The Valentine's Phantom Lives On

Rachel's family has a great Valentine's Day tradition. When they were kids, on Valentine's evening, the Valentine's Phantom came a knockin'. It started sometime after dinner. A rap-tap-tap and ring of the doorbell brought box after box of little heart-shaped, red celophane wrapped Whitman samplers. You know the kind. Each box came one at a time with one of the kid's names scrawled across the top. With screams of delight, each box was ripped open and devoured on the spot. Needless to say, Rachel loves Valentine's chocolate.

The celebration has evolved for us into special Valentine's breakfast and a visit from the Phantom. Last year, while Schaun was in Kyrgyzstan, we celebrated with heart-shaped pancake breakfast. Well, it was breakfast for Schaun and late-night snack for Rachel. This year, Ellen joined us for a sleep-over (our second guest, Rachel's sister, Litzy and her family stayed once too) and then Rachel made a proper Valentine's Day slumber jack breakfast, complete with heart-shaped buckwheat pancakes, scrambles eggs, and turkey bacon. Deeee-licious.

The Valentine's Phantom visited some VERY nice boutique chocolatiers here in NYC. We highly recommend his picks: NY Studio Chocolate Moderne (our favorite was pistachio praline and raspberry truffle) and Francois Pralus' french chocolate (we tried his 45% cocoa milk chocolate Melisse). Wow. Those were fantastic. Thanks Valentine Phantom. We love you!