[1] A bottle of Habanero Hot Honey Syrup has many uses in the kitchen. See them below (photos #1, #2, and #3 © Cheeky Cocktails).

[2] The two-ounce size makes tasty party favors and stocking stuffers.

[3] It’s time to bring back the Bee’s Knees gin cocktail—and make it spicy! The recipe is below.

[4] Make spicy caramel (photos #4 and #5 © National Honey Board).

[5] Glaze carrots.

[6] Use on pancakes, waffles, and French toast (photo © Colavita).

We’ve been playing with Cheeky’s Habanero Hot Honey Syrup all week. Infused with habanero chile peppers, it was created to add a spicy twist to cocktails.

But we’ve wandered afar from expressing our inner mixologist, using Habanero Hot Honey Cheeky sweet with everything from hot chocolate to ice cream and vinaigrette (see our list of adventures below).

Handcrafted with habanero chiles, honey, and water, and free from preservatives or artificial flavors, these shelf-stable syrups are also nifty gifties for home cooks and mixologists.

> Below: uses for Habanero Hot Honey Syrup.

> Also below: a Spicy Bee’s Knees cocktail recipe.

> The history of simple syrup.

> The history of honey.

> The history of chile peppers.

> The different types of chile peppers: a photo glossary.

> A year of chile pepper holidays.

> A year of honey holidays.

> A year of cocktail holidays.

> Check out things to do with Cheeky’s Decaf Espresso Syrup.
 
 
GET YOUR HABANERO HOT HONEY SYRUP

Bottles are available in 2-ounce (photo #2), 4-ounce (photo #1), 16-ounce, and 750ml/25.4-ounce sizes.

The small size is a great party favor or stocking stuffer.

While your on the website, CheekyCocktails.co (not .com), check out the other flavors and mixers, and gift sets.
 
 
USES FOR HONEY-HABANERO SIMPLE SYRUP

Habanero-infused honey simple syrup offers a wonderful balance of sweet and spicy that works in many applications.

Spicy Cocktails

 
Spicy Non-Alcoholic Drinks

 
Spicy Cooking

 
 
RECIPE: THE BEES KNEES COCKTAIL

The Bee’s Knees cocktail was created during Prohibition (1920-1933) in the U.S. Like many cocktails from this period, it was designed to mask the harsh taste of bathtub gin.

It was a version of the gin sour, substituting the richer, stronger honey syrup for simple syrup*.

The original creator’s name is lost to history. There’s a common belief that a famed bartender, Frank Meier, created the Bee’s Knees cocktail at the Hotel Ritz in Paris in the 1920s. But he was not the first to make it.

While Meier included a recipe for the Bee’s Knees in his 1934 book, The Artistry of Mixing Drinks, the cocktail was served in American speakeasies before then.

Why the name? Not only was the drink considered to be excellent (“the bee’s knees” in the slang of the day), but it contained honey.

The drink fell out of fashion after Prohibition but has enjoyed a revival during the craft cocktail renaissance of the 21st century. Now, it’s made with quality gin, and more people are disposed to natural honey as a sweetener than refined sugar.

Why can’t you use straight honey in the drink?

Straight honey is very thick and doesn’t mix easily into cold beverages. It needs to be made more fluid by diluting it with water. The typical ratio is 2 or 3 parts honey to 1 part water, stirred to a uniform consistency. (Any extra can be easily stored).

The conventional Bee’s Knees is made with traditional honey syrup. This version turns it into a Spicy Bee’s Knees.

If you’re not a gin lover, substituting Bourbon creates a Spicy Gold Rush.

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the ingredients in a shaker filled with ice. Shake for 10-15 seconds and strain into a coupe or rocks glass.

2. GARNISH with a lemon twist.

Instead of the conventional glass of wine poured while waiting to sit down for Easter dinner, how about a carrot cocktail?

This recipe is from Chef Richard Sandoval, proprietor of two haute Mexican restaurants in Manhattan we love: Maya and Tán.

The recipe follows, but first:

> The history of carrots.

> The history of cocktails.

> The history of Tequila.

> The different types of Tequila.

> All the carrot holidays.

> All the cocktail holidays.
 
 
RECIPE: TEQUILA & CARROT COCKTAIL

For the very best flavor—if you don’t have a juicer—purchase fresh carrot juice. Otherwise, our favorite brand is R.W. Knudsen (photo #3).

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. RIM the glass(es).

2. MUDDLE the cucumber coins in a shaker. Add the tequila, lemon juice, carrot juice, and simple syrup.

3. SHAKE and strain into the rimmed rocks glass. Garnish with a cucumber ribbon.
 
 
TAJÍN VS. SAL DE GUSANO: THE DIFFERENCE

Tajín and Sal de Gusano are both popular Mexican seasonings, but they’re quite different in ingredients, flavor, and how they’re traditionally used.

