Bird’s Wedding Day, that’s how Valentine’s Day was called centuries ago. It was believed that birds found their mates in the second week of the second month of the year. Our celebration of Valentine’s Day grew out of a tradition in ancient Rome from the Roman feast of Lupercalia, which fell on the 15th of February. It was an ancient festival that involved the celebration of fertility and honored two Roman gods, Juno and Pan. A practice during the festival was for young maidens to write love messages and place them in a large urn. These messages were then drawn out by unmarried men who ended up courting the maidens who wrote the message they had chosen.

    Today we celebrate Valentine’s Day still by sending special love messages, flowers and gifts to express our feelings. For those of us who have chosen our Valentines and have kept him for years, we only expect this one day to be a perfect celebration of love. But what makes Valentine perfect? We always say that the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Right. But how about us women? Doesn’t all the right choices work for us too? For the clueless and sometimes forgetful mates, here’s a refresher course that will hopefully end up with some enchanted evening.

    The day starts with breakfast in bed. Nothing fancy, coffee or juice, toast and jam, and a beautiful long-stemmed rose. The mere thought of remembering makes a woman love you more each time. Leave her in suspense till late tonight for a well-planned evening. If there’s a night you have to plan for and indulge, this is it. (But of course, the other one will have to be your anniversary.) Send the rest of the bouquet before dinner. It will make her think of what else to expect. If you choose to dine out, choose a place that holds memories for the both of you, or a highly recommended restaurant that you would both fancy. If you choose to watch a concert, make sure its music that she appreciates. And for a nightcap, toast to champagne. When she almost believed you forgot, present your gift, your love offering, and everything would have been enchanting.

    But then, let’s get real. Not all of us will have all our wishes come true on Valentine’s Day. It doesn’t mean though that we can’t have that enchanted evening after all. You just got to have faith, and work a little harder. But the first rule is to try to ask Grandma to take care of the kids for the night. Set your aromas right. Lavender relaxes and soothes. Black berry works wonders too. Turn up the music to a great mood. Chill the champagne, prepare oysters on a half shell, roast a lobster, and bake a sinfully good chocolate cake. It might cost you some but he’ll always pick up the tab, so don’t worry about that. After all, it will be a night of enchantment. It might take time to do these recipes, but it goes without saying that you just have to make the right choices. These are favorites of mine compiled from years back, chosen for the fact that they spell out pampering. You can throw in your favorite dish as well. But if you want special and different, this could just be what you’re looking for. Remember, these are all baits, but you’ve got to save your strength to haul in the catch. So, be practical and try to enjoy the fruits of your labor. A toast to the chef, Happy Valentine’s!

OYSTERS ON A HALF SHELL

10 fresh oysters
10 toast points
1 lemon, sliced into wedges
1 tbsp. Finely minced shallot
crushed ice

Clean the oysters by scrubbing the shells with a brush. Shuck the oysters. Fold a towel in layers, covering your hand with it. Hold the oyster in one hand with the flattest half of the shell up, keeping the oyster even in your hand so the liquor doesn’t spill out. Take the blade and force it into the shell at the hinged edge, exert some pressure and pry the shell open. Cut around the edge of the shell to remove the top half. Next, cut the muscle under the oyster to release it from the shell. Cover the oysters with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes but no longer than an hour. Spread an inch of crushed ice on a serving platter and arrange the oysters on top. Arrange the baguette slices, about ¼ inch thickness, on a baking sheet. Place under a hot broiler and toast on both sides. Serve oysters with toast points, lemon wedges and finely minced shallot.

ROAST LOBSTER WITH BLACK TRUFFLES

1 live lobster, about 1 ½ pounds
2 tbsps. Butter
salt and freshly ground pepper
½ ounce fresh black truffles
½ cup Chardonnay Cream Sauce

Put the lobster in a pot and add about 6 inches of cold, salted water. Bring the water to a full boil. Cook the lobster for approximately 5 minutes. Remove lobster, plunge it in cold water to stop the cooking process, and set it on its back. Using a sharp knife cut it down the middle from head to tail. Gently crack the claws using a wooden mallet and remove the meat. Hold the tail open and remove the meat as well. Reserve the lobster shell halves. Cover and refrigerate for up to 6 hours. To roast the lobster, preheat oven to 350 F. replace the pieces in the shell cavity, brush the lobster meat with butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover with foil and bake for about 5 – 8 minutes, or until heated throughout. To serve, ladle the sauce over the meat and garnish with slivers of fresh truffle.

CHOCOLATE LOVE CAKE

Rich and chocolatey, you can prepare this cake in a conventional round shaped pan or a pretty heart-shaped pan. To make a heart shape, try another technique. Bake two cakes, a round and square one. Cut the round in half and arrange the halved on two sides of the square cake. Doesn’t that make a heart shape?

The Cake:

1 cup eggs (about 4 large eggs)
14 ounces sugar (about 2 cups)
2 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2/3 cup)
1 ½ tsps. Baking powder
¼ cup dark cocoa

Beat eggs with sugar at high speed for 5 minutes. Sift together flour, baking powder and cocoa; fold into egg batter. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees about 1 hour or until cake begins to separate from sides of pan. Remove cake from pan while still warm. Wrap in plastic wrapping and place in freezer.

Chocolate Butter Cream:

10 ounces sugar (about 1 1/3 cups)
6 ounces egg whites (about ¾ cup)
¾ pound butter, softened
1 tsp. Vanilla
7 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted

Place sugar and egg whites in the top of a double boiler and heat until sugar dissolves. Beat at high speed until meringue forms peaks. Gradually add softened butter and continue whipping. Then add vanilla and melted chocolate until well blended.

Whipped Cream Frosting:

1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
2 tbsps. Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla

Combine cream, sugar and vanilla; whip at high speed until stiff peaks form. To assemble cake: Slice frozen cake horizontally into thirds. Spread one third of the butter cream on the top of the first layer. Place the second layer above that and spread one third of the butter cream on top, reserving the remaining one third butter cream for decoration. Place the third cake in place. Cover entire cake, including sides, with the whipped cream frosting. Decorate top center of cake with shaved bits of semisweet chocolate. Using a pastry bag with a medium star tip, make rosettes around the circumference of the cake using the remainder of the butter cream frosting.