Our Thoughts If the sizzle in your relationship has started to fizzle or you’re looking for a new playmate to grease the gears of love, it’s time to pull out the frying pan and heat up your love live. Cupid estimates that two out of three couples do not meet their Recommended Daily Allowance for romance. Meals provide three opportunities a day to increase your RDAs and unleash passion.

Food, sex and romance have been linked for centuries. That’s because cooking, eating and making love use the same senses — smell, taste, sight, touch and hearing. Like sex, cooking and eating are about learning, experimenting and experiencing. And the kitchen, like the bedroom, is a great place for fun, relaxation and seduction.

So skip eating out (unless you like long lines, obnoxious waiters, expensive entrees, fighting for parking and paying an overpriced and pierced baby sitter who eats all your food, runs up your phone bill and orders the Playboy Channel why the kids do God knows what), and capture the one you love or lust after with a luscious, easy to prepare, home cooked meal. For the price of a mediocre dinner for two at a moderate restaurant you can enjoy an extraordinary meal at home, accompanied by great wine, candlelight and romantic music with change to spare. Plus, you don’t have to leave a tip or pay the baby sitter, and when it’s time for dessert (That’s you!) the bedroom is only steps away.

They key to cooking a great romantic meal is mood and attitude. Add a few aphrodisiacs and get ready for a night of romance, love and lust. Just follow The Cooking Couple™ guidelines for amorous gastronomic success and get ready for a sizzling Saturday Night.

1. Prepare and eat foods you like. Don't serve escargot to impress your date if you think snails resemble rubber hot dogs with their tongues hanging out.

2. Make meals special even if you’re just mastering spaghetti. Set time aside to plan, prepare and enjoy food and each other. Remember, candles, wine, flowers in a heart shaped vase and a smile turn Ragu into amore.

3. Spice up your love life with aphrodisiacs. Classic love foods include* oysters (A favorite of the famous lover Casanova, these mollusks are rich in zinc a mineral which can enhance fertility, sexual desire and potency.), basil (It’s used in voodoo love ceremonies in Haiti.), licorice (Ruled by the planet Venus, the smell of licorice has been shown to increase penile blood flow in men) and chocolate. (It contains a chemical called phenylethylamine that scientists believe sparks feelings of love.)

4. Create balance nutritionally. Care for your body and it will run better and be more fun to drive around the block or around the boudoir.

5. Create balance anesthetically. Mushy, monotone dinners that resemble spackling compound aren’t sexy. Think of cooking as art, and paint your partner’s palate with vibrant colors and contrasting textures and flavors.

6. Experiment and improvise. For inspiration buy a cookbook or surf the net for unusual recipes. (When they ask if it's your recipe, answer with a smile and a kiss. If they ask again, keep kissing. Continue until they shut up and kiss back.)

7. Don't go overboard. Evaluate your cooking skills and keep meals simple. Remember your goal* to get out of the kitchen and into the bedroom.

8. Food, like sex, should be natural. Buy fresh, high quality ingredients and enhance their flavor with the special charm that only you bring to your lover’s plate. Avoid artificial flavors and colors and foods with labels that read like the formula for Windex.

9. Have fun and prepare meals together. There’ll be no resentment and plenty of fanny patting opportunities. So open the wine, turn up the stereo, sing along and chop to the beat.

10. Leave the dishes. Nothing breaks the mood more than playing busboy at the end of the adventure. Head straight upstairs and leave the mess for the morning. For The Cooking Couple™, cleanup means showering together.







everal hours in advance and kept in the refrigerator until you are ready to start dinner.)

4. Cook at 350 F for 45-50 minutes. Take out peppers. Place 2 additional tablespoons cheese on top of each pepper. Place under the broiler and cook until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.

Variation-Use a slice of provolone and a slice of prosciutto instead of the mozzarella and spinach. Top with additional provolone before placing under the broiler. Or to bewitch your love, add a touch of basil to the spinach stuffing.