It’s a Valentine’s Day dilemma: restaurants are packed to the max, and yet not going out for a meal means that somebody is going to have to do a lot of work in the kitchen to prepare a special meal.
As city dwellers, my husband and I have learned to avoid restaurants on Valentine’s Day, but we’ve solved the dilemma by creating an indoor “Valentine’s Picnic.” We take turns, year by year, selecting food treasures from our favorite neighborhood markets, and then we deck the table with delicious, picnic-type fare: baguettes, jam, cheese, fresh fruit, sliced vegetables, salami or prosciutto and our favorite local desserts. It’s cheaper, more personal, and we get to spend more time together in our warm, cozy apartment.
It’s easy to find such treasures for a Valentine’s picnic at Wolff’s.
First, select your favorite fruits and vegetables from the fresh, high-quality produce you know and trust from Wolff’s. This weekend, an array of fresh fruit is on special, including apples, cantaloupes and oranges.
Then, in the bakery, choose from loads of breads, from simple baguettes to Bavarian pretzels, all baked locally at longstanding artisan bakeries.
And there’s no shortage of jams, jellies and fruit butters to spread on that fresh-baked bread! The Wolff family has its own line of homemade spreads that follow favorite family recipes and are made with local produce (of course!). You’ll also find adventurous fruit or fruit-and-herb blends in Christina Maser’s fruit spreads, made in Lancaster, PA. Or, open up a jar of that apple chutney you canned after Marie Connell’s cooking demo at Wolff’s this summer!
Melt some gourmet Brie on top of that fruit spread, or add a dab of chevre, or a slice of gouda or local raw milk cheddar, and every bite will burst with flavor. (If you or your sweetheart is craving Brie and one of you wants to add an extra special appetizer to the feast, check out this Honey Mustard Baked Brie from our blog!)
Stop by our prepared foods fridge to pick up flavorful, freshly made side salad!
Add some gourmet protein to the Valentine’s feast with DiBruno Brothers’ salami, sopressata or finochhiona (Tuscan fennel salami).
As the meal comes to a close, brew some Burlap and Bean Fair Trade Organic coffee. Being close to the coffee pot is, after all, one of the advantages of picnicking indoors! The robust flavors of this locally roasted coffee will taste especially good with a made-from-scratch My House Cookies pie.