ReadyMade: Instructions for everyday life

With all the great design blogs, craft blogs, and tech blogs to keep up with, who has time to spend drooling over all the food blogs out there? That’s where I come in. Each week I’ll be choosing a theme and subjecting myself to hunger pangs as I scour the web in search of tasty recipes that anyone can make.

For the inaugural Four Course Fridays, I’ve chosen that dreaded hallowed occasion, Valentine’s Day. Not because I’m acknowledging it as a legitimate holiday, but because fully booked restaurants and 20% markups make this one of the worst days of the year to eat out.

The theme here is “simple yet satisfying”, ’cause really, who wants to spend the whole day cooking, only to end up with a plate strewn with underaged greens and a fluffy mound of truffle-flavored soap bubbles? The soup and the cake can both be made the day ahead, and the pasta couldn’t be simpler (unless it came in a can), giving you the rest of the day to drink and do other things I shouldn’t talk about on this blog

Course 1: Blood Orange Margarita

Although red for Valentine’s day is so cliché, it’s blood orange season and this tart, slightly bitter citrus makes for a perfect cocktail. Pulled from the archives of We Are Never Full, this Blood Orange Margarita is just the fix you need to get through the day, whether you’re with someone or not. Plus, you can tell your significant other about all the virgin oranges you had to sacrifice to make their drink…it doesn’t get much more romantic than that.

Course 2: Tomato Soup

I know the title of this one might make you think of a certain red and white can, but trust me, this is way better. Despite being relatively sparse on effort and ingredients, this soup will pack a wallop of flavor, and who can argue with that? This recipe comes courtesy of Sassy Radish, and because she’s sassy like that, she’s added a dollop of pesto and ricotta cheese on top.

Course 3: Sicilian Anchovy Pasta with Toasted Breadcrumbs

Pasta is one of those dishes that can be a humble weeknight meal, but it can also be adorned and turned into something special. Syrie from Taste Buddies takes this rustic Sicilian dish and makes it something special with a poached egg that sits atop curly strands of pasta like a saffron jewel.

Course 4: Chocolate Mille-Crêpes with Orange Cream, Orange Caramel & Candied Zest

This seemingly intricate cake sells uptown for $85 a pop, and the price is justified. After all, it does have a thousand layers of crepe and pastry cream right? Well, as Zenchef reveals, it’s like Valentine’s day in that it’s all a bunch of razzle-dazzle aimed at getting you to pay more. This “cake” is actually quite simple to make, but with layers of orange pastry cream and an orange caramel top, Mille-Crêpes would lure even the most frugal customer into paying top dollar.