Fans of cookie baker and amateur sleuth Hannah Swenson (heroine of Joanne Fluke's popular culinary mystery series) can finally rest easy. After many requests for a cookbook made of all the delectable recipes found in her novels, Fluke complied. The result? Lake Eden Cookbook: Hannah Swenson's Recipes From The Cookie Jar, which released a little over a month ago. Just in time for holiday baking, the cookbook contains all the recipes from the books as well as a "generous sprinkling of new never-before-published" recipes. Since the majority of Fluke's/Hannah's recipes cannot be found online (at least not officially), this is a real treat for those who love Hannah and/or those who love to bake.

- Sorry about the blurry photos. My 2-year-old wouldn't stop moving. I'm pretty sure the cup didn't move an inch, so I'm not sure why it's so fuzzy. There's a distinct possibility that the photographer didn't know what she was doing. Nah, couldn't be that :)

LEIGH'S LIME BALLS

1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces, 1/4 pound) salted butter, softened

*** If you can't find key lime juice, you can use regular lime juice. Of course, it's best if you squeeze it yourself.

Prepare a cake pan by lining it with wax paper. You're going to use it to hold and refrigerate your lime balls once you've made them.

Hannah's 1st Note: You can use an electric mixer to make these little treats, or you can do it by hand.

Hannah's 2nd Note: Let the tube of frozen limeade concentrate thaw on the counter while you start mixing the first few ingredients.

If you don't want to wait for your cold butter to warm to room temperature, you can soften it in the microwave. Here's how you do it:

Hannah's 3rd Note: Check the powdered sugar to make sure it doesn't have lumps. If it does, you'll have to sift out the lumps by using a flour sifter or putting it through a fine wire-mesh strainer.

If the frozen limeade has thawed, add it to your mixing bowl. If it hasn't, spoon it out of the container, put it into a microwave-safe bowl, and heat in on HIGH for 20 seconds. Stir to see if it's melted. If it's not, heat it in 20-second increments, stirring after each increment, until it's melted. Add the melted limeade concentrate to your bowl and mix it in thoroughly.

Add the Tablespoon of lime juice and mix it in.

Add the green food coloring (if you decided to use it) and mix that in thoroughly.

Add the crushed wafers to your bowl and mix them in.

Place the coconut in a medium-size bowl. You'll be coating your lime balls with it. (I like to put my coconut in the food processor and use the steel blade to chop it even finer. I've found that most people who say they don't like coconut are really not objecting to the way it tastes, but the tendency it has to stick between their teeth.)

Use your impeccably clean hands to form little balls from the mixture. (Lisa and I use a 2-teaspoon scooper at The Cookie Jar.) The balls should be about 1 inch in diameter, approximately the size of bonbons.

If you're giving these as gifts, you can place them in pretty cookie tins. You can also put them in little paper mini muffin cups and place them in a candy box. Remember to tell your lucky recipients to keep them refrigerated.

My thoughts on the recipe: Scrumptious! These have the curious tendency to be both refreshing and totally rich. My husband and I both enjoyed these, especially after the lime balls had been chilling for a day or two.

My only problems with the recipe were (1) I used the "rolling pin" method for crushing my Nilla wafers and I should have used the food processor method since mine were not fine enough. My bad on that one. I was too impatient. (2) I must have been super generous with my coconut coating because I needed at least 2 cups. (3) Not all of my lime balls fit in my 9 x 13 pan. I used an additional 8 x 8 inch one. Other than that, I made it exactly as written and the lime balls turned out pretty and very yummy.