[2] Want cake without all the chocolate? Go for blondies instead (photo © Valrhona Chocolate).

[3] Key lime or lemon bars also do the trick, although are more jiggly than brownies and blondies (photo © Baking Obsession).

If you don’t have the time or inclination to bake from scratch, the easiest specialty cheesecake starts with a purchased cheesecake base.

In the case of this Brownie Caramel Cheesecake (photo #1), you can purchase the brownies, too; or make a quick batch from a mix.
 
 
RECIPE: BROWNIE CARAMEL CHEESECAKE

Ingredients

 
Topping Variations

 
Preparation

1. CUBE the brownies/bars. Place as desired atop the cheesecake. We made concentric circles and covered the whole top.

2. WARM the sauce as needed to drizzling consistency, and drizzle over the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
 
 
OTHER CHEESECAKE TOPPINGS

Fruit Curds

Spread the top of the cheesecake with fruit curd (photo #3).

Commonly available choices are cranberry, Key lime, lemon, orange or passionfruit.

It’s easy to make fruit curd from scratch; but it takes a bit of time and clean-up.
 
Cookies & Candy

 
For fruit curd, cookies or candy, no sauce is necessary. Instead, you can serve the cake with an optional dab of whipped cream.
 
There are many other ways to dress up a store-bought cheesecake, from pie filling to shaved chocolate.

We love a cheesecake iced with chocolate ganache. So check out the next section.

Long before there were “foodies,”* those who a decade later would bear the mantle sought out the famous Grimbletorte.

This spectacular cheesecake from Miss Grimble’s, one of the early gourmet cheesecake bakers in New York City. Its point of differentiation was simple: liqueur in the batter and ganache on the top and sides.

Miss Grimble (Sylvia Balser Hirsch, 2019-2006) sold the business around 1989 and retired. The subsequent owner discontinued the Grimbletorte.

Here’s more about the original Miss Grimble.

To approximate the Grimbletorte:

 
Mrs. Hirsch’s cake decorators wrote “Grimbletorte” across the top of the iced cheesecake, also in ganache. Proust may keep his madeleines; we want our Grimbletorte.

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*What’s the difference between a foodie, connoisseur, gourmet, gourmand, gastronome, epicure and glutton? Check it out.
 
  

Just walking up to a spread like this is exciting! [1] DIY taco and wing bar from Burlap + Blue. [2] Taco bar fixings from Ebay.

So we decided to combine the ideas into what morphed from the help-yourself buffet into the DIY food bar.

All the food can be easily prepared in advance and served at room temperature. Proteins, rice and beans can be kept on a warming tray, in a slow cooker, or whatever you have (or can borrow).
 
FOR DIETARY PREFERENCES

 
To drink:

 
INGREDIENTS FOR A TACO BAR

Make a selection from these ingredients. If we’ve left out any of your favorites, please let us know!

 
Plus: rice and beans.

*If you’ve never made taco beef, it couldn’t be easier. Just cook and crumble the ground beef over medium high heat, sprinkling with taco seasoning as it cooks. Drain the grease; that’s it.

This is a lot simpler, since wings are a DIY dish in the first place: a platter of wings, celery sticks, hot sauce and blue cheese dressing†.

There are many ways to make wings. By varying the seasonings on the wings and the types of sauces, Food Network came up with 50 wing recipe variations.

You’re probably not up for making two, much less 50, variations; but here’s what you can do to make your wings special:

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†Buffalo wings were invented in 1964 at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, as an impromptu, thrown-together midnight snack. Co-owner Teressa Bellissimo fried the wings, covered them in hot sauce and served them with a side of blue cheese and celery—because that’s what she had available. Here’s a longer history of buffalo wings.
 
MORE DIY FOOD BARS

Cocktails, Hors D’Oeuvre & Appetizers

 
Main Meals

 
Desserts & Snacks

[1] Classic, casual Buffalo wings became such a favorite—rolling out across America—that chefs at all types of restaurants created their own versions of wings. Previously, plates of wings had not been a restaurant menu item. Here’s a classic take from Bon Appetit. [2] An elegant take from Distilled NY. [3] Italian spices and hot chiles (photo courtesy Carrabba’s Italian Grill). [4] Thai-spiced wings with fresh mango (photo courtesy Spice Market | NYC).

