Baklava is a flaky mediterranean desert comprised of butter, walnuts, phyllo dough, sugar, honey…and did I mention the butter? My mother makes a version that is so rich my mouth starts watering just thinking about it and since we’re heading into the holidays, I thought I’d share my thoughts on this desert with my readers.

Another reason I’m thinking about Baklava is because it’s the favorite sweet of my Arab-American hero in Dark Sins and Desert Sands, a paranormal romance novel about a modern day minotaur who intends to use his mind-control powers for revenge against those who have destroyed his life, but ends up falling for a modern-day sphinx instead. Here’s a little snippet from the book, then stay tuned for a delicious recipe!

“It’s sooo good,” Layla said, with a sensual moan. She literally writhed in the passenger seat, her elegant fingers flexing around her soda bottle with pleasure.

She’d been doing that with every bite of the cookie Ray had picked up for her in a convenience store and her enthusiasm was starting to turn him on. He glanced over in time to see her licking chocolate from her fingers in a way that made him twitch. She aroused him so easily, under any circumstance, without even trying. Maybe especially when she wasn’t trying.

For as long as he’d known her, she’d been a serious woman, but now she started laughing. It reminded him of how she’d sputtered with joy in the bathroom of that crappy little motel when she’d first touched him. The pleasure of the memory—of being touched in a way that didn’t bring pain—set him off-balance. “What’s so funny?”

“It’s just that I can’t believe I’ve gone two years without eating anything sweeter than a bran muffin!” Her laughter cut off suddenly, and she stammered, “Oh—oh, Ray. I’m sorry. Next to what you’ve been through…”

“Don’t do that,” he said. It’s true that he’d spent two years eating any slop they shoved through the slats of his prison cell, but she’d been in a kind of prison too. He was glad she was finally free of it.

“Don’t walk on eggshells like you pity me, Layla, or like you think I’m going to explode at any moment.”

“Okay,” she said, offering him a bite of the dessert as a peace offering. “Do you want some?”

“No, thanks. I’m not big on sweets unless it’s my mother’s baklava. The way she brushes the phyllo dough with butter and spices the nuts… My whole family goes crazy for it.”

Layla stared at him. “What’s it like to have a family?” It was an odd question, and his expression must have said so, because she explained, “When I didn’t have my memories, I always hoped that there was a family out there somewhere looking for me. Now I know that I don’t have parents. I don’t have siblings or children. Just Seth.”

“What’s it like having family?” Ray repeated, struggling for an answer. “It’s like asking someone what it’s like to have an arm or a leg. You can explain what it’s like to lose it, but you take it for granted when you have one.”

So let’s see if we can reproduce Ray’s childhood memory for our holiday tables!

Holiday Baklava

• 1 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough
• 1 pound chopped nuts
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup honey

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter bottoms and sides of a 9×13 inch pan.
2. Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon. Set aside. Unroll phyllo dough. Cut whole stack in half to fit pan. Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work. Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2 – 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layering as you go. The top layer should be about 6 – 8 sheets deep.
3. Cut into diamond shapes. You may cut into 4 long rows the make diagonal cuts. Bake for about 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp.
4. While baklava is baking, boil sugar and water until sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes.
5. Take baklava from oven and drizzle sauce on it. Cool. It Freezes well.

To visit the other sites on the blog hop and get more delicious recipes, go here!

What if the monsters of ancient mythology still walked the earth…and what if you found out that you were one of them?

That’s the premise of my Mythica series for Harlequin Nocturne, each of which explores a world in which the gods still are among us and war can turn men into monsters.

We’ll get to the quiz in a minute, but first, let me plug my newest installment Dark Sins & Desert Sands–a story about a modern day minotaur who is determined to have revenge against those responsible for torturing him. In his quest, he falls in love with his beautiful but treacherous interrogator, a woman who has lost all her memories and is a riddle even to herself. It’s a story about two very battered and broken people finding redemption in one another. I hope you’ll love it as much as I do, but in the meantime, I hope you’ll have fun with this little quiz I made up.

Which Ancient Monster of Greek Mythology Are You?

I was a gorgon. Share your results!

Today is a good day to visit www.excerptmonday.wordpress.com. They’re featuring Dark Sins & Desert Sands, the latest installment of the Mythica series. It’s super hot–there’s a sex on the subway scene that’s sure to scandalize. It’s also, I like to think, a smart, forward-thinking little book. Enjoy!