On my way to work today I was listening to a public radio story about Saint Valentine, a holy priest of Rome. He performed wedding ceremonies for young couples in secret because Emperor Claudius II had cancelled all engagements and weddings. Claudius was having a hard time getting young men to enlist in the military and he believed it was because the men didn't want to leave their loved ones, when it fact it was due to bloody and unpopular battles. Saint Valentine was jailed for his actions and fell in love with the jailer's daughter before he was beheaded on February 14, 270 A.D. Story has it that he signed his farewell message to her: "From Your Valentine."

How sweet. Speaking of sweets, chocolate comes to mind. I may not have already shared with you that I am a chocoholic. There: I admitted it. I eat it whenever I can, in all its wonderful forms and flavors.

Because it's Valentine's Day, I asked our kitchen technicians to bake a couple of popular chocolate recipes for our evaluation. As a food editor, it's my job to know about recipes--especially the really popular and delicious ones so that we can develop great recipes for our magazines that everyone will want to try.

So at 1:00 pm today, I've invited our staff to taste a number of chocolate-y goodies, including:
Double Chocolate Layer Cake (below)--supposedly one of the most popular recipes on epicurious.


The Best Classic Brownies--from Cook's Illustrated (you need to subscribe online for the recipe)
Cook's Country Tunnel of Fudge Cake--from Baking by Dorie Greenspan (recently published in the Star Tribune)

If you have no time to bake and need a quick chocolate hit, Hershey's has a new product called Hershey's Bliss. They are small, foil-wrapped chocolate bites, much like the Dove chocolates.