Holidays can be summed up in three words: family, friends and food. I spent this Memorial Day experimenting with new recipes for salads and chocolates as well as making an old favorite dessert. I ended up with three delicious and utterly dissimilar treats: watermelon, feta and cilantro salad; peanut butter bon bons; and Aztec truffles.

Watermelon, feta and cilantro salad

Over the last week or so, I came across a number of bloggers who were featuring watermelon salads, whose principle ingredients (aside from the fruit) ended up being some sort of cheese–usually feta, not crumbled but cut from a block–a strong herb, most often mint, cilantro or basil, and some sort of dressing, be it a simple vinaigrette or a more complicated balsamic reduction or glaze.

For my own watermelon salad, I stuck to three ingredients–slices of watermelon layered with slices of feta cheese topped with roughly chopped cilantro and finished off with sea salt and fresh black pepper.

Even though there were a number of fancier (and more time-consuming) options available to me, I was quite content with how the salad turned out. In general, I think there’s a lot of potential in these salads that successfully incorporate sweet herbs (think cilantro, basil, rosemary, lavender, tarragon) and cheese into salads whose base ingredient is a more mellow fruit like watermelon, cantaloupe or honeydew melon.

Peanut butter bon bons

These bon bons are the stuff of legend among my closest friends and I. Countless sleepovers were devoted to making these decadent desserts, which were usually consumed by dawn. As such, I would definitely file these under “highly addictive” as well as “highly effective coping mechanism.” Make them once and I’ll guarantee you’ll be making them again. And again. And again. And again.

The original recipe for peanut butter bon bons comes from a book I received on my ninth birthday back in 1996: The Care and Keeping of Friends, which was one of the many fun-and-educational guides to growing up published as part of the American Girl Library. I’ll admit I’ve read the entire thing, but the best part–and the only part I still turn to in times of need–is, of course, the section “How to make buddy bon bons.”

You only need six ingredients to make the bon bons: 1 cup creamy peanut butter (I like Smucker’s All Natural), 2 sticks unsalted butter, 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs, 16 ounces semisweet or milk chocolate chips, and 3-4 tablespoons shortening.

Put the peanut butter and the butter into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high for two minutes. Stir together the liquids until they have combined. Then, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until a firm yet pliable dough has formed. Roll the dough into 3/4″ to 1″ diameter balls, and chill them in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Right before taking the balls of dough out of the fridge, melt the chocolate chips and the shortening together, and stir until it becomes glossy. (The shortening is added to temper the chocolate, so that it forms a hard shell around the dough rather than a soft, easily melted coating.) Cover the bon bons with chocolate–either by immersing them in the bowl of chocolate or drizzling it on top. For the bon bons that I made, I added a drizzle of white chocolate, mostly for decorative purposes.

Aztec truffles (of DOOM)

This afternoon, I got a call from my friend Kelly Petitjean, who promptly told me she had been struck by a sudden urge to make chocolates after watching the movie “Chocolat.” Go figure.

So I dropped everything and headed to her house for an afternoon in the kitchen. After I arrived, we spent no less than half an hour browsing the surprisingly extensive truffle section on About.com before we finally decided to make the Aztec truffles, as we were both intrigued by and somewhat suspicious of the infusion of orange zest, cinnamon and cayenne pepper in the ganache.

In the end, the truffles were nothing if not intense. I could taste the fruity, acidic topnotes of orange zest a few seconds after my first bite into the cocoa-dusted truffle. Incidentally, mine had so much cocoa, I accidentally breathed a bit of it in and almost choked. After the ganache had begun to melt in my mouth, the spice of the cinnamon and the heat of the cayenne came on strong and stayed strong–so much so that I downed a glass of milk to temper the burning sensation. After the near-choking experience and the, shall we say, fiery aftertaste, I began to start calling them the Aztec truffles… of DOOM.

If I were to make these truffles again (which I will), I’d lay off the cocoa a bit, and I would significantly decrease the amount of cayenne pepper from 1 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon. That way, you only get a slight hint of cayenne, which brings depth to the flavor without overwhelming it. Another variation I thought would be interesting would be to add a few red pepper flakes and 1/4 cup cacao nibs for added texture.

I would definitely say these truffles are for the more adventurous eaters among us. I wouldn’t suggest you give them to an unsuspecting relative or friend…