Tajín is a chili-lime seasoning blend made with dried chili peppers, dehydrated lime juice, and salt.

It’s tangy, citrusy, and mildly spicy and used to:

 
Sal de Gusano is worm salt. It’s a traditional Oaxacan seasoning made with toasted and ground maguey worms (the kind sometimes found in mezcal bottles), chiles (often pasilla), and sea salt.

It’s earthy, smoky, and, slightly spicy and used to:

 
 
HOW TO MAKE A CUCUMBER RIBBON

These are nice garnishes for savory cocktails, including the Bloody Mary, Gin & Tonic, Martini, Pimm’s Cup, Southside, Tom Collins, and most gin cocktails. Also great for sparkling or still water and spa water.

What You Need

 
Preparation

1. WASH the cucumber thoroughly, pat dry, and trim the ends off.

2. USE the vegetable peeler or mandoline to slice long, thin ribbons from top to bottom. Apply even pressure to get a full-length strip.

If the slices are too floppy, press deeper—but keep the thickness flexible to create the curled ribbon.

[1] Tequila and carrot juice cocktail (photo and recipe © Richard Sandoval Hospitality).

[2] Fresh-squeezed carrot juice is great in this recipe…(photos #2 and #4 by ChatGPT 2025-04-16).

[3] But you can always buy store bought. This is our favorite (photo © R.W. Knudsen).

[4] Making cucumber ribbons with a Y-shape peeler (photo Taste.com).

[1] It’s easy to make frozen banana peanut butter bites for snacking or with after-dinner coffee (photo © Gelson’s).

[2] Start with ripe banana slices (photo © Eiliv Sonas Aceron | Unsplash).

[3] Add flavored PB for more pizzazz (photo © Peanut Butter & Co.).

[4] The original recipe used walnuts but we prefer pecans or pistachios (photo © Schermer Pecans).

With all the food holidays we celebrate each year, there is no Peanut Butter & Banana Day. Peanut Butter & Jelly, yes, Fluffernutter, yes. Why overlook the banana?

There’s always a PB&B (Peanut Butter & BANANA) sandwich for Elvis Presley’s birthday on January 8th. He liked it griddled (fried), adding butter—or likely, bacon fat—to the equation. NPR called it “The Sandwich That Helped Kill Elvis” [source].

In fact, it’s called the Elvis Sandwich, and he liked to add bacon (making it a PBB & B).

> Here’s the recipe.

Today, we have a slimmed-down version of bananas and peanut butter: Frozen Peanut Butter & Banana Bites. The recipe follows, but first:

> The history of peanut butter.

> The history of bananas.

> All the peanut butter holidays.

> All the banana holidays.

> All the peanut holidays.

> A Peanut Butter Banana Dessert Cocktail recipe to go with your frozen bites.
 
 
RECIPE: FROZEN PEANUT BUTTER & BANANA BITES

Thanks to Gelson’s for the recipe.

Ingredients For The Banana “Sandwiches”

 
For the Chocolate Coating

 
For Garnish and Storage

 
Preparation

1. PEEL and slice 3 large ripe bananas into ¼”-thick rounds. ⁠Line a baking sheet with parchment.

2. SPREAD ½ teaspoon peanut butter on one banana slice and top with a second slice, pressing gently to create a peanut butter sandwich. Place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining banana slices.

3. FREEZE for 1 hour, or until hardened.⁠ In a small saucepan over low heat…

4. COMBINE the chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon coconut oil, stirring frequently, until completely melted, 2 to 3 minutes.⁠

5. CAREFULLY DIP half of each sandwich into the melted chocolate, using a fork. Place the dipped sandwich back on the baking sheet and garnish each with a pinch of finely chopped walnuts. ⁠

6. FREEZE for 1 hour more, or until completely frozen. Enjoy cold or store in the freezer in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.⁠
 
 
> For more frozen delights, check out our photo glossary, Ice Cream & Frozen Desserts.

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Truth to tell, we had never heard of boiled peanuts, a Southern specialty. While many Southern specialties—barbecue, chicken and waffles, cornbread, hot sauce, and pecan pie, for example—not to mention Bourbon—boiled peanuts had never crossed our path.

But when Dixie Grace’s wrote to us to try her boiled peanuts—and added that there was a National Boiled Peanuts Day on February 21st—how could we resist?

While we missed National Boiled Peanut Day, we have enough upcoming events Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, even July 4th, to make gifts of the all-American peanut in a form beyond what most of us eat (i.e., roasted peanuts).

Dixie Grace’s Boiled Peanuts are our Top Pick Of The Week because everyone should know what boiled peanuts are like.

More about them follows, but first:

> The history of boiled peanuts is below.

