Sugar & Spice

I consider myself a fire eater, the spicier the better.

Basically over the years, anything that had hot peppers in it, I was game to try it. Pretty much anything - pickles? Yup! Vodka? Yup! meal worms? Yup! No seriously, I ate spicy fried meal worms from a street vendor in Thailand. Tastes like chicken. Spicy fire-in-your-mouth chicken.

But - I am frequently forced to make a mockery of people who give me mild or medium instead of the hot that I clearly asked for. Based on my pasty white complexion, I get the ‘I think this curry will be too hot for you’ or ‘this salsa is too hot for white people’.

Melinda, clearly you don't know what you've just asked for - try this mild curry instead.

You're not just born with a tolerance for hot food, I have been diligently training since I was a wee child (Vietnamese noodles across the street at the Lieu's house). Now - I can dazzle my friends with my ability to eat a plate of widow maker chicken wings. They're gross but I can do it.

Later in life (while in Mexico), I was introduced to the wonderful and life changing combination of chilli and chocolate. Talk about fantastic!

Recently, I decided to try my hand at making Mexican-inspired Chilli Double Chocolate Cookies.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

1. Mix butter, sugar(s), vanilla, and eggs together
2. In another bowl, mix flours, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, and pepper
3. Add flour mixture into butter mixture slowly, ensuring that it is well mixed and there are no pockets of dry ingredients
4. Add chocolate chips
5. Spoon onto tray (make sure not to overcrowd since they flatten & expand as they bake)
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes in a preheated oven (350F)
7. Watch carefully – these babies have a tendency to burn and plus they are way tastier soft and gooey