Diva Dish with Diane Brown

Stirring Up Passion: Cooking Your Way to a Really Romantic Valentine's Day

Language is rich and decadent in romance novels, a certain way to arouse the reader and create a fantasy world. In fact, when I looked at the most frequently used words in the average romance novel, the top five were need, want, pleasure, mouth and stir. The lingo evokes bodice-ripping heroines; but passion not only rules lovers, it guides good cooks. As columnist Harriet Van Horne wrote, “Cooking is like love, it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”

With the right partner beside you, cooking and preparing a meal together is the ultimate turn on. Again, the language of preparing food is sumptuous: Sizzle, melt, percolate, coddle, fold, stir. Start the evening off right, booty-to-booty in the kitchen, stirring yummy-smelling goodies. Kick things up a notch, giving a shoulder rub to your partner as she valiantly chops, or slipping behind Chef Boy for a squeeze while he stirs an aromatic sauce. Now you're really starting to cook up all sorts of erotic possibilities and a promise of an appetite that will be satisfied later. Just don't forget about knives being sharp and stovetops being hot if you abandon yourself while dinner is simmering.