Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Whether it’s baking heart-shaped cookies with your family and friends or an excuse to buy that expensive bottle of wine to share with your significant other, it’s a wonderfully sappy holiday to celebrate with food.
When I hurt my knee, I had to scrap many of my original recipe tests for the upcoming weeks. I might not be able to test any new Valentine’s themed recipes myself, but I thought I’d share these delicious recipes from across the web instead. Take a look – I hope one (or more!) inspire you to give the gift of food to someone you love.
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Cocktails
Raspberry Pomegranate Champagne Cocktail – Heather Christo | This beautiful crimson-hued cocktail includes sorbet and champagne – Yes, please!
Blood Orange Bourbon Smash with Spicy Vanilla Sugar – How Sweet It Is | You can always count on Jessica Merchant to post beautiful, mouth-watery twists on classic cocktails. This one is seasonally appropriate, and features two of my favorite ingredients – bourbon and blood oranges. Look how pretty and pink they are!
Brunch
Hole in the Middle, Three Ways – My Name is Yeh | Known by many cute titles (including holes-in-ones, eggs-in-a-basket, and toad-in-the-hole to name a few), Molly Yeh shares one of my absolute favorite childhood recipes on her blog. It’s a simple comfort food that would be perfect to make as part of breakfast in bed for someone special!
Double Chocolate Dutch Baby with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream – The Modern Proper | Sometimes nothing says “I love you” better than chocolate. Check out this upscale rendition of a cast-iron skillet classic from the ladies over at The Modern Proper.
Raspberry Swirl Sweet Rolls – Sally’s Baking Addiction | If fruit is more your thing, these raspberry sweet rolls are beautiful. You can never go wrong with a baking recipe from Sally McKenney.
Dinner
Brown Butter Scallops with Parmesan Risotto – Pinch of Yum | Lindsay Ostrum at Pinch of Yum is known for her approachable and creative recipes. Despite being a luscious risotto using such a luxury seafood ingredient, this one looks no different.
Mini Heart-Shaped Supreme Pizzas – Climbing Grier Mountain | Do your loved ones like something less fancy for dinner? These super cute heart-shaped pizzas are perfect for both kids and adults on Valentine’s Day. Who doesn’t love the gift of pizza?
Dessert
Red Velvet Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes with Chocolate Ganache Centers – Half Baked Harvest | It was hard to just pick one of Tieghan Gerard’s amazing recipes to post here. I’m often inspired by her savory dishes, but this time I couldn’t see how I could possibly leave this beautiful molten cake with a red velvet twist off the list.
Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies – i am a food blog | Stephanie Le has a lot of great recipes. Most of all though, I love the creative concepts she comes up with – be it her series of Totoro-inspired foods each year or these grown-up Conversation Heart Cookies. Aren’t those sayings the best?
Chocolate Hazelnut Linzer Hearts – Smitten Kitchen | Deb Perelman is such an inspiration in the food blog community. I’ve always loved classic Linzer tart cookies – I can remember eating these pastry-like cookies from my grandparents’ local Italian bakery throughout my childhood. They are still a huge weakness for me. While they traditionally contain a raspberry jelly filling, you can’t go wrong with this chocolate hazelnut version this holiday.
Lastly, I have to include one of my own: The pretty pink of this Cranberry Orange Pie with Gingersnap Crust would make for an ideal Valentine’s dessert. If you want to make the dessert more individualized, you can always skip the crust and let the curd set in individual ramekins or parfait cups. Either way, it’s sure to please!
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I hope you found some inspiration. There are so many awesome Valentine’s Day recipes out there for you to try, so I hope you cook up something delicious.
Are you planning to make anything special this February 14th for your family, friends, or loved ones? I’d love to know!