> So are all the peanut holidays.

> Beyond the peanut: all the nut holidays.

> The history of peanuts.

> Why are peanuts called goobers?
 
 
WHAT ARE BOILED PEANUTS?

Simply that: green (raw) peanuts in the shell that are boiled with a bit of salt and lemon, plus other seasonings if you want them spicy or sweet.

A protein-rich snack popular in the South, they deliver layers of flavor with just four simple ingredients: peanuts, salt (Dixie Grace’s uses pink Himalayan salt), water, and lemon.

You end up with a peanuts that are more tender and buttery. They’re vegan, gluten-free, cholesterol-free, non-GMO, and keto-friendly.

Nutritionally, peanuts are a protein powerhouse snack (7g per serving), 18% DV of fiber, gluten free, and cholesterol free, with lots of vitamins and 80+trace minerals. Dixie Grace’s are dairy free, soy free, and non GMO.

Open the bag and you’ll see what looks like most, dark brown peanut shells (photos #1 and #2). Pick one up and they immediately pop open revealing the red-skinned peanuts inside.

This Southern snack is popular fare at weddings, family reunions, tailgates, and other parties.
 
As you can see in the chart that follows:

 

[10] Boiled vs. roasted Peanuts: nutritional differences (image created by ChatGPT).
 
 
BEYOND SNACKING: HOW TO ENJOY BOILED PEANUTS

Just as with regular peanuts, boiled peanuts are surprisingly versatile in the kitchen. Remember that peanuts are legumes, belonging to the same botanical family (Fabaceae) as beans, lentils, and peas.

Since boiled peanuts are cooked, you can use them as you would any cooked legume.

They soak up flavor well and can act like legumes in many recipes.

And as an aside, although most snack peanuts are roasted, peanuts can be eaten raw, just like their fellow legumes such as fava beans, green beans, green peas, mung beans, snap peas, snow peas, and soybeans (edamame).

 
 
GET YOUR BOILED PEANUTS

Original Flavor: As mentioned above, just peanuts, water, lemon, and pink Himalayan salt.

Hot & Spicy: With an added blend of herbs and spices that delivers just enough kick.

While the peanuts are perfectly delicious as is, there’s a “Starter Kit” with dry seasoning and drizzle toppers that make a fun gift. Boiled Peanuts!

> Head to DixieGraceBoiledPeanuts.com.

We ate ours at room temperature, but you can heat them:

 
 
THE HISTORY OF BOILED PEANUTS

Boiled peanuts have deep roots in Southern cuisine, particularly in the states of Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.

However, their origins trace back to Africa and South America, where peanuts (originally from South America) were cultivated and later brought to North America via the transatlantic slave trade.

> The history of peanuts.

African culinary traditions included boiling legumes, and enslaved people in the South likely adapted this technique to peanuts.

By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, boiled peanuts became a popular snack among rural Southerners. They were especially common in late summer when fresh green peanuts (not fully dried) were harvested.

Today, boiled peanuts remain a beloved Southern tradition, often enjoyed at roadside stands, festivals, and social gatherings.
 
 
PEANUT HOLIDAYS

 
Plus:

[1] Fresh out of the pot (photos #1, #2, and #3 © Dixie Grace’s Boiled Peanuts).

[2] Just four ingredients: peanuts, water, lemon, and pink Himalayan sea salt.

[3] Available in Original and Hot & Spicy.

[4] These are peanuts freshly-pulled from the ground (photo © Once Again).

[5] These boiled peanuts were made in a slow cooker. Here’s the recipe (photo © Chef Hugh Acheson).

[6] Here’s a pressure cooker recipe (photo © Hannah Kaminsky | Bittersweet Blog).

[7] Add them to any dish for protein and texture; here, a noodle bowl (photo © Zhugewala | Pexels).

[8] On a road trip through the South, Grace discovered boiled peanuts at a roadside farm stand and “was blown away by their unique taste and texture” (photo © Mikhael Mayim | Pexels).

[9] You can make your own with green (raw, unroasted) peanuts, although in her recipe on Bittersweet Blog, Hannah Kaminsky says that roasted peanuts work, too Alabama Peanut).

“Goober” comes from the Bantu word nguba, meaning peanut.

Enslaved Africans brought peanuts to the American South used this word, and it entered English through Gullah, a Creole language spoken by African Americans in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina and Georgia.

Its first-known use in American English is found in the early 1800s, in the southern U.S.

“Goober peas” became a common colloquial term for boiled peanuts, especially among Confederate soldiers during the Civil War.

“Goober Peas” subsequently became the title of a folk song popular during the war: “Eating goober peas, good old goober peas…”

We learned the song in our grade school songbook. Here it is, sung by Burl Ives, a Grammy Award-winning folk singer who became a CBS Radio star and a film actor.

