Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

What is wrong with me.  Why do I do this to myself.  Didn't I learn in elementary school to use question marks when asking questions.  I'm too lazy to use proper grammar, because I have too much cookie dough swimming around in my brain.  I blame sick kids, and rain, and stir craziness, and lack of eggs.  It was really that last part that reminded me of this Eggless Cookie Dough (also remember these lollipops?).  It's the PERFECT thing to make when you have a cookie craving and no eggs in your fridge.  Yesterday, I added 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter to the butter/sugar mixture.  I also melted half of them in a chocolaty peanut butter (1 cup chocolate chips, 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter).  And now I have about a thousand of each in my freezer.  Good thing it's Valentine's Day next week, so I can hand these out to anyone I even remotely like.  Guess what?!  I remotely like you.  What's your address? 

Peanut Sesame Noodles + Homemade Sriracha

Lately, I've been wanting to eat take-out Chinese food from those paper cartons.  I want to shovel food in my mouth using chopsticks, like they do in the movies when something bad happens.  I'm not saying I want something bad to happen, I just want to enjoy a lot of Chinese take-out, in my mouth, while watching Pretty Woman.  Is that okay with you?

Problem is, there is not great take-out Chinese in the Santa Monica area (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).  So I had to make my own version of Asian-style take-out, even if I was paper carton-less.  I followed this recipe for Peanut Sesame Noodles, and they were delicious!  The sauce was everything I wanted it to be - smooth, spicy, nutty with a hint of sweet.  But what made it excellent was the Homemade Sriracha I stirred it all together with.  A good friend, Marianne, makes her own and hands them out as gifts and I'm telling you, the store-bought version does not come close. She shared her recipe with us below... yay!

Homemade Sriracha

(Makes 1 jar)

Printable Recipe

Adapted from Gwyneth Paltrow's My Father's Daughter

1 1/4 cups peeled garlic

1 pound red jalapeños, steamed and sliced into thin rings (seeds removed - the more seeds: the hotter the sauce)

2 1/4 cups rice vinegar

1/4 cup brown rice syrup

2 T sea salt

1 T arrowroot

1 T fish sauce (or soy sauce)

In a small sauce pan, add garlic and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and immediately drain.  Cool the garlic under running water and return it to saucepan.  Cover again with water and repeat blanching process. 

Thinly slice the blanched garlic and combine with jalapeños and vinegar in a large pot.  Bring to a boil, cook for 3 minutes and then remove from heat.  Add the brown rice syrup and salt and stir to combine.  Let the mixture sit undisturbed for 1 hour to steep and cool. 

Whiz the mixture in a powerful blender until smooth.  Return the pureed sauce to the pot, bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes, skimming off any foam until the sauce is slightly reduced and has some body.      

In a small bowl, dissolve the arrowroot with 1 tablespoon of lukewarm water.  Whisk into the simmering sauce and cool for 2 minutes more or until sauce has thickened.  

Remove the sauce from heat, let it cool slightly and stir in the fish sauce.  Store in a screw top jar in the fridge for up to 6 months. 

I chose to toss my Peanut Noodles with diced red bell pepper, cucumber, green onions, cilantro and chopped peanuts.

Three Cheese Hot Artichoke Dip

Good day to you!  How were your Super Bowl Sundays?  Were you so bored with the game that you ate way more than you should have?  I did.  And I'm usually bored with football so imagine boredom on top of boredom on top of multiple dips on top of multiple chips.  One appetizer that I consumed too much of was this Artichoke Dip my sister made.  It's a Paula Deen recipe (posted here), so you know it's going to be, well, worthy of Super Bowl eating (that's a polite way of saying full of cheese and mayo).  Although halfway through the game I started dipping carrots in it, so that's halfway healthy, right?  My sister did a few things differently - she used 2 cans of artichokes instead of 1, added some garlic salt and omitted the Worcestershire sauce.  It really is a crowd-pleasing dish so I suggest you bookmark this for the next time you're bored with sports and want to eat a lot.