[1] For good health: extra virgin oil (photo courtesy Kiklos). [2] For low calories: artisan pickles, like a gift collection from Rick’s Picks. These Hotties for your hottie are just $6.99 (photo courtesy Rick’s Picks). [3] No calories: Chocolate seltzer or diet chocolate soda. [4] A healthy dinner: sashimi (photo courtesy Kabuki Restaurants). [5] For the gourmet: 25-year-old balsamic vinegar (photo courtesy Gear List)

Not everyone wants chocolate for Valentine’s Day, or cupcakes with red and white sprinkles.

Here are some delicious food ideas for the health enthusiast, the calorie counter, and anyone staying away from the sweets.

KIKLOS OLIVE OIL

Olive oil for Valentine’s Day?

While this is a delicious EVOO for salad lovers, we first thought of this as a gift for health enthusiasts.

The government recommends two tablespoons of olive oil a day as part of a heart-healthy diet—a practice that should start long before we’re at the age to worry about heart health!

They can take the form of salad dressing; but we actually like to drink ours.

The Koroneiki olives in Kiklos olive oil are grown in the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece. The varietal is known for levels of fruitiness, bitterness, and pepperiness.

We found our bottle of Kiklos Greece to have buttery flavor with a bit of peppery kick (i.e., not earthy, green, grassy, or other olive oil flavors that some people might not to drink from the spoon. Everyone will like it.

Plus, the handsome bottle (photo #1) even looks healthy! For your Valentine, add a red ribbon or a few peel-and-stick hearts.

Buy it on the company website for $29; the bottle is 500 ml/16.9 ounces.

Check out this olive oil wheel for an overview of all the flavors and aromas of olive oil.
 
ARTISAN PICKLES

At upwards of of $10 per bottle, even the most avid pickle enthusiasts don’t eat artisan pickles as often as they like.

Look to your local farmers markets, or to online specialists like Rick’s Picks.

Rick’s Picks has a variety of gift boxes, but for a small Valentine gift, how about a bottle of Hotties spicy pickle chips (photo #2) for your own special hottie?

Crunchy, spicy, tangy and low in calories: Help make Hotties a go-to Valentine gift.

 
NON-CALORIC CHOCOLATE SODA OR SELTZER

Canfield’s Diet Chocolate Fudge Soda has long been a staple food for calorie-counting chocolate lovers.

We especially like to add it to nonfat milk for a diet egg cream, or add a small scoop of ice cream for a float.

It’s sold nationwide; but if you can’t find it locally, you can buy a six-pack of Canfield’s Diet Chocolate Fudge Soda on Amazon (photo #3). Tie a bow on it.

For those who don’t like artificial sweeteners, look for chocolate-flavored seltzers. In our neck of the woods, we can find White Chocolate Seltzer from Adirondack Beverages. We buy it by the case.
 
SASHIMI DINNER

There’s no better place to dine than a Japanese restaurant: no bread basket or dessert temptations.

There are different types of salads, the soups are low in calories, you can often get brown rice, and green tea goes better with the food than cocktails.

A deluxe sashimi plate is the best way to load protein with fewer calories (photo #4). Be sure to eat the yummy seaweed. Radish lovers: Enjoy that shredded daikon!

If you aren’t taking the giftee to dinner yourself, put the restaurant gift certificate (or any gift card) in a Valentine card.
 
BALSAMIC VINEGAR

For us, nothing says I love you better than a pricey bottle of super-aged authentic balsamic vinegar (photo #5).

A true gourmet looks forward to these precious drops, so dense they stand up by themselves, which are meted out with an medicine dropper.

This is not the vinegar with which to dress salads; it’s an exquisite accent to anything from filet mignon to the finest Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Other traditional uses are the season’s best tomatoes or strawberries, pound or angel food cake. You place droplets of balsamic on the plate, and dip the food into it. You never cook with it

Once you have your first taste, you may simply decide to drink droplets from the spoon!

 
Why so pricey?

Someone has not only been paying the expense to store it under proper conditions, but has not earned a penny from it in 25-50-75 years.

If you see bargain prices, no matter what the label says (“authentic balsamic from Modena, Italy”), with a a red wax seal and/or a fancy box, pass it by.

Given the normal prices of super-aged balsamic, there’s a lot of counterfeiting around. Or if not counterfeit, it may contain a drop of 50 year old balsamic mixed in with, say, 12-year-old balsamic.

The bottom line: Buy from a reputable, knowledgeable retailer.

Authentic bottles are of the shape shown in photo #4, are numbered, and have the Consorzio seal. Here’s more about balsamic vinegar.
 
TOMORROW: A MOST LUXURIOUS VALENTINE GIFT.

And…it’s still a better-for-you gourmet gift.

Most of it, anyway.
  

