Saturday night, I had some people over for fondue. It was a dinner that a friend and I put up in a service auction last spring and it was due time to give the winners the event they had won. I did both cheese and chocolate, all with a varied array of appropriate dippers. Someone commented, as they took in the number of things I had put out to dip, that they'd never really been given so many options of things to dip.

I served the cheese fondue with the traditional chunks of bread as well as pieces of grilled and cubed chicken, blanched veggies (broccoli, carrots and brussels sprouts) and grape tomatoes. The chocolate was matched up with pound cake, chunks of rice crispy treats, shortbread cookies, pineapple, strawberries, apples, oranges, banana and pears. I was disappointed with the cheese fondue, for the first time ever, it was sort of chunky in texture. I don't know why that happened. However, it was totally redeemed by the chocolate. Smooth and the perfect consistency, it was a winner. The recipe is after the jump.

The web is a wonderful place, filled with news, information, how-to guides, games, and pornography. It also happens to be a place where you can find a ton of books...for free! At the Project Gutenberg site, I found this one: The Complete Book of Cheese, a 1955 book by Bob Brown.

This isn't just some small article-extended-to-book-length thing -- it's quite an extensive history of cheese, along with illustrations, personal observations, and recipes. Chapters include "I Remember Cheese," "Foreign Greats," "Native Americans," and "The Fondue." There's even an A to Z of cheese you might want to print out.

There's also a section titled "Fit For Drink," which tells you what drink to pair with what cheese. As the quote says, "A country without a fit drink for cheese has no cheese fit for drink."

When I want to keep my coffee or tea warm, I do one of three things: I drink it quickly, keep it in an insulated mug or stay reasonably close to the microwave so I can reheat it if necessary. I don't think that I would ever get to the point where I needed a drink warmer like the one pictured here. This set has two main components: a frosted glass mug and a zinc cup holder/warmer, which has a space for a tea light. It also includes the stainless steel stirring spoon/drinking straw pictured with it.

It looks a bit like a fondue set, doesn't it? Clearly, you would have to regularly stir your drink to prevent the bottom from scalding, particularly if you're drinking a dairy-based beverage.

I would rather just drink my hot cocoa quickly if the only reheating option seemed like a fire hazard.

Because I love to cook, it is easy to make any meal made at home romantic. All you need is a couple of candles on the table, well-cooked food, someone special and, to follow the meal, dessert. For the main course, I would choose something easy to make, something familiar. Dessert would be my focus, since I firmly believe that anything truly romantic should end with something sweet. These are my top four most romantic desserts:

Molten Chocolate Cake - Known sometimes as a chocolate lava cake, these individual serving sized cakes are menu must haves on Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, they are often poorly made, as people simply undercook a regular chocolate cake to "create" a molten center; all they are doing is allowing batter to run all over the plate. A real molten chocolate cake should have a ball of ganache placed in the center before baking, which will melt and deliver a delicious sauce that is more delicious than any cake batter could ever be. This recipe from Epicurious substitutes chocolate pieces for the truffle center, but the Chocolate Espresso Lava Cakes are excellent, nevertheless.

It may seem a bit early right now, but Valentine's Day is just around the corner and there is scarcely a moment to waste. If you are planning to cook for your sweetheart this year, you should really make sure your kitchen is properly outfitted for the task. What could be more romantic than heart-shaped cookware?

• A heart shaped tea kettle is a charming addition to the breakfast table or to serve tea with an afternoon snack.
• A heart-shaped Le Creuset casserole makes a beautiful cooking and serving dish.
• Heart-shaped pot holders will keep your hands safe and cool while you are cooking.
• Heart-shaped mini Belgian waffles are easy with this specially-shaped waffle iron, and just the thing for a romantic breakfast in bed.
• My favorite, however, is easily the heart-shaped fondue pot. Chocolate is a Valentine's Day necessity and few things are as romantic or fun to eat as fondue.

The other day, on a whim, I took my whole family to the Melting Pot, an outlet of the U.S. fondue chain. I was in the mood for quality fried food, and what's more quality than food you fry yourself, in oil only you've used? ("I think we'll have the Bourguignonne, or however you say it," I told our 20-year-old waiter, scraping up my best guess at its pronunciation. "Wow, that took me nine days of training to learn!" he said.)

As I was frying up tempura zuchhini and beef tenderloin au natur on the little hotplate in the center of our table, I remembered a Koreatown restaurant with mini copper hoods that descended when it was time to start frying. And I thought: I want one of these tables!

So my wishlist for my future kitchen is begun. The dining room will have a traditional table, but my "breakfast nook" will have its very own grill, with a mini hood. I'm sure it will cost thousands - so my future kitchen is FAR in the future. Now all I need to do is figure out where to get the hardware. Am I going to have to go to a restaurant supply distributor or are these in-table grills available commercially? Anyone ever installed one?

I thought this was funny: Frank Bruni tacked a bit of a disclaimer on his Diners Journal entry on Lower East Side instastaple Kitchen & Cocktails. "When a restaurant refers to beverages in its very title, giving them as much semantic and typographical weight as food, you really have no choice. Cocktails aren't an option. They're an obligation." So he starts backwards, detailing the strawberry and cachaca laced libations he imbibed before ever getting to anything produced by the kitchen. He then procedes to wax rhapsodic over various appetizers and entrees (although, admittedly, he finds fault with a too-truffled ravioli and a bland grilled lamb). But I wonder: even for a professional food critic, when you're admitting to drinking a lot of heavily-flavored hard liquor before your meal at a non-remarkable, very sceney sort of place, isn't it possible that you've already comprimised your ability to judge the cuisine with any kind of impartiality? I mean, who isn't happy to see a plate full of fondue after a few fruity cocktails?