Okay, so with janie & jon's sweet anniversary, and cathy & eddie's wonderful surprise wedding, ya'll have gotten me into a romantic mood! And Valentine's Day will soon be here, too!

What foods do you like making for your sweethearts? Entrees, sweets, etc... If you're single- where do you take a new date to dine- or what are among the first meals you lovingly create at home to try and impress/entice/seduce?

What would your lovers, spouses, and even your ex's say is/was your crowning achievment in the kitchen- your ultimate, sexiest "come hither" menu? :eek:

lol oh boy.
I dont think I have ever set out to make a meal to seduce my husband. When it is a special occasion I just make dishes I know he really loves. I do not cook as often as I did before because groceries have gone up so much. We eat more sandwiches but what ever we have I make sure it is something I know Jon really likes.

I'm with you, janie.

I took a fairly big pay-cut many months back, and it will take a few years at this entry-level position for me to come close to what I was making before. How much I spend on groceries is more important to me now, than ever before. And with the price increases in everything the last 1-2 years, well... Let's just say- I KNOW how you feel! (Plus, the fact that for the first time ever- I'm now having to actually purchase food, when I rarely did before, since I worked in kitchens where our meals were FREE!)

I cook fancy stuff far less these days- and when I do, I have to make damned sure to balance it out with cheap days to make my budget work.

For instance, thru the holiday season I used pricey ingredients from shrimp and babyback ribs, to pecans and rum... but the only way I could do it was to also pick-up ramen noodles and cheap pullman-loaves of sandwich bread, peanut-butter, tuna, etc.

I don't regret the salary decision I made back when I left Alaskan kitchens- the money was great up there 'cause I worked 80+ hours and earned a ton of over-time... But, I definitely pay a price for doing so! And, with creative management, I'm making it work. But it definitely takes grand effort- whereas I never needed to even be concerned before.

I'm not even dating these days, so I haven't had to come up with any sexy, impressive "dream dinners" in ages- Ha! After Arturo and I split last Spring I haven't had the urge, really- except for one time that didn't work out anyway. So it's far easier, me being single, to scimp & scrape on groceries, when need be.

I know gas prices are down but diesel is still about $3 a gallon around here. I had hoped when gas prices came down so would groceries. Now that they have the price on items up there so much I dont think they will ever come back down. By the time people pay their bills/medicine and buy food they just dont have anything left.
Ramen noodles, tuna and pb are all things I keep in our pantry to. Cheap, filling & quick. Jon has always loved bologna and cheese sandwiches lol.

One of those "embarrassing" items I buy at our local Super Wal-Mart when I go (I shop at Wally-world far less these days- I go to "Aldi's" a lot) is a super-large, 5# "block" of "ham". It's fatty & gristly and almost like a SPAM product (without the fancy turn-key/opener or jelly!). I divide it- freeze some. But what I like to use it for is to chop/grind in the Cuisinart and mix with sweet relish and mayo for a sandwich filling. I love it on bread or even on crackers. I've even stirred some into cold pasta, or folded a bit of it into eggs to pour into a shell for quiche and it's tasty. It's damned-near free, and I get a lot of milleage out of it! I also buy a lot of leg/thigh chix quarters, and cheap corned-beef brisket for the crock-pot. But definitely, ramen, PB and tuna and I have become newly acquainted friends again this last year!