Bottom Five Food Network Valentine Recipes

by Nicole Weston, Posted Feb 13th 2006 @ 2:17PM

As much as I love the Food Network, sometimes they just don't quite hit right the mark. Holidays are guaranteed to turn out many interesting recipes, as all the chefs work on recipes designed to fit a particular theme. Recipes like Sarah Moulton's Chocolate Stuffed Heart Shaped French Toast and Michael Chiarello's Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter and Bittersweet Chocolate are truly excellent recipes and fit the delicious, romantic standards of the holiday wonderfully. The recipes below, however, you might want to avoid serving on Valentine's Day, assuming that you want to keep your Valentine around until next year.

Sandra Lee's semi-homemade, semi-sweet Mixed Fruit and Spring Green Salad with White Chocolate-Orange Vinaigrette really proves that no matter how much fruit you put in something, if it has arugula, it still shouldn't have white chocolate. Bitter spring greens and tart oranges just don't work with white chocolate. Nor should they.
Dave Lieberman's Candy Bar Chocolate Brownies are objectionable because they join the ranks of fatty foods that unnecessarily include Snickers bars. Save it for your own late night binging, if you must, but don't feed it to your Valentine.
Rachael Ray's Sexy Surf n' Turf won't be making any hearts flutter, not because there is anything wrong with the recipe, just because Surf N' Turf has been out of fashion for quite a few years now. It remains the selling point for rather low end family restaurants and just isn't appropriate for a romantic meal, unless "all you can eat" is the first thing that attracts you to a restaurant.
The Best Of is a show that covers some of the best and most interesting restaurants in the country, but Cupid's arrow missed its mark with Grilled Sonoma Fois Gras with Oaxacan Mole. Creamy and rich though it may be, fois gras is a little too much food for thought when you want your dinner partner to be thinking about you.
One more Sandra Lee recipe makes the list. Her Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies (pictured) start with a can of store bought frosting and go downhill from there. They're not specifically designed to be a Valentine cookie, but then again, they're not really designed for human consumption.