Photo: SureWil/Flickr

Valentine’s Day is such a big foodie holiday that some restaurants were booked up months in advance. But with only six days to go, we still managed to find some cozy, romantic spots in the Boston area that are still accepting reservations on the 14th for two (at this writing, anyway). Snap one up fast at opentable.com, and tell your love that you picked it out weeks ago.

1. Bar Lola, 160 Commonwealth Ave. These tapas plates are meant to be shared – what could be more romantic than that? This Back Bay establishment feels right out of Spain, with lighting soft enough to feel intimate.
2. Anthony’s Pier 4, 140 Northen Ave. To make the night feel special, what about a great view? This restaurant is lined with big windows that look over the Boston Harbor. Fittingly, they offer some well-reviewed seafood – you know what they say about oysters, don’t you?
3. Gaslight, 560 Harrison Ave. No one does romance quite like the French, and this award-winning restaurant fits the bill. Best of all, despite its high end feel, it’s quite affordable!
4. No. 9 Park, 9 Park St. You read that correctly – No. 9 Park, Barbara Lynch’s venerable Boston institution, is still accepting reservations. Hurry up and grab one!
5. Bergamot, 118 Beacon St. This new restaurant was one of the most buzzed-about this year. Why not go and see what the fuss is about?
6. Trattoria Il Panino, 11 Parmenter St. Short of actually going to Italy, going to the North End for Valentine’s Day is your next-best romantic option. This is one of the handful of well-reviewed and atmospheric restaurants in the area that are still accepting reservations.
7. Casablanca, 40 Brattle St. Imagine telling your partner that you’re going to Casablanca for Valentine’s Day. This French-by-way-of-African gem may be your chance to pretend you’re Bogart and Bergman (with a happier ending, we hope).

Ok, I’ll cop to a corny post headline. But now that Sunday’s come and gone, I feel better admitting it: I don’t like sports. The big game for me this weekend wasn’t the Super Bowl – it was Harvard Square’s Third Annual Chili Cook-Off. I do have at least one thing in common with Steelers fans, though – my team was robbed.

Neighborhood joints Fire + Ice, Crema Cafe, Grendel’s Den, Harvest, Tory Row, Redline, UpStairs on the Square and more all turned out to offer large, free cups of chili out on DeGuglielmo Plaza this Saturday – and despite (or because of) the drizzly weather, the street was packed with chili-and-cornbread loving foodies. Such is the power of free food in Boston that even J.P. Licks’ fresh avocado ice cream went fast in the wintry weather (it was, by the way, deliciously rich and creamy).

Having thoroughly lapped up every sample, I can say with full conviction that UpStairs on the Square deserved to win. Their braised short rib chili was a daring and hearty concoction – sweet, meaty, and complemented perfectly with a small slice of cornbread topped with a spicy butter. Other offerings stood out. I loved Harvest’s turkey and white bean chili, and Crema Café’s sweet potato chili was the most creative of the bunch. But if I had to pick one giant bowl to curl up with, it would be UpStairs on the Square’s.

Unfortunately, the crowd on Saturday didn’t share my enthusiasm. The winner was Redline’s Three-Meat, Three Bean chili. It was a strong and beefy cup (the three meats were carnitas, ground beef and Italian sausage – no complaints there), and certainly one of the best of the afternoon. Its flavors, however, were more traditional and refined than Upstairs’ barbecuey blend – for me, it just didn’t have that extra kick.

I do have one consolation – the mantra of the offseason. This is the time of year that every sports fan can say, “There’s always next year.” For once, I can join them.

Photo: LisaW124/Flickr

Last Friday, we told you about the new and controversial deregulation of pesticide-resistent alfalfa, which some farmers worry could raise the price of their crops, dairy and livestock. We asked local farmers to tell us their thoughts on these genetically modified organisms (GMOs) – and how the new rules could affect them. Here is what two had to say.

Mary Moran, High Ridge Meadows Farm, Vermont:

Wow! I can’t begin to explain how potentially dangerous I think GMOs are. The onus should be on GMO seed companies as far as I can see. They put their products into the stream of commerce knowing that it has the potential to cross-pollinate and naturally become airborne, which is trespassing upon the organic farmer… If that happens, we (organic farmers) run the danger of losing our certification. The organic farmer (especially those with large alfalfa, grain, corn, whatever crops) are in danger of lawsuits for patent infringement. It’s a crock of bologna! We do not grow alfalfa, however we do feed it to our sheep and cattle in pellet form. It’s not just alfalfa, it’s all GMO seeds we should worry about. The practice of producing GMO seed is inherently dangerous and is opening up a Pandora’s box that someday we will want to close and be unable to. We are futzing with nature and the outcome promises to be unpleasant at least. More…

Photo: www.bluewaikiki.com/Flickr

Organic dairy has been on quite a ride over the past couple of weeks. First, a study published in the Journal of Dairy Science found that organic milk was healthier than its standard counterpart, thanks to lower levels of saturated fats. But soon after, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack changed department regulations for alfalfa production – possibly making it more difficult for organic dairy and beef farmers to stay in business.

