These Spicy Peanut Noodles from the Amateur Gourmet make the perfect summer dish. Though nice and cool, it still packs some heat with spicy ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes, and Sriracha sauce.

Mmm. I love this spicy peanut sauce on everything. If you have any left over, try dipping cucumber slices into it.

I tinkered with the recipe a bit and I posted my edited version below.

I've just completed my first attempt at vegan cooking ... and it wasn't so bad. I found it's like cooking vegetarian, but also forgoing cheese and butter along with the meat.

The recipe for these vegan enchiladas with avocado cream comes from the blog Oh She Glows. Stuffed with a filling of cooked sweet potatoes, spinach, black beans, onions, and bell peppers, these were sort of like baked burritos.

They are healthy, they taste that way. They're not something you gush about how spectacular they taste. They're simple ... and that's OK because sometimes you just want it that way.

I'm not sure if I'd make the enchiladas again, but the avocado cream served on the side is a keeper. Who needs sour cream when this avocado stuff is just as creamy and is so much more flavorful?

Get the enchilada and avocado cream recipes here on Oh She Glows.

(Note: Though the recipe says it makes 4 enchiladas, I found I had enough filling to make 6.)

... Or is it Peeps Krispie Treats? Or Rice Krispie Peeps?

Anyway, I murdered some Peeps to make this recipe.

I creamated Peeps marshmallows left over from Easter and reincarnated them as Rice Peepsie Treats. I followed the original Rice Krispie Treats recipe on the back of the cereal box, but subbed in my yellow friends for some of the marshmallows. (Since I only had two packages of Peeps (10 total), I had to use some plain marshmallows, too.)

I had originally wanted different colored Peeps to make a rainbow-colored mish-mash, but since I only had yellow ones, I added some drops of food coloring to the marshmallows to make my technicolored Rice Peepsie Treats.

These are definitely better than plain Rice Krispie Treats. Anything rainbow-colored tastes better, right?

I've been making this recipe for Sweet & Spicy Sticky Chicken since it was published in the November 2001 issue of Fine Cooking. That's almost 10 years. I don't think I have many recipes that stand the test of time. I usually cook recipes once, toss, and then look for the next best recipe.

This recipe has stuck around because I really like the flavors here. It's sweet from the brown sugar, spicy from red pepper flakes, and it's pretty salty from soy sauce and fish sauce. Some people don't like fish sauce, but I love it. I'm not really sure how it's made (and I don't think I want to know), but it has a distinct, pungent flavor. You can find it at any Asian grocery store.

The dish is pretty healthy as it calls for boneless, skinless chicken thighs and only requires 1 tablespoon of oil for cooking. Serve it with rice to mellow out the salty sauce.

I've made my own Bento box here ... a little rice, a few chicken thighs, and a side of pickled mustard greens:

Sweet & Spicy Sticky Chicken

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/3 cup water

3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon crushed red chili pepper flakes

1 tablespoon peanut oil or 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 scallions, thinly sliced

8 boneless skinless chicken thighs, excess fat removed

fresh cilantro stem (optional)

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, fish sauce, water, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, black pepper and crushed red chile flakes.

Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the scallions and cook until soft, about 3 minutes.

Add the thighs and the brown sugar mixture. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. As soon as it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer, turning the thighs occasionally for about 20 minutes.

Then turn the heat back up to high and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes until sauce thickens and slightly browns chicken. Garnish with cilantro.

Stick a fork in it. Dinner is ready.

With the help of a couple jars of store-bought tomato sauce, you can feed your family a hearty dinner of spaghetti and meatballs within 45 minutes or so.

These meatballs are bigger than golf balls, but smaller than tennis balls. They're not the kind that just fall apart when cut into, but they aren't the super compact kind either. You know ... the ones that look like processed meat? Well, I guess I'm trying to say they're just right. Serve them with whole wheat pasta if you want to be healthy.

Sure, there are many amazing recipes out there that require ground pork, veal, beef, fancy spices, and 5 hours of cooking. But this one is straight forward, fast, and still tasty. Perfect for a weekday meal.

I found the recipe on one of my favorite food blogs, The Amateur Gourmet. Instead of making my own sauce, I used two jars of Bertolli tomato sauce to save time. Get the recipe and check out the AG's step-by-step photos here.

For some reason, I always crave the same foods at any given time. It's always either ice cream, spaghetti with red sauce, pizza, or pad thai. Weird, right?

Well if you love yourself some pasta with red sauce too, you should try this Ultimate Spaghetti Sauce, from the blog Bell'alimento.

The sauce is kind of ridiculous because you simmer four (or five, in my case) whole links of Italian sausage in tomato sauce for four hours before chopping them up and throwing them back into the sauce. All the sausage juices, or as some like to call it, fat, simmer right into the sauce.

My only deviations from the original recipe were using one extra sausage (hey, it comes five to a pack at Harris Teeter), and pureeing some of the onions and carrots post simmering to make the sauce thicker and less chunky.

This stuff is so comforting on a cold, dark night.

These braised short ribs are good. Like so good.

The recipe comes from The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. Like most of her recipes, this one was deeeeeeeelicious. Ree had named this recipe as one of the top dishes you must try before you die. She calls these short ribs "heaven on a plate." After eating these last night, I am in agreement.

Set aside a lazy weekend afternoon for this dish. From start to finish, it took me about 3-4 hours.

After checking at two Harris Teeter stores, I had to go to The Fresh Market (in Strawberry Hill) to pick up the beef short ribs, which sell for $5.99/lb. At The Fresh Market I was also able to acquire some beautiful Italian pancetta ($9.99/lb), a type of dry cured meat which is like the fattier and tastier cousin of bacon.

To start, the pancetta is cooked down and a good helping of fat is rendered, then the ribs are seared in the fat, and then the veggies are cooked in all that goodness along with red wine. Then after 2.5 hours in the oven, the short ribs come out oh-so-tender with the meat just falling off the bone. I served these over a bed of garlic mashed potatoes with a huge scoop of the juice from the ribs on top.

Make these. You won't regret it. Here's how...

(Sorry for the crap photos. I was too into cooking and devouring than my usual food styling and lighting.)