There’s the convenience factor, sure. Paying someone to make dessert is a lot easier than rolling up your sleeves and doing it on your own, but on Valentine’s Day, we like to pull out all the stops and make the treats ourselves. So why pay a lot of money to an expensive chocolate shop for dipped Oreos?

These are just as good as the ones you pay for, if not better. See, they’re made with Double Stuf Oreos, which have more filling. They’re also blinged out for Valentine’s Day. There’s a video tutorial below, so enjoy!

Valentine’s Day is definitely a matter of some contention at my house. Kenny has always held the position that it’s a “Christian holiday” (his words, not mine), and since we’re not a Christian household, we should therefore be exempt from celebrating.

I’ve told him that I find his point of view to be highly inaccurate, and even did some research about the St. Valentine in question. There were apparently several priests of that name back in the day, the most famous one being the guy who agreed to marry young couples against the law and got killed for it. However, most sources agree that the holiday is not necessarily named after him.

Furthermore, a Pagan holiday known as Lupercalia occurred around the same time of year back then, and it was some kind of agricultural celebration. The holiday also had ties to fertility and coupling ceremonies, and rumor has it that the church decided to add more respectability to the occasion by naming the holiday after a saint.

Still, all of these are theories, not fact. I read at least five other accounts about how V-Day began, not to mention the theory that it mainly gathered steam after American capitalism saw it as a way to make some money.

Whatever the real story is, the holiday is so far removed from any roots that I persist in telling Kenny that we should celebrate the day. It’s about love, and I’m all for getting chocolate and a dinner out in the name of old-fashioned romance. He can just suck it up and go along for the ride, and so far, that’s pretty much what he’s done. He’s one of the good ones.

I’m all about the homemade food gifts on Valentine’s Day. Last week, I showed you how to make bark. Here’s how to make dipped Oreos!

See, it’s not hard at all. The important thing is to let the chocolate drip through the fork tines so that you don’t have an enormous pool of chocolate on your parchment paper. The drizzle and sprinkles on top can be in whatever pattern or color you desire!

Whether or not any of us can figure out how Valentine’s Day started, let’s keep our eye on the priorities: lots of chocolate. Then it’s a day that even the biggest hater can get behind!

Wham, bam, thank you…egg-free peanut butter cookie dough. Filled with peanut butter and butterscotch chips. Covered in chocolate with peanut butter drizzle. Because boy, do you make life that much better.

To be honest, I need a little more chocolate therapy than usual this week. My body is sore thanks to a tubing incident, and I need to dull the pain, doctor.

This past Friday, Kenny and I decided to go on a summer adventure together. Sometimes when our kids are at camp, we have daytime dates. In the D.C. area, there’s so much to do. This time, we decided to drive out to a creek near Antietam (yep, the Civil War battle site) and go tubing. As a Civil War nerd and a lover of the water, I thought it would be the perfect day trip.

A local magazine had described this particular journey as relaxing. The article painted the picture of a lazy day on the creek, with an extra tube for your cooler. According to everything I read, you could float on down slowly, beaching the tube when you felt like it and eventually winding up at your destination. That’s what I thought we were in for.

When we got to the rental place, Kenny and I were given our tubes. The only thing we were told to do was avoid the trees. Sounds easy, right? Maybe, if you have a paddle and some control over your mode of transport. For the first time, the expression “up a creek without a paddle” made complete sense to me. Especially when I wound up tubing (and screaming) my way through a downed tree, emerging several scratches later with my hat gone.

But the real kicker was when Kenny’s tube flipped over in the rapids. We had been told there were light rapids, and I guess everyone’s definition of “light” differs. In any case, these rapids were strong enough to dump Kenny, his shoes, and his phone right into the water. His tube started to float away and I, still on my tube, began to face the reality that unless I did something, I’d be one husband down for the rest of the day. Without shoes, Kenny had no way to walk on the rocks at the bottom of the creek without being in a lot of pain and without moving very slowly.

So I bailed out of my tube, dragged it over to his rapidly disappearing tube, and used a makeshift oar (a giant stick I named “Oarie”) to struggle my way back toward Kenny. The most fun part was lifting both tubes and Oarie over my head while going the wrong way against the rapids to get to him. I’m guessing that’s why my entire left side flew into spasm, and why now, two days later, I’m in a ton of pain. But no fear. I’ve got my massage therapist on speed dial and a plate full of these butterscotch peanut butter cookie dough truffles.

These come together in a snap, and the best thing about the recipe is that it only makes about eight truffles. That means you don’t have to worry about going too crazy with eating a lot. If you’d like, double it, or triple it. But if you do that, use a mixer. In a small batch, a small bowl is needed, no mixer. Your decision!

The combo of butterscotch chips with the peanut butter chips and PB cookie dough is what you find if you look under the word “addictive” in the dictionary. You can leave these plain, or do what I did and dip them in melting chocolate. For flair, I melted some peanut butter chips and piped lines across the top.

Guys, I’m happy to be alive, even if I’m in pain. I’m also thrilled to brag to Kenny now that I saved him, even though he would’ve maybe made it down the river 10 hours later. So all’s well that ends well, especially if there are truffles!

Let me backtrack. After a week of the flu and another week recovering from the flu, I’m still waiting for my appetite and taste buds to return to normal. The flu is evil in so many ways, but I never expected it to alter my eating this dramatically.

Pretty much, I’ve wanted two things since the fever broke: sushi and truffles. When the fever was raging, all I wanted was Coke Slurpees. So basically, any healthy eating habits have gone right out the window.

As I try to build back my love of veggies and anything that’s not sushi, I’m tapping into my biggest love, peanut butter with chocolate, to see what happens.

These babies are inspired by one of my childhood food loves. Every morning for breakfast, I used to eat Ritz crackers with peanut butter along with a cup of Ovaltine. It was a breakfast of champions, and I still love that particular meal. It’s perfect for anyone young, or young at heart.

Now, to these: they’re made up of egg-free peanut butter cookie dough, which is generously sandwiched between two Ritz crackers and then dipped in chocolate. So basically, it’s the candy version of my favorite cracker sandwich. If you want to up the peanut butter ante, you’ve gotta go with cookie dough. And egg-free dough means you can eat as you build these happy bites of joy!

When you dip, you’ve got to use melting chocolate. I used the Ghirardelli brand, but any brand will do. If you use regular chocolate, it could seize up. Plus, it’s very hard to dip delicate Ritz crackers into thicker chocolate.

The outcome here is a snack that any kid or adult will love. As for me, all this is in the pursuit of getting back my pre-flu taste buds. I can’t think of a better way to go!