They may look like brownies to you... but they're Dark Shadows to me.

         Since Valentine's Day is fast approaching, here's a perfect Valentine to give your amour.  It's chocolate, of course, because chocolate is said to have aphrodisiac properties.  Going back to the Aztecs, there’s been a link drawn between the cocoa bean and desire. But even if you're cynical about that connection, see if you don't find this description irresistible: " The following recipe is what happens when chocolate is used to its fullest capacity: dark, rich squares of buttery sweetness, wrapped in underpinnings of vanilla, are interrupted with miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips.” Take it from one who has eaten one of these superb treats: they’re almost as good as you-know-what.  Not quite. But almost.

Sausages and Potato Ragout a la Jacques Pepin

         I wish you had seen the look on Andrew’s face when he asked what was for dinner and I told him “Sausages and Potatoes”.  Was that a sneer or a recoiling?  Was he horrified or merely surprised?  You see, I had just that day received my copy of “Essential Pepin” (Houghton Mifflin 2011), the 700 recipe volume that caps the illustrious career of one the great ‘pioneers’ of good cooking in this country, Jacques Pepin.  Surely, Andrew must have thought, you could do better than this, especially for a first choice in this incredible collection.  Surely in a book that features virtually every French classic and an amazingly broad range of recipes representing Asia, India, China-- I could have found something more profound than sausage and potatoes.  But it was a winter night and I’d espied some beautiful fresh Italian sausages at the market that day.  And the whole dish looked amazingly easy.