Valentine

Red velvet is huge at weddings but it's a big deal for Valentine's Day. You can line your sweetheart's Valentine's Day with red velvet from sunup to sunset. Red velvet waffles and pancakes make a striking appearance on the breakfast table. Treat someone to breakfast at the Blue Moon Cafe in Fells Point, where Sarah Simington's red velvet pancakes, studded with white chocolate chips, are making their annual Valentine's Day appearance. For cocktail hour, head to Morton's the Steakhouse, which is serving its red velvet cocktail, a pretty potion of prosecco, raspberry lambic and Chambord, garnished with a raspberry.

There's a lot you can do on Valentine's Day. There's the classic romantic dinner, the chocolate candy, the flowers. There's crying as you watch "Love Actually" home alone (we've just heard about this one). How about a live serenade? The Valentonez are here to help, in their words, "butter up your special lover friend or cheer up a lonely heart. " Peabody Conservatory -trained singers Melissa Wimbish, 28, and Britt Olsen-Ecker, 24, came up with the idea and enlisted their guitarist friends Paul Diem, 32, and Aldo Pantoja, 28, to form a singing group offering singing valentines from Saturday through Tuesday (packages start at $40; go to valentonez.com for details.)

There's little that's more romantic than a wonderful dinner enjoyed a deux in a cozy setting. With Valentine's Day in the offing, restaurant phones (and websites) are undoubtedly busy taking reservations for just such tete-a-tetes . If you're into the "cooking is showing love" lifestyle, however, an even more romantic way to spend an evening with your honey is to fix a lovely meal you don't have to go out for. Dinner, and even a movie, seems just the thing for telling someone you have feelings for him (or her)

Bluegrass has posted its Valentine's Day menu. The February menu is up and running, too, at the South Baltimore restaurant. Ray Kumm's Valentine's menu begins with an amuse bouche and canapes before launching into the meal proper. Appetizer choices include tuna tartare, venison carpaccio, wild-boar scrapple and Cherry Glen goat ricotta. Entree options are seared scallops with chorizo, Maine mussels and saffron risotto, red snapper with Russian tea broth, chocolate braised sort ribs with turnip-green porridge and rack of lamb with sauce Robert.

The dinner on Valentine's Day at the Feast @ 4 East will be its last. Sandy Lawler, the restaurant's chef, who also owns the 4 East Madison Inn, the boutique hotel in Mount Vernon, will stop offering dinner service. Lawler says she will make 4 East available for special events for 25 to 60 people.   The Valentine's menu at Feast @ 4 East includes fresh oysters, a half rack of pistachio-crusted lamb, New England scallops in vanilla cream and, for dessert, red velvet cake, ricotta cheesecake with Grand Marnier and Pavlova, an ethereal meringue confection named for a Russian ballerina.  You can enjoy it all with your own bottle of wine.

You're smitten with your valentine, but not with the idea of a mass-produced card or a pricey trinket. Then why not give the objection of your affection a handmade gift? While crafting was once the domain of your grandmother, these days do-it-yourself projects are hip and retro-chic. And thanks to such popular websites as Etsy - a marketplace for handmade and vintage items - and fun reads like Suzie Williams' "The Complete Book of Retro Crafts," it's now a cinch to go "crafty. " And there's sentimental value.

For this Valentine's season, the folks at Bay Theatre are offering A. R. Gurney's 1989 off-beat near-classic, "Love Letters. " This two-person play is ideally suited to Bay's intimate space, as well as its intention of extending the Valentine season through March 4. Contemporary playwright Gurney describes his work as, "a sort of play which needs no theater, no lengthy rehearsal, no special set, no memorization of lines and no commitment from its...

Graphic designer Carla David, of Say Cheese! Paper Props in Savage, says a fun project is to create a "hand prop," a message for your valentine that attaches to a stick they can hold. The props look like a mask that people carry for masquerade parties, but they can be made into all sorts of shapes like hearts, a mustache or even letters. Supplies Vellum paper and metallic card stock Scissors Pencil Glue stick Popsicle sticks Directions Step 1: Make a sketch of a heart, lips, or a Valentine's phrase on vellum paper.

The Miss Shirley's restaurant, beloved for its hearty Southern brekafasts, serve dinner only one night a year. It's Valentine's Day. For the fifth time, the Miss Shirley's restaurants are opening up for evening service on Valentine's Day, but they're not serving breakfast for dinner. The $49 three-course menu by executive chef Brigitte Bledsoe includes a trio of bisques, chilled poached Maine lobster, pan-seared diver scallops with cauliflower and goat-cheese pure and a pair of tenderloin fillets.

Want to escape with your sweetie for Valentine's Day? Packages abound, both near and far, for married soul mates or those who are single and want to mingle. (Taxes and gratuities are not included unless noted.) Here are just a few. Romantic inns Glen Cove Mansion, Long Island, N.Y. The 55-acre estate, the setting for the Audrey Hepburn romantic comedy "Sabrina," offers the "Love is in the Air" package, including accommodations, chocolate-covered strawberries, champagne, $50 gift hotel dining certificate and breakfast.