sugar in this treat that you may well slip into a coma after one bite. Encourage your kids to wear a safety helmet before eating!

Recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie S’Mores

Ingredients:

2 dozen chocolate chip cookies – homemade or store-bought
144 mini marshmallows (approximate)
144 chocolate chips (approximate)

Preheat the grill to medium-high. Place one chocolate chip cookie on a square of aluminum foil. Put about six mini marshmallows and about six chocolate chips on the cookie. If the marshmallows roll off, then split them with your finger and press the sticky side into the cookie. Place a second cookie flat-side up on top of the marshmallow layer. Wrap loosely (but airtight) with the foil. Grill over direct heat about 4 minutes on each side. Unwrap carefully. Yield: 1 dozen s’mores

Next time, I’m going to try these with peanut butter cookies. Kids should love these easy treats. You can even make them if you’re going camping! (As long as you remember to bring helmets.)