Valentine's Day is yummy

OH EM GEE VALENTINES DAY IS THE BEST… kidding. But it is a really good excuse to make some delicious food and eat a lot of chocolate, so I’m not complaining.

This year, our school had a special opportunity for students to use their food points to buy chocolate covered strawberries. The choices were to buy either a ½ dozen or 1 dozen strawberries, so naturally, I bought 2 dozen. The cashier looked at me, seemingly disgusted and confused, until she realized that I *must* be giving one dozen to a special someone. She kindly pointed that out to me, and it got a little awkward when I responded, “Uh, no… they’re all for me.” But hey, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

In order to celebrate, my roomie and I had a super romantic dinner date. What was on the menu? Well steak, duh, with a rosemary/thyme butter sauce and sautéed mushrooms, a side of asparagus with onions & mushrooms, and a little homemade applesauce to add some sweetness.

If you aren’t sure how best to prepare your steak, check out this article; it gives a pretty good breakdown and will help you look like you know what you’re doing. Key points: 1) Choose a good piece of meat. 2) Prep is important- use salt to soak up moisture and create a nice crust on the outside. 3) Don’t be afraid to use a lot of butter and herbs to add flavor. And most importantly… 4) cover up the fire detector with something. This is not a joke. Not that I would know from experience or anything… but the alarm will go off if you ignore that step.

But really, this is all so important. Poorly prepared steak is a deal breaker. I can’t help but cringe when someone orders steak… “well-done”… *shudder*. " As they note in the article, "Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is a perfect medium-rare."

Then for dessert, we had a flourless chocolate cake. It was very dense, like a mix between chocolate cake and fudge... aka to die for. In order to cut through the intensity of the rich chocolate, I added some sliced bananas. In the future, I'll probably experiment with a raspberry sauce or maybe even some coconut/lime to add acidity. This is the recipe that I used, with only minor adjustments of halving the amount of honey and adding a teaspoon of arrowroot powder to give it a bit more cake-y consistency.

The most important side dish we had? Mood music. Don’t forget it.

So whether you’re cooking for friends or for someone special, use Valentine’s Day as an excuse to get fancy with food. Have a meal with the people you care about, served with a side (or two) of chocolate and a glass of red wine. Good food leads to happy hearts. Happy hearts lead to... who knows what.

Ps: If you really feel like you need a boyfriend on V-Day, this is the article for you.