Made with Love

4 Star French Chocolate Ice Cream? Chiffon and Velvet Pie?Pots de Chocolat (mousse)? Stuffed Figs au Chocolat? Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake?

Valentine’s Day is coming up. If you are looking for something special to do for the ones you love I suggest including chocolate and home cooking straight from the heart (hearth).

Our Chocolate: A Resource Guide contains a list of our favorite titles for cooking with chocolate, the history of chocolate, and a list of chocolate Web sites.

If it is true “the way to a man’s/woman’s heart is through his/her stomach” then a special meal, prepared with love, may be in order.

(When I looked up the origin of this phrase in the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, a big smile came across my face. Our own John Adams heard a similar adage and mentioned it in an April 15, 1814 letter, “the shortest road to men’s hearts is down their throats.” While Mr. Adams may not have been talking about love per se, this quote has a connection to our buildings namesake, founding father and our inspiration for Inside Adams.)

If you hurry, you will have time to stop by a library or bookstore to find books with romantic recipes such as Cupid’s cuisine: the foods of love or Venus in the kitchen: recipes for seduction. Additional titles may be found in the reference guide Cooking with Love and Chocolate.

Some fun facts on Valentine’s Day courtesy of the U. S. Census Bureau Facts for Features:

• 1,233  locations produced chocolate & cocoa products in 2007 and 38,794 people were employed at these locations [2015 Census Update: 1,379 locations in 2012 produced chocolate products employing 37,998 people  in 2012].
• $14.4 billion was the total value of shipments in 2007  [2015 Census Update: 13.5 billion estimated total value in 2011].
• 23.8 pounds was the per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2008
• 19,759 was the number of florists nationwide in 2007, employing 93,779 people. [2015 Census Update: 14,344 florists employing 62,397 people in 2012]
• 24,484 jewelry stores were in the United States in 2007.  [2015 Census Update: 23,413 jewelry stores in 2012]
• 2.16 million marriages took place in the United States in 2008.  [2015 Census Update: 2.1 million provisional marriages took place in 2011 ]

Weddings are lucrative for many small enterprises. Our Guide to the Wedding Industry provides more information on these small enterprises as well as industry statistics and other resources.

Need some music to go with that romantic evening, In the Muse has some suggestions.

Happy Valentine’s Day!