Welcome to Recipe for Romance!
Let’s get started. I’m sharing a snippet of DARWIN’S EVOLUTION, book 1 in the upcoming Ultimate Recon series. I originally wrote this as part of Cat Johnson’s Hot SEALs Kindle World, but when that program ended, I got the rights back and edited it to be the start of a new series. It’s a military romantic suspense, and the paperback will be available soon.
We start this scene with Master Sergeant Sadie Hawkins (USMC retired) finding a handsome man asleep on her shoulder on the train. Turns out, he’s Senior Master Chief Petty Officer Cyrus Finch (Navy retired), and he’s close enough for kisses (besos in Spanish).
Available Now: Darwin's Evolution
The announcement from the PA startled the man sleeping on Sadie’s shoulder and he froze, taking a moment to assess his surroundings. She understood this form of waking up, and remained still to give him time.
Eventually he turned his head and looked up at her with the most glorious hazel eyes she’d ever seen in a man. Or ever noticed, Hawkins. Most men were just men to her. Big, small, skinny, stout, clean-cut, shaggy, lumbering or graceful, they were merely the male of the species. She didn’t notice them unless they didn’t do the job required of them, whatever it was.
But the hazel eyes staring at her from no more than eight inches away held intelligence, amusement, chagrin, and unconscious beauty. And she fell into them before she could stop herself.
“Beg your pardon, ma’am.” The voice belonging to the man held warmth and depth as he righted himself. “I hope I didn’t drool on your shoulder.”
She shook her head, struck dumb with the intensity of his focus and the beauty in his face. She rarely looked at men as anything other than people she worked with, but somehow this man had stepped inside her circle of awareness and she appreciated him as a heterosexual woman.
When he raised his eyebrows at her silence, she cleared her throat and brought her wandering libido to heel.
“No, sir, I think my shoulder has remained dry and you looked like you could use the rest. I didn’t mind giving a fellow serviceman a safe harbor.”
His attention on her sharpened and it stole her breath as he scanned her scoop-necked t-shirt and denim capris. Yeah, she hadn’t dressed like a marine, but she still wore her hair in the tight bun at the base of her neck and her dogtags on a titanium herringbone chain around her neck. The chain was her one concession to vanity.
Gluten-Free Yoyos (Besos)
This recipe was suggested by a friend whose partner comes from a Mexican family, and it’s a beloved Mexican sweet bread treat. They rave about this dessert, so I said I’d try to make one gluten-free. It was delicious.
INGREDIENTS for the cookies
2 cups gluten-free baking flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 eggs
4 Tbsp water
1/4 cup almond milk
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp vanilla
Cinnamon sugar for sprinkling
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 380 F (193 C).
Mix the sugar and coconut oil until fluffy, about a minute. Add vanilla, eggs, and water, and mix well.
Add the baking powder and salt, and mix. Add the flour one cup at a time before adding the milk. Mix completely.
Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, scoop dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake the cookies for 20 minutes at 380 F (193 C).
INGREDIENTS for the butter cream
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
While the cookies are baking, whisk together the butter, sugar and vanilla using the whisk attachment to your mixer on medium speed for about 10 minutes.
Let the cookies cool completely on the pan. Sandwich two cookies together by spreading the butter cream on the flat side of one cookie and pressing the second to it.
Once all the cookies are sandwiched together, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Set out and serve. Makes 14-16 cookies, 7-8 yoyos.
