If you prefer to stay in and cook, rather than to go out for romantic occasions, you might want to consider getting your date (and yes, it can still be a date if you're married to each other) involved in the kitchen with you if you don't already. The experience gives you more together time and makes the evening into an event, rather than just another meal. You can work together on any recipe from any cookbook, but Dinner Dates: A Cookbook for Couples Cooking Together gives you a good place to start because it is designed for this purpose. And if you tend to get a little protective of your space in the kitchen, it couldn't hurt to have the tasks divided up for you.

The "dates" are complete menus with both casual and more gourmet options. For example, "Fun with Fajitas" will get you margaritas, chicken and steak fajitas and ice cream sundaes, while the "Ultimate Valentine's Dinner" has french onion soup, filet mignon with herbed butter, and chocolate dipped strawberries and biscotti. There are a total of ten different dates, as well as information on prepping your kitchen and plenty of other foodie tips.

With only a few days left until Valentine's, we thought that it would be fun to take a look at the role that food can play in our relationships with a little mini series leading into February 14th.

The number of dates that take place at restaurants is not something that trend-watching companies devote resources to because they know, and you know, that it is a high proportion. First dates are especially likely to involve food, since it sets a common ground while you get to know each other. The real question is what makes a great date restaurant? How do all these restaurant daters decide where they want to go?

There are a few schools of thought here. The first one says to go for the atmosphere, somewhere that is either romantic or intimate in some way and that isn't so noisy that you have to shout all night. The second one says that you should go for the food, because if the dinner is exquisite it can only help your chances for getting a second date.

Yesterday, we talked about what it was like to date someone with really restrictive diet, or conversely, what it was like to date someone with a very broad palate when you were the one with a restricted eating habits. Some shared that the felt it gave them new perspective and forced them to become more creative in the kitchen, while others were of the mindset that "if you are a picky eater, that is remarkably unsexy and you are gone." This all leads us into today's question, which is whether or not you would change your eating habits to impress?

Small things are easy to change and it isn't uncommon for us to be more aware of our eating quirks when we're out on a first date and want to make a good impression. For example, even if you don't particularly care for broccoli, you might find yourself taking a few bites if it is served with your dinner on a first date with a girl you really like. Or perhaps you are a chicken-and-fish kind of girl, but decide to share in an order of beef chili fries at a big football game, since you know your date loves them. The more restrictive the diet, however, the more difficult the change, but there are some dedicated meat-lovers who are willing to go vegetarian, or mostly vegetarian, to try and impress a vegan or vegetarian significant other.

The interesting thing about these types of dietary changes is that they are not permanent. Meat-lovers go back to eating meat and broccoli-haters continue to avoid broccoli, which makes you wonder whether the change is worthwhile in the first place, since there is minimal intention of changing your overall inclinations.

With only a few days left until Valentine's, we thought that it would be fun to take a look at the role that food can play in our relationships with a little mini series leading into February 14th.

While we may not think about food all the time, it is a huge part of our daily lives. If we're not eating, we might be planning for the next meal or looking at restaurant reviews online, trying to decide where to eat over the weekend. Our own food preferences are usually at the forefront of our minds as we think about these things. We judge what sounds appealing to us, what menu items are tempting.

It isn't until another person is introduced into the equation that we run into problems. Most of the time, this isn't a big deal. Restaurants offer large menus and most people eat a wide variety of foods, but when your date has a very restrictive diet - vegan, macrobiotic, only purple foods - it can really through a kink into your plans. Have you ever dated someone with a really restrictive diet? How did you work around it or did it turn out to be a dealbreaker?

Sell by, best by, and use by are all labels that we commonly see on foods in the grocery store. They are on just about anything that is packaged, from milk and bagged produce to cookies and soda. Is there really a difference between the terms, and if so, what is it?

BusinessWeek actually has some of the answers for us. A "sell by" date is one that indicates to a store how long the product should be offered for sale, although such a product will almost always be good for at least a few days beyond that date. A "best by" date means that the flavor or texture of a food will begin to decline at that point. The "use by" date is the real expiration date. Beyond it, there is no guarantee that the food will be fresh and tasty or that it will retain all of the nutrients that it started out with. The overall quality of the product can begin to decrease and you're probably better of just starting again with a fresh bottle/can/bag.

The best strategy is to buy foods in small batches so you don't have to worry about expiration dates of any sort coming on too quickly, but keep the dates in mind as you shop for reference points, and choose products with further dates if you know you're not going to be consuming everything you buy in a short period of time.

It's not often that you see Dr. Joyce Brother's answer a question pertaining to food, but this seems like an issue that could be a problem for many foodies. No, it's not a 9 1/2 Weeks sort of thing. The question is about what to do when an adventurous eater is interested in someone who is not only picky and unadventurous ("the culinary tastes of a 6-year-old) in their eating habits, but is also entirely uninterested in changing.

Dr. Joyce said that the foodie is better off finding someone who can share her interest in food, since cooking and meals are not only important to her, but are a huge part of everyday life. It can be difficult to choose restaurants and menus when dining with friends if one or two people only ever want a cheeseburger and fries - imagine how much more frustrating that would be in a relationship when the issue comes up three times a day. Even if she could put aside her interests from time to time, it would only cause friction in the relationship as time went on.

It's sound advice. But the temptation must be there to try and convince the unwilling eater to expand his or her horizons. Has anyone succeeded in converting the PB&J devotee to something a little more exciting?

If you happen to be single on Valentine’s Day, there is no reason to feel blue. After all, it’s only one day a year that the media lets us know that we are really supposed to be part of a couple. It’s worse if you’re a woman, of course. The message to men seems to be to celebrate the fact that they’re not “obligated” to take someone of to dinner and ply her with chocolates and flowers. Women, on the other hand, are expected to eat ice cream and chips by the pound and cry while watching sappy movies.

Single or not, a sappy movie from time to time is not a bad thing, but I definitely take issue with the ice cream and chips side of the equation. If you want to meet someone, eating ice cream in front of the television is not the way to go about it. And besides, there are much better things that you can be eating, even if you’re alone, whether you are a guy or a gal.