2. PREPARE THE SNACKS

You may not always be able to fool your date into snoozing for the entire time that it will take you to concoct your ambrosia, so you may need to bring him or her appeasements while you finish preparing the main course. We suggest a few delicious snacks to hold him/her over while you work on the grand prix. Of course, if your "guest" has behaved him/herself during your preparation, you can simply bring in these snacks together with the main breakfast dish when it's ready. Each of our recommendations is fairly light, and you should avoid foisting a huge dose of anything on your amour this early in the morning. Bloated does not equal frisky.


Nutella

The Euros have really struck gold with this stuff. Nutella is a creamy chocolate spread flavored with hazelnuts. If you think it looks alarmingly like vegemite or you've just never heard of it, relax and trust us - the stuff is absolutely delicious and you cannot go wrong with it. Chocolate is the number one food for love, so you'll want to introduce some into the meal as soon as possible. We recommend buying some French or Italian loaves, preferably ones that are fresh and can be torn apart. Simply tear off a small clump of bread and spread a generous dollop of Nutella on it. That's it.

So how do you prepare this for your date? Tear off enough two-inch-squared pieces of bread to cover a regular dinner plate. Then spread a liberal dose of the Nutella over each one. If your target is hankering for some food immediately, just escort these goods into the boudoir while you're working on the rest of the meal. Otherwise, toss this plate on to your tray and hold it all for one grand presentation. Nutella is one of those curious things that is truly amazing but hasn't yet exploded across America. Why don't you be the first to introduce your amour to it? You're sure to create a fond memory.

Strawberries & Cream

How can you go wrong with these? Everybody living outside of a plastic bubble loves strawberries and cream, and you can't find many more snacks that are so simple to prepare. Let's start with the fruit. Like the rest of your ingredients, you should buy them the day before, then throw them in the fridge. For the purpose of feeding each other strawberries, you should keep them intact rather than slicing them up. That doesn't mean that you do not have to prepare them, however. In fact, although this is an easy snack to whip up, preparing strawberries does involve a few minutes of work. Either the night before or immediately before serving, rinse the strawberries to remove any possible nasties from them. Now take a knife and decapitate the little tuft of green vegetation at the top of each strawberry. It's not edible, trust us. Once the fruit is rinsed and shorn, it's ready.

Next, the cream. You can take one of two routes: either bust out the can of Readiwhip and just squirt away or make some decent stuff. The decent stuff is known formally as chantilly cream. Here's what you'll need to make it:

  • 1 cup of whipping cream
  • 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar
  • ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

In a bowl, whip the chilled cream until it stiffens up from a liquid into little peaks. Next, add the vanilla and powdered sugar slowly while you continue beating the cream. Voila!

You can serve this mix in a simple bowl, though it looks best in glass-stemmed dishes. Just fill the bowl with strawberries and top it off with sinful amounts of the cream. The idea here is for you to transport berries to target's mouth with your own fingers.

Pastries

Okay, this is the one for when you just don't have any time. You're going to need to hit a bakery to grab a few goodies, but freshness is key with baked goods, so if you take this tack, try to pull it off as soon as possible before the meal. Here's what to ask for: pain au chocolate (known roughly in this country as chocolate croissants). Again, notice the chocolate theme. These goodies are a staple morning snack in Frenchish-speaking regions of the world - Quebec, Switzerland, France but despite that, they really are delicious. Keep it simple: buy two or three and just arrange them on a plate. If you like, you can sprinkle a little flour around your face and clothes to make it look like you slaved away at baking. Done!