Valentine’s Day: Recipes, restaurants, treats and more!

Home is where the heart is, literally.

It’s that time of year again: time to find some roses, make a dinner reservation (your temple of haute cuisine, my taco truck) or engineer your own meal for your beloved, and locate some very good chocolate, assuming you do this sort of thing.

People tend to feel strongly about Valentine’s Day and what a “romantic� dinner is supposed to be: flickering candles on white tablecloths, expensive Champagne in an ice bucket.

I was very happy in my work as an RN seeing patients at their homes in and around Los Angeles.

Planning a romantic dinner at home for Valentine’s Day?

There’s no one way to mark Valentine’s Day, even if you think the day requires roses and a box of chocolates.

If you’re the sort of person who appreciates flowers and a thoughtful gesture on Valentine’s Day, a punch bowl for two could be the perfect start to a romantic evening.

Chocolate lovers do not, of course, need designated holidays to celebrate the heady stuff.

Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be just about gorging on chocolates and tossing back the Champagne.

When searching for Mr. or Ms.

According to one survey, nearly 85% of respondents said having sex was an important part of Valentine’s Day.

Splurging on a massage is awesome. But so is giving one — at home.

Feeling uninspired by the gift-a-box-of-chocolates, send-a-dozen-roses, make-a-pricey-dinner-reservation Valentine’s Day ritual?

There’s no need to break the bank on Valentine’s Day.

You can certainly go the chocolates-and-flowers route this Valentine’s Day.

What happens at Bottega Louie’s underground dessert production kitchen.

Bottega Louie is an enormous hatbox of a restaurant, a pale, vertical, light-filled space in downtown Los Angeles — whether by accident or design; it’s a former Brooks Bros. emporium — that is ideally suited to showcase beautiful patisserie.

According to Jonathan Grahm, owner of the Brentwood-based Compartés Chocolatier, “everything is better with chocolate,� including alcohol.

If you’ve spent any time at ChocoVivo, Patricia Tsai’s Culver City chocolate shop, you’ll likely have eaten your fair share of chocolate.

A great chocolate cake goes like this: Start with a layer of devil’s food cake, nearly obsidian dark from Valrhona cocoa powder.

Sure, you can take your beloved out for a romantic dinner on Valentine’s Day — or better yet, make it yourself.

Romance is hard to quantify, but OpenTable has come up with a formula based on 5 million reviews and shout-outs on its food-reservation website.

So you’re planning a romantic dinner at home for Valentine’s Day.