Valentines Day Love Doesn't Have to Come From a Box

For almost 20 years, our group of friends (four or five couples) get together for our annual Valentine’s Day Aphrodisiac Dinner. After almost 19 years of marriage you would think Valentine’s Day would be a bit stale, like those half eaten chocolates in the old candy box. Well for some it may be but we created our event to put the love back into what can be a stale Hallmark holiday.

We rotate hosts and houses yearly. Each couple is responsible for a food course and the beverage to go with it. The food must have aphrodisiac properties - or at least a made-up story. We serve a lot of baloney and I don’t mean on the plate. Last year I made a love potion - a pound of rose petals and crazy herbs - that I brewed for two weeks. I put the potion in cute little bottles and made labels with lots of silly information on them. We have cooked oysters a dozen ways and I even made a Persian Love cake one year, with 100 handmade candied rose petals. Yum.

As the women mostly tend to the food preparation, the men provide the entertainment. One year they performed Karaoke, singing love songs, such as Barry White’s “You Are My First, My Last, My Everything,” and Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.” That gives you some idea of how old we are.

One year we played the Newlywed Game. The men had prepared silly questions - “Where was our first kiss?” and “What is my favorite body part of yours”? The women had to guess which answer their beau had picked. Turns out, the answers were not always the ones we thought they would be.

Once again as Valentine’s Day rolls around, I won’t be looking for roses or heart-shaped diamonds from a big box store, but I’ll be anticipating the love and friendship we’ve created with food, wine, and, above all, delicious laughter.

Kate Nightingall, Mar Vista Los Angeles

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