They’re sold by a British novelty products company called Suck UK (why ask why?), and available on Amazon.

The zoo animal cookie cutter set contains a mother and baby. Each set has four cutters: two bodies and two pairs of legs, large (mom) and small (baby).

Cut out the cookie dough, bake, then slot the pieces together. The larger cookie is 7″ tall by 4.5″ wide. Instructions are included.

For Valentine’s Day, you can affix a candy heart with icing.

 
NOTE: For those who pay close attention, we know that these are not 3-D cookies, but 2-D (flat) cookies that stand up. But that’s what the manufacturer calls them, and no one has called them on it.
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*We couldn’t find the giraffe on Amazon, but found it on another site, a bit more expensive.

 
THE HISTORY OF ANIMAL CRACKERS

Americans grow up on animal crackers. But the concept actually originated in England in the late 1800s, as animal biscuits (the British term for cookies).

In 1889, when P.T. Barnum toured England with his circus, several manufacturers took advantage of the marketing opportunity and named their animal biscuits “Barnum’s.”

The animal biscuits were exported to America, inspiring local bakeries to make their own.

The National Biscuit Co. (today, Nabisco), introduced theirs in 1902 as “Barnum’s Animals” (they added the word “Crackers” in 1948).

The “circus car” box with the string handle was introduced later in the year, as a Christmas tree ornament for Christmas 1902.

(Neither P.T. Barnum nor the Barnum & Bailey Circus ever got a cent in licensing fees from any “Barnum’s” crackers or biscuits. Where were their lawyers?)

[1] Giraffe, [2] elephant, [3] and the hippo cookie cutters (photos courtesy Suck UK).

[4] Even if you don’t want to take on 3-D cookies, you can make better-tasting animal crackers with this recipe from Williams-Sonoma Kitchen. [5] and [6] Use a toothpick or other implement to make designs in plain cookies (photos courtesy Chicago Metallic).

If you have an animal cookie cutter hanging around, here’s a recipe for that animal cracker taste, from Williams-Sonoma Kitchen.

They used a set of plunger animal cookie cutters that create the marks on the cookies. Those cookie cutters are no longer available, but we found something similar on Amazon. Alternatively, you can:

 
Prep time is 45 minutes, cook time is 16 minutes. You can make the dough up to two days in advance.

Ingredients For 20† Cookies

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†The number of cookies will vary based on your cookie cutter size.
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Preparation

1. SIFT together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and mace over a small bowl. Set aside.

2. FIT an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater and beat the butter on high speed for 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium, slowly add the sugar and beat for 2 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for 1 minute, stopping the mixer once to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

3. STOP the mixer and add half of the flour mixture. Beat on low speed until most of the flour has been incorporated. Add the remaining flour and beat until all of the flour has been absorbed and the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, 2 to 3 minutes.

5. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F. Let the dough stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Place each dough disk between 2 clean, large pieces of plastic wrap. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. (If the dough cracks while rolling, let it stand at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes more.) Remove the plastic wrap and place the dough on a floured work surface. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour.

6. LINE several baking sheets with parchment paper. Dip the cookie cutters into flour just before using and cut out the shapes. With plunger cookie cutters: Hold each cutter over a prepared baking sheet and lightly depress the plunger to remove the cutout; the plunger will also imprint the tops of the cookies. With regular cookie cutters: Place the cut-out shapes on the baking sheet one at a time and decorate as desired with a toothpick.

7. FREEZE the baking sheets for 15 minutes, or refrigerate for 30 minutes. Gather up the scraps, reroll and cut out more cookies.
8. BAKE the cookies until very light golden brown, 14 to 16 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks and let the cookies cool to room temperature.

When life gives you leftover steak, make steak and grits. That’s what we did when we happily brought home a doggie bag from a midtown steakhouse Friday night.

The next morning the leftovers became part of breakfast (or brunch*, if you prefer).

You can make steak and eggs, of course; but we don’t have grits often enough. And there’s no reason why you can’t combine all three, as in photo #3.

We were inspired by this photo from Publican Quality Meats of Chicago to recreate a version of their recipe with mushrooms, radicchio and parmesan cheese (photo #1). You can go as plain or fancy as you like.
 
 
RECIPE: STEAK & GRITS

The ingredients can be cooked up to two days in advance, then assembled and heated. This is especially great news for those who demand the best, creamiest grits, which can take 90 minutes cooking time.

 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COOK the grits per the package instructions. While the grits are cooking…

2. SLICE the steak and place it in a microwave-safe dish.

3. SAUTÉ the radicchio and mushrooms, stirring occasionally, 4 to 5 minutes. When ready, warm the steak in the microwave.

