Wednesday is Valentine’s Day. What better way to tempt your sweetheart for the evening’s main course (so to speak) than with a romantic dinner and dessert?

Sweet temptation, indeed.

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In lieu of a well-thought-out and researched topic for tonight, how about an old-fashioned potluck dinner?

When I was a kid, potlucks always meant church suppers or family reunions. They always involved homemade fried chicken, potato salad, my grandmother’s seven-layer salad (which was ostensibly a garden salad but somehow seemed to have more mayonnaise, green peas, and shredded cheese than anything), and someone always brought a salad/dessert hybrid thing made with green Jello and fruit cocktail and Dream Whip (powdered precursor to Cool Whip and just as vile).

The fried chicken was always good, though. Sometimes there was chocolate cake. And lemonade.

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Welcome to Week #2 of Six Easy Dinners for Beginning Cooks.  Here’s this week’s dinner list:

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• 1 package bowtie pasta

1.  Cook according to package directions.  While the pasta is cooking:

• 1 package precut broccoli florets

2.  Empty broccoli into a microwave-safe covered dish.  Add a little water — maybe 3 or 4 tablespoons.  Microwave on High for 5 minutes.  Drain any remaining water.  While broccoli is steaming and pasta is cooking:

• 1 package frozen shrimp, cooked, peeled, tail off

3.  Place cooked shrimp into a large bowl and fill with hot tap water.  

4.  Drain the cooked pasta.  To the empty hot cooking pot, add

• 2 tablespoons butter (not oil)
• about 1/4 cup milk
• grated Parmesan cheese, about 1 cup

5.  Mix together; return the drained pasta and mix well with the sauce.  Add the steamed broccoli.  Drain the water from the warmed shrimp and add those.  Mix well and serve.

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• taco seasoning mix packet from taco kit

1.  In a heavy skillet, brown the ground beef,
   stirring to crumble the meat as it cooks.  Sprinkle the taco
   seasoning over the meat and mix in well.

• taco shells from taco kit

2.  Preheat oven to 350°.  Place taco shells on cookie sheet; heat for 6 minutes.

• 1 bag packaged mixed salad
• 2-3 Roma tomatoes

3.  Wash and chop tomatoes.  On each plate, place a generous heap of mixed salad greens and top with chopped tomatoes.  Add a spoonful or two of the seasoned cooked hamburger.

4.  If desired, top with salsa from the packet in the taco kit.  Or add sour cream, grated cheese, etc., to taste.

• 1 roll ground pork sausage

1.  Preheat oven to 350°.  In a heavy skillet, brown the sausage, stirring to crumble the meat as it cooks.

• 1 package elbow macaroni

2.  Cook according to package directions, but subtract 2 minutes from cooking time.  Drain pasta.

• 1 cup shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese

3. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray to make cleanup easier.  (If you don’t have cooking spray, skip this step; it won’t make any real difference.)  Mix the cooked macaroni, cooked sausage, and cheese in the casserole dish, stirring to mix well.

• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon dried mustard

4.  Mix together and pour over macaroni mixture in dish.  Top with a little more extra-sharp cheddar cheese, if desired.

5.  Bake at 350° for about 45 minutes, or until center is firm.

Serve with a side salad, if you’d like to feel virtuous about vegetables.

For each person:

1.  Place one large tortilla or pita on a plate.  Spread prepared hummus over center part of bread to within 1″ of edges.
2.  Wash and chop a Roma tomato or two.  Add bagged mixed salad greens, some chopped onion or cucumber if you have it.  Julienned carrots if you bought those.  If you like, put some cooked chopped chicken in there too.
    Mix together and place a portion on each tortilla or pita.  Add some shredded cheese or sour cream if you want to be decadent.
3.  Roll up wraps and serve.

• 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
• ½ cup orzo pasta
• ½ cup brown rice
• 2 cups chicken broth

1.  Melt the butter or heat the olive oil in a medium-sized heavy saucepan.  Add the orzo and cook for about 5 minutes until golden brown, stirring occasionally.
2.  Add the brown rice and stir to coat all grains with the butter or oil.
3.  Add the chicken broth.  Cover and turn heat to low.  Simmer for 45-50 minutes or until the rice is tender and all liquid is absorbed.

The key to good meals cooked at home during the week is planning.  I can’t come home after working all day, stand in the kitchen at 6 pm with two hungry men ready for dinner, and start to wonder what I can pull together at the last minute.  That’s a sure route to take-out pizza.

My approach is to sit down on the weekend before going to the grocery store and think about what to make for dinner during the week.  Over the years I’ve made a list of about 40 main dishes that the guys like — this is really helpful to avoid “Oh, we had roast beef last week; I can’t do that again so soon.”  I often use the grocery sale flyers to help me decide:  if pork chops are on sale, I’ll build a meal or two around that or buy extras to freeze for later.  I also plan for six dinners out of seven:  the seventh night might be leftovers, or our son might be out for dinner, in which case I can do salads or an omelet for my husband and me.

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• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 cups pumpkin (canned or cooked and pureéd
• 1-3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1-2/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup raisins or dates (chopped)
• 1/2 cup diced walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two standard bread pans.

In a mixing bowl, combine oil, eggs, water and pumpkin.

In another bowl, sift together flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. Make a well in center of dry ingredients and add pumpkin mixture. Blend until dry ingredients are moist. Stir in raisins and nuts. Bake 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Cool briefly in cans or pans before turning out onto a rack.