::popcorn and m&ms::

Our first two Valentine's Day dinners were spent at the Veritable Quandary when we lived in Portland, where we discovered bacon wrapped dates and indulged in chocolate souffles -- we're talking really sexy food. We thought we had started a tradition after going there for two years in a row but then we moved to Seattle and started another 'tradition' when we dined at Kabul for the next two Valentine's Day dinners. Lamb kabobs, warm rice with raisins, perfectly cooked eggplant, a friendly AND attentive owner -- yup, we could taste and feel the love there.

I'm not quite sure why we decided to eat at home on our fifth (and best yet!) Valentine's together. Maybe because we've been better in the kitchen recently or perhaps because we get so sleepy so much earlier now? Whatever the reason, I'm concluding that it was the right choice. No waiting to get a table, no guessing on how long we'd have to wait to get a table, no holding back any PDAs, and no noticeable water retention this morning (I would like to note that we never experienced this issue after the VQ or Kabul either, ahem)!

After dinner, we had a few more of the cookies I baked on Sunday (the V-Day colored M&Ms are kind of hiding, but they're in there, just nice and cozy:

And what I'd really like to remember (something we'd forgotten for a few years actually), is what we did with the M&Ms I intentionally set aside when making the cookies with this in mind:

Very simple 'recipe' here:

1. Pop a bag of microwave popcorn according to the instructions on the bag,

2. Pour the popped popcorn into a large bowl,

3. While the popcorn is hot, pour a few handfuls of M&Ms (colored for the appropriate holiday, if applicable) into the same bowl,

4. Listen to hear the sound of cracking as the M&Ms gently melt from the heat of the popcorn and try to break out of their shells,

5. Smile at this and avoid the temptation to start eating the popcorn and M&Ms prematurely; wait until the cracking noise has died down,

6. Smile more as you enjoy the sweet and salty combination of the popcorn and M&Ms and the delightful contrast of the crunch from the candy coated shells and the smooth, oozy melted chocolate. I find that the popcorn-to-M&M ratio I prefer most is about two kernels of popcorn for every M&M in my mouth at a time.