Chocolatey, Peanut Buttery, Sweet & Salty Truffles (and you can make them today for New Year's Eve!)

On New Year's Eve, you're probably going to be rushing home from the office to slap some glitter on yourself and chug a Red Bull before heading out to party down. You're not going to have time to make something to bring to a party, but you still want to have something to bring, right? The good news is, you can make these truffles tonight and they'll be ready to go.

Chocolatey, Peanut Buttery, Sweet & Salty Truffles

(Makes 30)

You need:

• 1 cup natural chunky peanut butter
• 1/2 cup finely chopped salted pretzels
• 1 bag milk chocolate chips (I only needed about 2/3 of the bag, but it's always better to err on the side of having too much chocolate available!)
• 2 tsp honey (optional)
• Salt and chopped nuts for garnish (optional)

1. Mix peanut butter, honey, and pretzels. Cover and chill in the freezer 15 minutes or until firm.
2. Remove from freezer and roll into teaspoon-sized balls. Place on cookie sheet lined with wax paper or parchment, and return to freezer to for 1 hour, until firm.
3. Melt chocolate according to package directions. Remove balls from freezer and dip in chocolate. After you dip each truffle, while the chocolate is still melty, sprinkle a little salt and chopped nuts on top.
4. Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two weeks.

*Modified but inspired by this recipe from Huffington Post

Holiday Cupcakes I'd Like to Show Off Now

For the office, red velvet cake with cheesecake flavored frosting:

Crappy white liners end up being pretty transparent, perfect when I don't want the wrapper to steal the show.

For a tacky holiday sweater party, spice cake with cream cheese frosting:

The gingerbread men were adorable but fragile. A few lost limbs or even heads in battle, so I tucked them in to the icing in attempts to mask their handicaps. They were even more adorable that way, especially if they looked drunk.

For a family party, french vanilla with plain buttercream. No flavors in there to distract from the taste of good old fashioned sugar and fat blended together.

Sugaring It up in San Francisco

I fully planned to have a rot-my-teeth out experience when I stayed just blocks from Ghirardelli Square for a few nights last month. If you can believe it, I never actually made it to that chocolate haven. I did have some pretty sweet experiences on that vacation, though...

GoodLife Cafe & Bakery

In Mendocino, up the Pacific Coast Highway, I greeted the morning with a raisin cinnamon roll. More flaky (think croissant) than bready (think...bread...cinnamon roll...), it was an interesting but tasty twist.

Sausolito Cafe & Bakery

In Sausolito, across the Golden Gate Bridge, I stopped for a post-lunch treat. I almost went for the enormous chocolate chip cookie...

...but after a sample, I decided it wasn't substantial enough for my mood at the time (although it would have been divine with coffee), so I opted for baklava. (I asked them to wrap it in aluminum foil so I could take it to go, but of course I had to open it and sneak a bite while Erik finished his espresso). So dense, and just dripping with honey.

Conservatory of Flowers

On a walk through Golden Gate Park, we went into the Conservatory of Flowers.

Here, I met my favorite youngster, Baby Chocolate.

I also spotted my good friend Cinnamon.

Sears Fine Food

To fuel all this sightseeing, the clear choice was breakfast at Sears Fine Food, home of the enormous plate of 18 tiny Swedish pancakes.

You can get them with lingonberries if you like, but I wanted to experience them in their full (buttery, syruppy) glory.

Candy Baron

I stopped in this little candy shop on Fisherman's Wharf, and it turned out to be almost entirely barrels of saltwater taffy (to be honest, almost every candy store I went into ended up being like this, with the exact same flavors, so I just stopped going in any of them after a while).

I got a little bag with everything that seemed fun, like strawberry cheesecake or cake batter or salted chocolate.

It wasn't until I shlepped them all the way back across the country that I finally ate one, and spit it out. I had failed to remember that saltwater taffy is revolting.


*Not pictured, because my appetite got the best of me and I didn't stop to take pictures: a snowman cookie from Boudin (pretty good - I appreciated the more subtle sweetness compared to other roll-out cookies). Also, a Nutter Butter cookie at the California Academy of Sciences that was spectacular: two thin, dense, flaky peanut butter cookies sandwiched around a peanut butter icing and topped with chopped peanuts on top.