Winner announced!

With no further ado, the winner of my holiday contest is Melissa.

Congratulations Melissa!

Thanks to everyone who participated!

December in Maine

Maine is already getting pounded by Old Man Winter! I think I've discovered new muscles in the last week, just by shoveling. Who needs a gym when winter is on the doorstep? And who can get to the gym with these roads?

Actually things are pretty clear here this morning. I'm going to dash out and pick up the last few gifts and some more baking supplies before the weather takes another turn. Too, I promised I'd stop by the bakery and help make some cookies. Tomorrow I just may have a new recipe to share.

That is, if I'm not shoveling!

Yummy!

Hazelnut Puffs



1 cup softened butter

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, divided

1 tablespoon milk or cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup finely chopped hazelnuts or filberts



Cream butter with 1/2 cup of the confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Add milk or cream and vanilla. Mix well, then gradually add flour and hazelnuts. Again, mix well. Chill until dough gets firm, about 30 to 45 minutes.



Shape dough into 1" balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet, then place in preheated 375° oven for 12 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool for 10 minutes, then roll in remaining 1 cup confectioners' sugar.

Banana Muffins

We're having Banana Muffins today. I hope you enjoy the recipe!

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Holiday Time!

In my house I'm in full-gear holiday mode. Trees, garland, lights, dinnerware with poinsettias...the whole shebang. I've got boxes strewn over every inch of free floorspace and honestly, it looks like Santa's workshop puked in my house.

There's stuff everywhere.

Hopefully by tonight I'll have it all organized, but right now it's really, really scary. And I love it.

Hope you're getting set to have a wonderful Saturday. Me? I'm hanging lights.

Timing Excerpt

Available from Liquid Silver Books.

It would have been simple to fake orgasm. After all, she’d done it so many times in the past, with such convincing results, that doing it yet again, moaning and panting,squealing and shivering on cue as if she was the reincarnation of Pavlov’s dog, would have been almost second nature to her. But in that instant, in that tiny flickering point in time, she knew she couldn’t do it. Not again. Maybe not ever.

I deserve satisfaction, too—don’t I? And not with my own hand or the thankfully nearly-silent flick-a-switch-always-ready vibrator I’ve got hidden in the bathroom,either. No, I deserve to feel a full-fledged, no-faking-it climax—with a man!

“Are you ready?” Tom groaned, his body tensed for release as he held himself above her. Supported by his elbows, his football-player’s body was still hard and muscular.After college he’d kept up the weekly practices and weekend games, as well as daily workouts at the gym. His love of sports had kept him in excellent physical shape. It was too bad his lovemaking skills weren’t as well-developed as his biceps or his tackling prowess. “Really, Lisa, I’m almost there. Are you ready, honey?”

Do I look ready to you? I’m lying here thinking about tomorrow morning’s meeting.Shit, I’m anything but ready. But maybe I’m not doing my part, either. Maybe I should concentrate a bit more, really try and get myself “ready.”

Shifting beneath him so that her clitoris came in contact with the base of his hard-on with every thrust, she matched the rhythm of his hips perfectly. Almost all of the lubrication she’d produced earlier, when they were kissing and touching, had dried up and the slapping of flesh on flesh was uncomfortable.

“Oh, yeah. That’s it, baby. That’s it,” Tom’s eyes closed and his head tilted back as he matched her movements.

“No, it’s not it,” she said. Pushing against his chest, she waited until his eyes opened and he looked down at her. His eyes were wide, his hips had stopped moving and his expression was one of pure shock. “It’s not doing it for me tonight. I’m sorry, but I’m just not into this.”

“You’re not … are you kidding me?”

“Why would I kid you?”

“But I’m ready to explode. Can’t you feel how excited I am?”

Nodding, she said, “I can feel how excited you are. Can’t you feel how excited I’m not?” She hated to hurt his feelings but sometimes the kindest cuts were the deepest.

It’s been a year. Let’s see what this relationship is made of once and for all. Will we get past this? Figure out a way to make both of us happy in bed? Or will this be the end of what has been, otherwise, a pretty good thing?

Tom looked like a man who’d just learned all his favorite things were illusions. His erection stayed firm, and deeply situated inside her pussy, but his face fell. For a moment it seemed he might simply get up and leave.

A part of her wished he would do just that. The other, bigger part of her prayed he wouldn’t.

Maidensong

From Celtic Love Knots, Volume 4, an excerpt from Maidensong:

“Interested in Pictish symbols, are you?”

The voice startled her. It came from directly behind her and she whirled around so quickly that she became off balance.Her body tipped and she banged her shoulder into the ten-foot-high pink granite stone she had been examining.

“Shit!” Dianne cried as she grabbed her shoulder. Stars danced behind her eyelids as the pain raced through her body.When it subsided she opened her eyes.The owner of the voice was tall and handsome in a rugged sort of way. His hair fell in full ebony curls across his brow and his eyes were a deeper, richer green than the lush grass that they were standing on. He was tall, with broad shoulders and a muscular body and wore the outfit of every hiker in the Scottish highlands: jeans, a woolen sweater and hiking boots. His sweater was a deep loden green that matched his eyes.

“Didn’t mean to scare you. Are you all right?” He leaned closer to where she stood, rubbing her shoulder, and looked into her eyes with such intensity that she wondered what he was doing.

“Do I look all right?” she asked, scowling. “And what are you looking for, anyway?”

He pulled away from her and smiled. When he smiled it was as if the sun dimmed, she was so overwhelmed with the way his features moved on his face.Handsome when you’re serious, Lord-have-mercy gorgeous when you’re smiling.“I was looking to see whether or not you had a concussion,”he answered. “Apparently you do not.”

“I smacked my shoulder, not my head. And what were you doing, sneaking up on me like that? Did you try to scare me half to death?”

He tilted his head and a lock of black silk fell across his eye. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you at all. And Iwasn’t sneaking up on you, either. I didn’t try to conceal myself in any way.”

“So what, then? What were you doing if you weren’t trying to scare the pants off me?” She stopped rubbing her shoulder and stood with her hands on her hips, waiting for an answer.

“I was merely trying to meet you, that’s all. It’s not everyday I find a beautiful woman at the Maiden Stone,” he said. He surveyed her the same way she had examined him. When his eyes met hers again he grinned. “And I did not say I wasn’topen to getting your pants off of you, mind.” He waggled his eyebrows rakishly and, coupled with his thick Scottish accent,the effect was hilarious. She threw her head back and laughed out loud, a sound that reverberated through the trees at the edge of the clearing.