“Goober” also became a slang term for a silly or clumsy person (some people will remember Goober Pyle from The Andy Griffith Show).

But originally, the word just meant “peanut.”

And that’s why a popular brand of chocolate-covered peanuts is called Goobers.
 

[11] Goobers: chocolate-covered peanuts (photo © Ferrara Candy Co.).
 
 

[1] You don’t have to be a whiz with a piping bag to enjoy this Green Goddess pesto deviled egg recipe (photos #1, #5, and #6 © Woodhouse Chocolate).

[2] No skill with piping is required, and the eggs will still look tempting. By the way, this particular green filling gets its color from avocado. Here’s the recipe (photo © Avocados From Mexico).

[3] If you don’t have (or like) pine nuts, you can use whatever nut you do like. This is a pistachio pesto—we love pistachios! (photo © Good Eggs).

[4] For garnish (photo #1), Cindy chopped grilled pitted olives from Trader Joe (photo © Trader Joe | Reddit).

[5] Perhaps the most popular use for pesto is with pasta, here orecchiette, “little ears” (photo © DeLallo).

[6] These green asparagus are actually painted dark chocolate. They’re also available in milk chocolate covered in white chocolate, and are a spring special at Woodhouse.

[7] Motorcycle rabbits are available in dark, milk, or white chocolate.

We always love the chocolates from Napa Valley’s Woodhouse Chocolate. As a special treat, when they send an email highlighting seasonal chocolates, they include a savory recipe.

It’s often not a recipe with chocolate—just something they particularly like.

With their Easter chocolate email, we received this recipe that had became an instant family favorite.

For St. Patrick’s Day, sister Cindy brought Green Goddess Pesto Deviled Eggs (photo #1). They were so good that everyone insisted she bring them again for Easter.

Cindy was kind enough to share the recipe with Woodhouse’s friends, and we share it with you.

Now—don’t worry if Cindy’s recipe is more artistic than you could hope to create. The deviled eggs will be just as delicious if they look like the typical style in photo #2.

But if you have piping tips, please do try it!

And check out the Easter chocolate we ordered, in photos #6 and #7.

The recipe follows, but first:
 
 
What’s the difference between Green Goddess pesto and Green Goddess dressing?

One of our interns asked, and here’s the scoop:

Most of the ingredients overlap—garlic and fresh herbs, for example. But the pesto also includes pesto-specific ingredients like pine nuts and Parmesan.

Because there are no ground nuts in the dressing, it’s smooth as silk. See it in photo #8, below.

> 20 uses for pesto.

> The history of pesto.

> The history of green goddess dressing.

> The history of deviled eggs.

> The history of Green Goddess dressing.

> More deviled egg recipes.

> The different types of eggs: a photo glossary.

> A year of egg holidays.

> National Green Goddess Day is September 25th. National Deviled Egg Day is November 2nd.
 
 
RECIPE: GREEN GODDESS PESTO DEVILED EGGS

This recipe makes a larger quantity than you will need to fill 8 eggs. But you can use it for many more recipes, from breakfast through dinner plus snacks.

Check out these > 20 uses for pesto. The ones we use most often are:

 
As a time-saver, we purchased already cooked and peeled hard boiled eggs.

Ingredients For 8 Eggs (16 Halves)

 
For The Eggs

 
Preparation

1. MAKE the pesto. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

2. BOIL the eggs. Use your preferred technique. Cindy highly recommends cooking them in a pressure cooker because the shells come right off. Here’s how:

3. PLACE the eggs on the metal trivet at the bottom of the pressure cookie and add 1-1/2 cups water. Pressure-cook on high for 5 minutes, let sit for another five minutes, then manually release the pressure cooker and put the eggs in an ice bath for five minutes. (This is called this the 5-5-5 method.)

4. PEEL the eggs, carefully halve the whites. Note in photo #1 that Cindy cut the eggs vertically into half-globes, not horizontally into “boats,” as it’s usually done. You’ll likely have to trim a tiny bit of white from the bottom of each half so the eggs will sit flat on the plate.

Then, pop the yolks into a bowl. Set aside the whites.

5. SIEVE the egg yolks through a fine mesh strainer. If you don’t have a strainer, you can pulse them in a food processor or whisk them until they break into a fine enough consistency. Blend with the pesto and mayonnaise.

6. PLACE the filling in a piping bag (or a plastic storage bag with a corner cut off, and pipe the filling into the egg whites.

7. GARNISH as desired. Cindy used chopped grilled olives from Trader Joe’s (photo #3).
 
 
 
 

[8] A lovely crudités plate with Green Goddess dressing. Here’s the recipe. You can also use the Green Goddess pesto recipe below (photo © David Malosh | Martha Stewart).
 
 
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.