4. SPOON the grits onto plates and arrange the sliced steak, radicchio and mushrooms. Garnish as desired with freshly-shaved Parmesan cheese. Serve with a pepper mill.
 

THE HISTORY OF THE DOGGIE BAG

Since Elizabethan times at least, taverns and public houses provided extra-large napkins—not only because people ate with their hands, but they used them to wrap up and take home any leftovers.

Long before then, well-to-do ancients were accustomed to bringing napkins when invited to dinner, initially to clean one’s hands and mouth. Hosts provided the food, but not the linens. Around the 6th century B.C.E., they started using their napkins to wrap leftovers to take home (here’s the history of the napkin).

It was also common practice to distribute leftovers to vassals, slaves and servants; and since there was no refrigeration, remnants went to dogs and pigs.

In postwar times (that’s post-World War II), customers of steak houses would ask to take home the meaty leftovers, “for the dog.” (For those with no dog, it became a decorous way of taking the food home, for people accustomed to the frugal practices of wartime rationing.) There are different claims to the origin of the doggie bag:

In 1949, Al Meister, owner of Bagcraft Papercon, a Chicago-based packaging company, developed a coated paper bag that was grease-resistant. He is credited with inventing the “doggie bag”—and the take-out bag, for that matter. See the footnote† below for other references.

Grease-resistant bags soon evolved into foil-lined bags with drawings of Fido—a way to explain why nice people were leaving the restaurant with paper bags.

Yet elsewhere, many people were criticized by embarrassed family and friends with whom they dined, who felt it was in poor taste. According to one article, well into the 1970s etiquette columns in newspapers got letters asking if it was O.K. to ask for a doggie bag if they didn’t have a dog.

[2] Stretch leftover steak by adding vegetables, Here’s the recipe from Spicy Southern Kitchen (photo © Spicy Southern Kitchen).

[3] Have it all: steak, grits and eggs, plus some greens. Here’s the recipe from Framed Cooks (photo © Framed Cooks).

[4] A peppery approach: bacon-wrapped steak, pepperjack grits and a jalapeño garnish. Here’s the recipe from Erica’s Recipes (photo © Erica’s Recipes.)

[5] Turn that leftover steak into steak and grits for breakfast or brunch (photo ©y Disposable Plastic Wear).

That remains on trend. No one wants to throw out good food, including the restaurants. (Seattle has even enacted laws to create less kitchen food waste.)

So no matter how large or small the amount of leftover food, don’t hesitate ask for it. If not, you’ll wake up the next day, sorry you didn’t take it home.

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*Breakfast is the first meal of the day, lunch is the second meal, after breakfast. “Brunch” evolved as a weekend meal for later risers, who combined the two meals. Brunch is typically eaten during the late morning or early afternoon and can include both conventional breakfast items (eggs, pancakes) and lunch items (frittatas, starts, quiche, soup and salad, panini or other lighter fare). The other benefit of brunch over breakfast: cocktails with juice (Bellini, Bloody Mary, Mimosa, etc.)

†Sources vary as to the origin of the term:

>According to the Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 113): “Although leftovers have long been packed up for customers, the term ‘doggie bag’ dates in print to 1963. Two claims have been made for the idea under that name, Lawry’s Prime Rib, a Los Angeles restaurant that dates it usage back to the 1930s, and the Old Homestead Steak House in New York City, whose owner, Harry Sherry, also began to use the term in the 1930s.”

>According to Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2007 (p. 253), notes that the doggy bag (or doggie bag) presumed the dog to be the beneficiary of the contents. A 1943 print reference notes that in San Francisco and Seattle, a bag called the Pet Packit was used to take home leftovers.

>Restaurants in San Francisco and Seattle started to providing waxed paper bags for customers to take home leftovers “for the dog”; the custom rolled out nationwide.

>Yet another claim says that the doggie bag was born in 1949 at Dan Stampler’s Steak Joint on Greenwich Avenue in New York City. Their grease-proof doggie bags bore an image of the proprietor’s Scottish terrier. They were manufactured by Bagcraft Corporation of Chicago, which sold them to other restaurants as well. Subsequently, the wife of the co-founder of Bagcraft, Jane Meister, wrote a poem that appeared on the bags: “Oh where, oh where have your leftovers gone? / Oh where, oh where can they be? / If you’ve had all you can possibly eat,/ Please bring the rest home to me!!”

For more information see the article in Smithsonian Magazine.