Are you cooking something sweet for Valentine’s Day? We asked our readers on Twitter and Facebook if there was anything they hoped to attempt for the first time this year, and crème brûlée came up. Crème brûlée is such an astonishingly easy treat, and I was happy for the excuse to revisit it.

Here’s a recipe and step-by-step guide to making crème brûlée in your own kitchen — no torch or special equipment required, and you’ll only need five or six ingredients to get that sweet, creamy custard with a shattering sugar crust.

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We take the names of ingredients we shop for at the grocery store for granted. We make lists of foods to acquire at the store, prepare meals with these ingredients, and then put those meals on social media, but I’d wager that many of us (myself included) haven’t put a great deal of thought into who gave things their proper names in the first place. Why isn’t a watermelon radish called a “prison potato”? And how come potatoes aren’t called “edible rocks”?

A Twitter account has recently been making waves with renaming everything from animals to instruments, and today I’m taking a stab at foods and what they really should be called.

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Come Valentine’s Day (and most other holidays big and small), I can guarantee my mother will head to work with baked goods in hand to share with her coworkers. It’s what she does, and what I aspire to do. This year I’m taking a page out of her playbook with one of these 10 sweet treats.

From a sweet and crunchy snack mix to sugar cookie bars to decadent chocolate cookies, each dessert is made for sharing, easy to pull together in advance, and will delight the people you get to share them with.

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We can think of few things better than walking through the door after a long day and knowing that a home-cooked meal awaits us. And since we don’t have our own personal live-in chefs, we rely on our slow cookers to help us out.

These comforting recipes take just a little bit of prep work in the morning or the night before, and then the slow cooker does the heavy lifting. Your future self will thank you.

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There are plenty of clichés that surround Valentine’s Day, and eating a classic steak dinner is one of them. It’s one I really love subscribing too, however, because it’s just plain old fun to recreate a steakhouse experience at home and I am all about an excuse to do so. This menu is as classic as it gets and it feels special and timeless. There’s juicy steak, cheesy mashed potatoes, and decadent chocolate soufflé involved. That’s a guarantee that this Valentine’s Day is going to be great.

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King cakes are made around the world as part of the festival of the Epiphany, but in New Orleans, king cakes have truly taken on a life of their own. From the start of Carnival on January 6 through Mardi Gras at the beginning of February, you’ll find one of these sweet, color-splashed king cakes in just about every office break room and at every family gathering.

Did you get “the baby”? That means you bring the next cake — and we have just the cake you’ll want to bring.

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This a treat that straddles the line between snack and dessert — which is the best kind of treat, if you ask me. Enjoy a couple of clusters after dinner to cure a chocolate craving or snack on one or two mid-afternoon when you’re in need a little energy jolt. The no-bake bites aren’t fussy: They are simply clusters of toasted coconut flakes and sliced almonds that are held together by dark chocolate and finished with a sprinkling of flaky sea salt.

They’re Paleo and vegan (as long as you stick with at least 70% dark chocolate that’s dairy-free) as well as gluten-free, but really they’ll make just about anyone happy. Just ask the group of friends I brought them to who devoured them in minutes.

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I’m currently going through one those phases where I do not feel like cooking dinner one bit. I am very interested in eating a great meal, just not so much the cooking part. Yes, even food editors who love cooking feel this way from time to time. It’ll pass soon enough, but until then I’m filling my meal plan with my favorite super-satisfying, low-effort dinners.

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Valentine’s Day isn’t just for lovers, you know. Your friends, colleagues, kids, and parents deserve a little attention too. Grab a bag of Jolly Ranchers and print these cute cards out for everyone you care about. It’s the little things, right?

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French fries are at their peak when they are almost too hot to eat. They’re crispy on the outside, with soft and fluffy insides, and coated with just enough fat and salt to make you come back for more at the risk of burning your mouth. While I’d like to pretend that leftover french fries simply do not not exist, I know too well that occasionally french fries must come home with us in small brown cardboard boxes, paper bags, or paper cups with high hopes of being eaten later.

Unfortunately, many of us are making things worse by zapping them into soggy submission in the microwave. We’re begging you — please stop microwaving your leftover fries and try this instead.

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