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Things rare and red for Valentine’s: Celebrate the 14th off the beaten path

Roses are red, Violets are blue, Here are red edibles gathered for you!

Say Valentine’s Day and a curtain of red, red, red washes over everyone’s eyes, and you don’t even have to have them closed while you look directly into the sun.

Red velvet boxes, red angora sweaters, red place mats on white linen tablecloths. While there’s nothing wrong with the traditional red dozen roses, red heart-shaped box of chocolates, and filet mignon (as in red meat served with red wine), here’s a round-up of less common treats distilled from the red end of the spectrum that can help you celebrate love with someone you at least like, and especially if you’re a neophyte in the kitchen.

All this is in keeping with my theory that while going out for Valentine’s Day might be the first and easiest impulse, it’s just as romantic — more so, if you leave clean-up to the next day — to enjoy something at home that was made at home for the one/s you love.

 

Start off in the red

Life is busy, even on Valentine’s Day, and if your partner is working late like mine is this year it pretty much kiboshes the idea of a romantic dinner for two, at home or otherwise.

So how about a little treat in the morning that says I love you all day long? This is a yummy treat from Rob Feenie’s Feenie’s that anyone, even a 12-year-old, can whip up in a minute. It’s red, red, red, and has the power of health. Go a little crazy and serve it with a heart-shaped cookie or piece of Red Velvet Cake (see below).

Cherry and Berries Smoothie (for two)

1/2 cup cranberry juice

1/2 cup apple juice

3/4 cup plain yogurt

3/4 cup cherries, pitted (of course you can’t find fresh ones this time of year, but most grocery stores will have frozen ones)

3/4 cup strawberries, hulled (fresh or frozen]

1/4 cup cranberries

1/4 cup raspberries

2 tbsp. honey, or to taste

Put the juices and yogurt in the blender first, then whirl away at high speed until smooth. Pour into two 16-oz glasses and sip away through straws, which make any drink more fun.

If you like the idea of fresh berry smoothies any item of year, try freezing your own fruit next summer when it’s in season. Pick out the leaves and what-nots you don’t want and double-bag the fruit in freezer bags. You can pre-measure it into portions — half cup or 1- or 2-cup allotments. Some people freeze their berries first on cookie sheets, then bag and freeze them. Either way, DON’T wash the fruit beforehand.

Thawing and washing are one in the same when you’re ready to use them. Grab and handful or a bagful, rinse under cool water and they’re ready to go in smoothies, baking or on top of your favourite cereal. You can freeze fresh cherries when they’re in season, too; just pit them before use.

 

 

She wore Red Velvet

I was a kid when the Red Velvet Cake craze hit Edmonton. It was the talk of the town and every housewife worth her salt, or sugar, took a stab at a Red Velvet Cake. People said the recipe was from “the States”, which it is, and which added a touch of glamour.

They also said the recipe was illicit, which it wasn’t, but that part of the tale added even more titillation. Something about a woman taking her revenge after asking the chef for the recipe in some high-faluttin’ place, as prairie people called it, and the chef passing on the recipe, along with a bill for some outrageous sum — one or two hundred bucks, or something.

The women in my mother’s bridge club passed the recipe along surreptitiously like it a baggie of dope.

It was much like the Neiman-Marcus chocolate chip cookie recipe myth. But like the Red Velvet Cake myth, there was never any hefty tab passed on to a poor unsuspecting customer. (In fact, Neiman-Marcus never made a chocolate chip cookie until the urban myth surfaced, at which point they developed one in response, posting the recipe for free on their website.)

But back to Edmonton and the mystery of Red Velvet Cake.

It remained a sumptuous thing of great acclaim — the cake is rich and moist, the ruby red colour of pomegranate seeds usually set off with a frothy white frosting, though a cream cheese one will do. It was trotted out on special occasions when we all enjoyed it, especially us kids because it turned our tongues red. That is, until another tale started circulating.

Maybe one of the bridge ladies felt guilty over what they thought was a purloined recipe, but word soon got out not to eat the cake because of all the red food colouring in it — all one and half ounces — that gave it its glorious colour. It was, they said, poisonous.

Nothing like one big myth to generate another. Red Velvet Cake may be rich, and the level of red food colouring mildly suspect, but it sure ain’t poisonous. Wasn’t that what they served at the groom’s party in Steel Magnolias and the whole cast lived to tell about it?

It’s worth making at least once and Valentine’s Day affords a perfect opportunity. Serve it up as dessert after a nice dish of (pink) garlic prawns — two arranged facing each other form a little heart if you leave their tails on and don’t overcook them — with a green salad dotted with ruby-red pomegranate jewels. Share it with someone you love, even if it’s just you.

Red Velvet Cake

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tbsp. cocoa

1 1/2 oz red food coloring

1 tsp. salt

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. soda

1 tbsp. vinegar

Cream the shortening and gradually beat in the sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Make a paste of the cocoa and food coloring and add to creamed mixture. Add salt, flour and vanilla alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Mix the soda and vinegar in a separate container and pour the mixture over the batter, stirring it until it’s well mixed. Bake in three eight-inch pans or two nine-inch pans for 30 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Ice it with white icing once it’s cooled — seven-minute frosting was the Edmonton classic, but I hear they like it with cream cheese frosting down south as well.

 

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning freelance writer who once tried candying violets and ended up with a purple haze.