Bring On The Romance With Breakfast In Bed

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

Valentine’s Day is more often than not fraught with indecision on how to celebrate. If it’s on a weekday, do you stay up on a school night for a night out on the town along with millions of other couples, or do you stay in an opt for a mellow home cooked meal and celebration with the family? Do you spend the inflated holiday price to deliver red roses to your sweetheart, or do you pick up an equally beautiful yet modestly priced arrangement of say, tulips and trust that it’s the thought that counts? Does a giant teddy bear carrying a red heart say “I love you” or does a thoughtful hand-written card?

This year, with Valentine’s Day falling on the weekend, the options can be even more daunting. With Valentine’s Day falling on Sunday you could really go out any night over the weekend, as many will, and call it your celebration.

Personally, I like when Valentine’s Day falls on the weekend. You end up with two full days instead of one in which to decide what sort of celebration works best for you. Without the time constraints of a weekday you can actually go to a Valentine’s Day brunch instead of dinner, you can check out a museum, go to a matinee, or spend hours in the kitchen concocting an elaborate dinner for two.

While I almost always find cooking at home to be more romantic than a dinner out, even more romantic than a homemade dinner has to be breakfast in bed. And what better opportunity for that romantic gesture than when Valentine’s Day falls on the weekend?

Breakfast in bed is the most convenient of all celebratory meals. There is no dress code; everything from footie pajamas to your birthday suit is acceptable. Reservations are not required and timing is completely dependent on when you roll out of bed, be it 8 am or noon. And for those who are not so good at planning ahead, breakfast foods are simple and can often be made on the fly with items typically found in a stocked kitchen: eggs, milk, cheese, bread, and flour can be made into anything from omelets and toast to pancakes and scrambled eggs.

For the novice cook, making a romantic breakfast in bed is the opportunity to look like a rock star while throwing together what is one of the easiest meals of the day. I can speak from recent firsthand experience that having a man make you breakfast is one incredibly romantic gesture. For some men, just throwing together pancake mix and frying up bacon will be enough to show the lady in your life you really care. If you have mastered the pancake mix and are looking to take it up a notch, chocolate is the key to many a woman’s heart. Try adding mini chocolate chips to the batter or even--gasp!--make the batter completely from scratch. Warm up the plates in the oven and heat up the maple syrup and even your pancake mix will come off as a labor of love.

If the roles are reversed and the party on the receiving end is a man, you can never go wrong with meat and potatoes, even at breakfast. Think of frying up bacon or browning breakfast sausage and then sautéing cubed Yukon gold potatoes in the rendered fat for a breakfast hash. Mix the meats back in with the fried potatoes and top with a couple of over-easy eggs for a breakfast that is sure to help you navigate your way from his stomach to his heart.

No romantic meal is complete is without a little libation, even at breakfast. Top a couple ounces of peach puree with sparkling wine in a champagne flute for a bubbly brunch treat known as a Bellini. Or wow your man (or woman) with a homemade Bloody Mary mixing high quality tomato juice with salt, pepper, hot sauce, Worcestershire, and lime juice to your own taste for an early morning pick me up that is sure to add some spice to your romantic morning.

I have a friend who made a pact with her husband many years ago to not buy each other gifts for holidays. What evolved over the years is a tradition of homemade presents and her husband’s grand gesture of breakfast in bed. She’s told me that the process takes him several hours and when he’s done the kitchen looks like a tornado swept through. But pancakes have never tasted so good and her husband has never been sweeter in her eyes.

With the holiday of love falling on a weekend, what better opportunity to really put in some quality time together, the ultimate romantic gesture, than lounging in bed, breakfast and cocktails in hand, clothing optional.

Serves/Makes: 2

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 2 tablespoons butter (not melted)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips
• 5 ounces frozen raspberries
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup agave nectar