This week’s recipe leading up to the release of my June Harlequin Desire, HER LITTLE SECRET, HIS HIDDEN HEIR, isn’t one of my favorites.  But it is one of Madame Mommy Dearest‘s favorites.  And it’s also a recipe belonging to the Queen of Snark matriarch of The Dungeon, our very favorite Maxine.

This is also one of those cookies where you throw in just about everything but the kitchen sink.  Or you can throw that in, too, but don’t blame me if you crack a tooth.

MAXINE’S THROW-‘EM-TOGETHER COOKIES
(stolen from a Hallmark newsletter several years ago)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup cornflake crumbs (Buy them already crumbled. Why bother
crumbling them yourself if you don’t have to?)
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (Optional:  For color, you can replace mini chocolate chips with mini M&Ms, but since we are currently boycotting M&M/Mars products because they torture & abuse animals, I don’t want to tell you that.  I will, however, say that you can replace the mini chocolate chips with mini candy-coated chocolate pieces, if you like.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 .
Cream butter & sugars, then add egg & vanilla. Stir some more.
Add dry ingredients. Mix all together.
Throw in oats, cornflake crumbs, coconut, nuts, & mini chocolate chips (or mini candy-coated chocolate pieces).
Drop dollops of dough about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets lined
with parchment paper.
Bake until done, about 10 minutes.

(Makes about 4 dozen cookies.)

If you’d like to collect even more great recipes, or maybe share a few of your own, be sure to sign up for my HappyBookers YahooGroup. We’re doing a bit of a recipe swap over there, as well, in preparation for the release of HER LITTLE SECRET, HIS HIDDEN HEIR. :flip

Those of you who follow me on Twitter &/or Facebook may have noticed that I was working on copyedits for MUST LOVE VAMPIRES last week.  (And if you don’t yet follow me on Twitter & Facebook, what the heck are you waiting for? :mistress )

Copyedits can be fun…but also vexing.

For one thing, getting copyedits on one book almost always means I have to set aside the writing of another.  And that is vexing because they usually arrive just when I’m really on a roll.

For another, it’s not easy to jump from story to story & still keep track of everything that’s going on.  Especially in a situation like this where I’m writing a Harlequin Desire set in South Carolina, then have to proof & edit a hot & sexy vampire romance set in Las Vegas.  It can be tres confusing. :knock

And then there’s the fact that copyedits are basically a chance to bring to light all your little goofs.

Like calling your heroine Chunk instead of Chuck (short for Charlotte).  Her small candy bar addiction not withstanding, I don’t think she’d appreciate that.

Or writing “crazy as a loom” when you really meant “crazy as a loon.”  I’m familiar with loon insanity, but don’t even know how crazy a loom can get.

Whoops.  All I can say is, Thank goodness for copyeditors.  I’ve heard a lot of complaints & horror stories about them in my day, but for the most part, copyedits usually save my butt.  Thanks, guys!

In addition to keeping me from looking like an illiterate slob, the nice thing about copyedits is that they A.)  give me a chance to see if the revisions read as smoothly as I thought they did when I first turned them in…if I had revisions, which on this story I did.  Very minor ones, thankyouverymuch.  And B.) give me a chance to see if the story holds together as well as I thought when I first turned it in.  It’s easy to be excited about something when you finally get to type “The End” & send it off to your editor after six months of heavy-duty work, but  But then you start to think, “Oh, wait—did I cross that T?  Did I dot that I?  Did I remember to tie up all those loose ends?”  And you think you did…I mean, it’s your job & you’ve done it twenty times before, but still…the doubts begin to creep in.

I am happy to say, though, that MUST LOVE VAMPIRES did hold together—beautifully, if I do say so myself. :eyelashes   With a fresh eye, I was able to see the story as a whole & even chuckle at a few things I’d forgotten I wrote.

And I’m even happier to have the copyedits finished & out of the way so I can jump back into the current WIP…which means once again spinning my brain 180-degrees to the non-paranormal Desire world, nary a vampire in sight. :doh