Because it’s summer and there are important things to do such as eating hot dogs, with a bun, and ice cream with strawberries. I’ve been craving hot dogs for way too long and when some local grass-fed beef hot dogs caught my eye, I knew just what would be on our grill next.

While it was the hot dogs I was craving, I was much more interested in what I could top with them. The possibilities are endless, but I’m a new fan of topping a hot dog with everything I can think of.

Hot Dog Topping Ideas:

pickles
coleslaw
peppers
minced onion
jalapeños
chopped tomatoes
blue cheese

Do you stick with the basic ketchup and mustard or go all out with topping your burgers and dogs?

The name drunken noodles apparently has quite a few meanings. I’ve read that it is used to cure hang-overs and I’ve read that it is so spicy, it is an implication to how much you will drink while eating it. Through experience I’ve found that neither of these are really necessary to enjoy some nice drunken noodles. Hangover or not, alongside a beer or not, these noodles are just plain good.

It all started as an innocent trip to the neighborhood Thai restaurant and ended as a full-on obsession with these noodles. “Were getting drunken noodles on Sunday!” I (soberly) exclaimed on a Thursday night. We didn’t get them that Sunday, but I’ve been thinking about them ever since, wondering if a home-made version would be anything like that flavorful bowl of chewy rice noodles I had at the restaurant.

The recipe inspiration came from an old Bon Appétit but there was some major tweaking that occured.  I didn’t get the chance to stop by an Asian market so I used my low-sodium standard soy sauce instead of the “black soy sauce” and the “light soy sauce” which to me sounds like when mixed together it makes regular soy sauce? Someone, please enlighten me. From the general idea of the sauce I took it to a veggie-filled meal that tuned out to be just as addicting as those take-out noodles.

Drunken Noodles – 2 servings (As I’ve mentioned before I generally only make about 2 servings (which is probably more like 4 actual servings) of pasta or we eat too much

• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 jalapeños, chopped *I like spicy food, if you don’t want it too hot, decrease the amount of peppers!
• 2 Tbsp canola oil
• 2 servings rice noodles (wide ones)
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1/4 white onion, chopped
• 2 cups spinach
• 2 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 pinch sugar
• 4 leaves basil, thinly sliced

Prepare the rice noodles as directed. Set aside.

Prepare the sauce: mix the fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar and set aside.

Heat the oil in wok over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add garlic and jalapeños and stir-fry for about 3-4 minutes.

Add sauce, peppers and onions and stir-fry until peppers are crisp-tender, another 3-4 minutes.

Add noodles and spinach and toss until spinach has wilted and noodles are coated with sauce.

*I served our noodles with some crispy tofu instead of adding meat to the noodles.

I used my new wok to prepare this meal, which was sent to me by CSN Stores as part of their preferred blogger program. Thoughts on the wok? It did seem a little easier to stir-fry, although certainly not necessary, and there was definitely less stove top clean-up as it kept everything in the pan! And I did feel like a professional The pan itself was also very easy to clean up, now I just need to find somewhere to put it!