All Red Valentine's Day Dinner for Valentine's Day

Though normally a perfect dinner should contain at least a few colors, Valentine's Day is an exception to the rule. Unlike two-toned holidays such as Halloween (orange and black) or three-toned holidays such as the 4^th of July (red, white and blue), Valentine's Day is notable for its dramatic singular color, red. What could be more romantic than to serve an all red meal for your sweetheart on Valentine's Day?

To set the mood, cover the table with a red table cloth and use a floating red heart candle for your centerpiece. Do not put the bouquet of red roses you're sure to receive in the middle of the table since they will block your romantic view of your partner (unless you're mad at him, in which case you should call up a single girlfriend and go out for some Chinese food).

Now for the food. For the appetizer course of your all red Valentine's Day dinner, you have three good choices: shrimp cocktail with bright red cocktail sauce; a glass of tomato juice in a martini glass (preferably laced with vodka) or a half ruby red grapefruit with a maraschino cherry in the center (red die #2 won't kill you just this once).

The entrée or main course of your all red Valentine's Day dinner should be a simple, yet elegant plate of linguine with red clam sauce. Before researching clam sauce recipes, relax. Progresso makes a perfectly good red clam sauce that can be doctored up to taste just like homemade (especially if you've opted for the tomato juice with vodka option for appetizer). If your spouse is more the carnivorous type, you can replace the clam sauce with a jar of Ragu and a few meatballs. Serve with some crisp red pepper strips and broiled tomato halves with parmesan cheese for a stunning red trio.

For the dessert course of your all red Valentine's Day meal, try the Ravishing Red Velvet Cake from the All Recipes website (click here for recipe). It received four out of five stars from 54 reviewers and was described by its creator as "quick and easy." How bad could it be?

Serve your all red Valentine's Day dinner with a nice bottle of red wine, with the soothing sounds of "Lady in Red" streaming softly in the background. Cap off with hot Red Zinger tea or a tall glass of Nestle's Strawberry Quik.