BULLETPROOF BADGE, #blogtour & #giveaway

Next in the February Harlequin books is: Bulletproof Badge

• Writing Space Tour:

I’m really lucky to have a very nice office. My husband loves to build things–the desk, the cabinets, sliding keyboard drawer–and has plans for a few more cabinets to hold gadgets. The shelves on the wall were built by my grandfather when I was a child and hold writing and family mementoes. Last year with my royalties, I found my “diva” chair. I have to fight my pups for sitting room.








also recipe from the author too:

• Bon Appétit and a Book:

My characters rarely get to eat anything other than fast food. I thought I’d share my chocolate chip cookie recipe…since warm cookies definitely go with any story.

2/3 cup Butter Flavored Crisco, softened--not melted

2/3 cup margarine, softened--not melted

1 cup granulated sugar

1 3/4 to 2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed

2 eggs

4 teaspoons vanilla (if you use REAL vanilla, back it down to 2 teaspoons)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

chocolate chips to your liking

nuts if you must

NOTES: You’ll definitely want a good mixer.  Invest in baking stones. The perfect cookie isn’t achieved on a metal baking sheet. The cookies bake in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes and they’ll be sooo gooey you can’t remove them. You’ll be tempted to put them back in the oven. If you know how a baking stone works, it retains heat and will continue to cook the gooey cookie while it cools. THAT’s THE SECRET!  Fortunately, I have more than one stone and can cook a batch while one is cooling.

If your cookies are a bit too soft, back off the brown sugar a tad. Honestly, I discovered Baker’s Chef brown sugar and have noticed a difference in the taste of the cookies when I didn’t use this brand.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Thoroughly blend softened margarine and Crisco. It needs to be one blended mixture. Add eggs, blend again. Add vanilla, blend again. *I do things differently, I add the baking soda, baking powder and salt here (realizing that most people add them with the dry ingredients, but I want to make certain they blend well--and after the flour goes in, it gets harder to mix). Add granulated sugar, blend. Add brown sugar, blend. Add 1 cup of flour at a time until all is blended. Add chocolate chips, but the recipe is great without them too.

Drop cookie dough onto baking stones. Another secret to a soft cookie is to make them larger. I had a bus driver accuse me of making mini-pizzas. Band kids always wanted second cookies, but the band director said they could only have one. HAHA…so I made larger single-serving cookies. But this rebellion helped me develop a very soft cookie.

Don’t squish the dough, just spoon it and let it sit tall, give it plenty of room to spread out when it cooks.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes (at least in Texas).


You can purchase this book at Amazon.com or enter below to win copy of book!

Also stay tuned tomorrow for another book in the blog tour with giveaway!

BULLETPROOF BADGE book giveaway

disclosure:  free product received to review. *may contain affiliate links.