"romance" news and stories

Krispy Kreme is getting into the pink for Valentine's Day. The ever-popular doughnut shop is planning on having a few special offers to celebrate the season of romance. For customers who purchase a dozen doughnuts of any kind between now and Valentine's day, every store will give out a dozen Valentine's Day cards, each of which will contain a coupon for one free doughnut. It will be tough to part with the prospect of free doughnuts if you're a fan of the classic hot glazed, but just think of how appreciative your Valentine's will be!

Stores will also be frying up their light, yeast-raised doughnuts in heart shapes, coating them with white icing and red, white, and pink sprinkles. They're not quite up to the same level of cuteness as the Halloween doughnuts that Krispy Kreme featured back in October, but it's hard to say no to a doughnut with sprinkles

And on February 14th, stores will be making their regular glazed doughnuts in heart shapes, as well.

I've been sick with a cold, and it's Valentine's Day, and so what? I've had this cold so long I'm sick of writing about remedies. I want to address some things that many have come to me about, mainly, the secrets of getting a nice dinner squeezed into life between the time you go out after work to have a few drinks or go to a party and the time you go home and go to bed.

We all know the feeling of being out on a Valentine's Day date for a few drinks, and you start to get dizzy, and the hunger is affecting your ability to be glib. You are even starting to get angry, but mentioning food on the first date of "let's meet for coffee/a drink" seems so terribly vulgar. 

This is the age of the anorexic, when needing to eat all the time is a sign of weakness. There is nothing wrong with going out to eat of course, but being the one who suggests it, right before you pass out from hunger even though you've just had three bowls of popcorn at the bar, that's not cool. Nor is saying "Hope you don't mind if I go ahead and order something," and then trying to look sexy while scarfing down a giant cheeseburger, your eyes bulging out of your head as you try and fit a bite into your mouth.

Heart-shaped cake pans are great for Valentine's Day. After all, anything shaped as a heart - cakes, cookies, mashed potatoes - is automatically perceived as romantic being romantic. The problem with heart-shaped bakeware is that it isn't terribly practical. You have to store it and probably will not be using it nearly as much as more traditional square and round pans. But Reynold's has come out with a line of shaped aluminum mini cake pans. Usethe Fun Shapes pans to bake heart-shaped mini cakes and then simply throw out the tin as you would with an ordinary cupcake wrapper. The company recently started marketing these, but plans to put them out for most holidays. I paid $1.49 for this pack of 24 at my local grocery store.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

 

Despite my infatuation with spectacularly prepared and expensive restaurant meals, I think I find more romance in the best of my home-made meals, or bits of fabulously good food eaten simply on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

4. I was very pregnant for our last wedding anniversary - I ended up going into labor the next morning, in fact. But I bought good steak, mushrooms, greens and potatoes, and made my very favorite dessert: a nearly-flourless french chocolate cake. I chopped and melted chocolate, I whisked, I baked, I sauteed and mixed balsamic vinegar for the dressing, all in my most comfortable maternity clothes. I drank a little Spanish wine for the occasion and we toasted to our growing family on our living room couch.

3. I can't remember the wine I selected for the evening but it was surely Spanish, and pink, a rioja I think. My husband stopped at our favorite gourmet market and bought blue cheese, olives, pepperoni. I had organic grape tomatoes, porcini mushrooms and baby artichokes from the farmer's market. I sauteed the mushrooms in lots of butter and prepared a gigantic platter of tapas. The boys fell asleep and we sat on the back porch, eating with our fingers and sipping pink wine under the summer moon.

I firmly believe that artichokes are one of the most romantic dishes you can serve up. And if your relationship is anything like mine, your sweetheart is a little - or even a lot - afraid of the prickly armored artichoke. There's something that seems magic about peeling it, leaf by leaf, until you expose its delicious heart. And there's unspeakable romance in the slowness of it all. The best things, if you  remember, come to those who wait.

Artichokes are so easy, though, anyone can make them (even if you are the culinary scaredy-cat in your relationship). I chop off the stem about one or 1/2 inch from the base of the choke and then peel off any leaves that are very discolored, teensy, or tough. If you're into the presentation, you can use a big strong serrated knife to cut through the top 1/4 or so of the artichoke, there you go, just slice it all off! Stick several (I like three or four medium-sized artichokes for the two of us - it's no good to be left wanting) in a large pan of boiling water and cook for 15-20 minutes, until you can easily pull a bottom leaf off.

My husband likes the leaves with mayonnaise but I eat them with melted butter and lemon juice (lots of salt) or, for a pink garlicky treat, romesco sauce.