Welcome to a new feature here in The Dungeon (at least temporarily *g*) that I like to call “What’s Cookin’, Hot Stuff?”

As you know, I’ll have a new Harlequin Desire out in June called HER LITTLE SECRET, HIS HIDDEN HEIR, & the heroine of this story runs a bakery called The Sweet Spot.  So I thought it would be fun to start posting recipes leading up to HIDDEN HEIR‘s release.

To start, I’m going to share a recipe for one of my favorite cookies.  This goody doesn’t actually appear in the book, but it totally could. :cookinme

Whenever I have over-ripe bananas, I make these.  They taste like banana-nut bread—only better.

BANANA NUT COOKIES

Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups ripe bananas (3 or 4)
1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Cream butter & sugar.
Add eggs & vanilla. Mix well.
Add bananas by dropping thin slices into batter. Mix.
Add dry ingredients. Mix well.
Fold in the nuts (& white chocolate chips, if preferred).
Place teaspoonfuls of cookie dough onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until outer edges are golden brown.
Remove from the oven. Place on wire rack to cool.

(Makes about 5 dozen cookies.)

Welcome to out latest Hunk of the Month poll—Hawaii Five-0 Edition. Or as I like to call it, Hawaii Five-oh, yeah. :sexy

This month, Mistress Heidi has a truly impossible mission for you—to choose only ONE Hawaii Five-0 hottie to grace The Dungeon‘s sidebar throughout the month of April.

If you think that’s a decision you can make…it’s like trying to decide which mementos to save first when the house is on fire, I swear!  :bloody …here are your choices:

Alex O’Loughlin/Steve McGarrett

Scott Caan/Danny Williams

Daniel Dae Kim/Chin Ho Kelly

So last week, just as I was finishing up JoAnn Ross’s Blaze—which I read as research…yeah, that’s it, research…because of it’s South Carolina setting :cantputdown —I noticed in the TV guide that Sandra Brown’s Smoke Screen was going to be on Lifetime.

Did you know Sandra Brown’s Smoke Screen had been made into a TV movie?  I either didn’t, or did, but forgot. :tongue

I thought it would be fun to watch it, but I really like to read a book first before I see the movie version.  At least when it comes to romance novels; not so much when it comes to other stuff I probably wouldn’t read, anyway, like The Count of Monte Cristo (yum! :cupcake ) or the Twilight saga (blech! :spikey ).

And I was very excited, because I knew I had Smoke Screen somewhere on my teetering TBR pile & could start it right away!  So I quickly dug it up & started reading.  Yay for me!

Now ask me what it is that I’m currently reading.

Oh, that would be:

Uh-huh.  I totally grabbed the wrong Sandra Brown book! :knock I think I blame the proliferation of Ss & similarity in her recent titles.  That’s right, Ms. Brown, my confusion is all your fault! :wink

I can’t complain too loudly because it’s really good, but this doesn’t exactly help me get Smoke Screen read so that I can watch the movie, does it?  Sigh.

Now it’s your turn—

Have you ever started reading a book that you thought was something else?  Or picked up a book by one author, when you thought it was by another?

And if you remember the incident well enough, was it a happy accident (i.e. you ended up really liking the book, even though it wasn’t what you expected or you ended up discovering a great new author you might not have otherwise) or a sad one?