Of Love and Romance

Just a quick post to get you in the mood for Valentine's Day.

This month I have been loving the blog 31 Dates in 31 Days. I have been meaning to post about it so that you could follow Tamara's adventures with me, but haven't ever gotten around to it. And then yesterday Good Morning America beat me to the punch and featured her in the 8 o'clock hour.

Here's the deal with her blog: she just turned 31 and is single in NYC. She decided to take on a challenge to go out with 30 different guys, 30 days in a row, and then to take out one of them on a second date on Valentine's Day (the 31st date.) The dates are completely wholesome--in fact, one of the rules is that there is no alcohol consumed. You might just be able to guess her religious affiliation, even though she isn't broadcasting it. What's really fun is that she blogs about each date and you can see that she is looking for the good in each man--giving each one the chance to be her One and Only. She never tears down the guy or complains about it being the worst date she's ever been on--and I think, because of her attitude, she is going to have a hard time choosing one for a second date. She is finding that there are lots of great guys out there, lots of men whom she could click with. I have a favorite, myself. Read about her dates and leave me a comment if you think you can guess whom I like best.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a yummy treat-for-two. If the state of the economy has made you turn to more date-night-at-home weekends (as it has us), try out this delicious dessert that is worthy of any restaurant. In fact, it's copied from a popular restaurant dessert. My SIL, Myrissa, gave us some personal-sized cast iron skillets for Christmas so that we could make our own Pizookies at home.

I made ours with a fabulous oatmeal chocolate chip recipe that I found here. The only change I made to the recipe is that I reversed the chocolates, using chopped bittersweet and milk chocolate chips. The cookies were heavenly, but were even better baked in our cast-iron skillet and served hot with vanilla ice cream. Jared & I split one and it was almost too much. Almost.