Valentines for Two of Twenty

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These days Valentine's Day carries with it a lot of nice, cuddly feelings as well as a lot of baggage. Instead of only focusing on the usual intimate meal for two, this week's show presents large party entertaining for celebrating the wider circles of love in our lives. We take a few ingredients and recipes and tweak them to serve two or twenty, depending on how you like your Valentine's Day.

Just as with relationships, so too with eating that sometimes the end is the best part. In that case, let's start off with dessert. For a large group and a novice pastry enthusiast, meringues are an excellent choice. There are only 3 ingredients and minimal prep time and everyone is always impressed. If you want to test your advanced pastry skills and craft a truly special dessert, turn your meringue into Dacquoise. My favorite recipe for Dacquoise comes from Saveur.

To celebrate the diverse ways humans undertake to demonstrate their love on this holiday, we talk to folks from around the world and in different walks of life to find out what's cooking for V-Day.

Then we come back to the kitchen to cook up caviar potatoes for two and caviar salmon toasts for twenty as well as beef filets with brandy cream sauce for two and beef short ribs for twenty. Some of my favorite beef short rib recipes for winter entertaining come from Bon Appetit. You can find them at the epicurious website: Short Ribs Provencal and Coffee-Braised Short Ribs Braised with Ancho Chile.

As a nightcap to the show, my husband I turn on the mic and talk about champagne. And we wind it all up with some Kir Royale cocktails.

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