What’s the issue? Alfalfa is a crop that’s mainly used to feed cows and horses. The new regulations allow for the unrestricted planting of genetically modified alfalfa, which is pesticide-resistent. If any traces of this genetically modified crop are found in the feed of nominally organic cows, then the livestock will lose their organic certification. This may make farming organic dairy riskier – and costlier – since genetically modified alfalfa could cross-pollinate with organic alfalfa in nearby fields.

According to The Atlantic‘s Samuel Fromartz, the risks of this move include pricier organic milk and fewer export opportunities for conventional crops. And though the USDA has vowed to research ways of “ensuring the genetic integrity” of alfalfa, many people are unconvinced.

I’ve emailed several nearby dairy farmers to hear their take on the controversy. I’ll let you know what they had to say.

Photo: Courtesy of Simon and Schuster

It’s 2004 in Baghdad. The city is torn by war – a struggle that will end the lives of more ordinary citizens than soldiers or terrorists. And yet, somehow, families manage to wake up, run errands, go to work. Communities still gather around the dinner table. People take solace in their meals – but what do you eat when life seems more vulnerable than ever?

During the winter, food writers talk about “comfort food” so frequently that it’s become a cliché – but no cuisine deserves the title more than the food that families make together when their country is ravaged by war. Chicago native Annia Ciezadlo landed in Baghdad in the fall of 2003 to find a country relying more and more on warm and comforting homemade dishes. Moving between occupied Iraq to an increasingly violent Beirut, Ciezadlo tells a story of war from the vantage point of an ordinary kitchen table in her new book, Day of Honey.

Public Radio Kitchen talked to Ciezadlo on Wednesday about grape leaves, raw lamb and the beauty of everyday life in the midst of chaos.

PRK: I saw on your biography that you were born in Chicago. What drove you to move to the Middle East and report on culture there?

AC: Well, I was born in Chicago and then I moved around quite a bit, sort of lived in many different parts of the United States. I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana… I lived all over the U.S., anywhere from Ohio to Minneapolis, a summer in Portland, [in] Arizona… A lot of this is in the book, and I sort of try to make it clear how traveling all over the U.S. kind of shaped my view of the world, and it especially made me attracted to food, because food was always this thing I could count on, I could rely on, and it was always this thing that I knew to go to when I was in a new place. More…

Photo: Matt Seppings/Flickr

Whether or not you believe in New Year’s resolutions, talk of weight loss is impossible to avoid this time of the year. Every time you turn on the TV, there’s an ecstatic Jenny Craig spokesman evangelizing, or shots of beautiful people on ellipticals at some trendy gym – as if we could all afford to sign up for some pricy plan in this economy.

BUT WAIT. What if you could make money by losing weight? What if, now that your office football pool is waning, you created a similar challenge for weight loss?

Studies have shown that these challenges can work – just ask Jacki DeAngelo, a part-time student in Boston University’s MBA program.

For her “Starting New Ventures” class last semester, DeAngelo’s assignment was to make a business plan. She chose to create a platform she describes as “eHarmony for working out” – a way for companies to offer weight loss challenges to their employees in the hope of long-term cost savings on health insurance.

When the semester was over, she had a new business plan – and a few extra pounds, she says. So DeAngelo, a marketing specialist at BU’s School of Management (SMG), decided to run a pilot program of her contest within her own office. Here’s how she did it – and how you can, too. More…

Healthy eating? (Photo: philcampbell/Flickr)

I always enjoy eating well-made, rich, flavorful foods (read: something dipped in chocolate). Still, I’ve always thought that my diet – filled with homemade foods, limited snacking and largely centered on produce – was pretty healthy, overall. That is, I did until I saw a study that made me start second-guessing my assumptions.

A recently published Consumer Reports survey found that 90 percent of Americans believe that their diet is healthy – even as 57 percent reported BMIs that qualified them as overweight or obese.

You can be heavy and eat healthily, of course – but large amounts of respondents reported unhealthy habits, from drinking sugary beverages to not weighing themselves regularly. And among Public Radio Kitchen’s followers on Twitter, where we followed your reactions to the survey, there was no shortage of skepticism regarding the health of the average American diet.

So, I decided to ask around. I started at WBUR, where I conducted my own survey. Many here were more self-critical than I imagine most Americans are. Our beautiful receptionist Pauline Sulprizio, for instance, calls herself the “carb queen.”

“I’m married to an Italian,” she said. “I wouldn’t suggest that if you want to keep your ideal weight.” More…