CHOCOLATE LOVERS’ GIFT GUIDE

Chocolate is a favorite treat throughout the year, but the month of February makes us crave it a little more. With so many decadent recipes and creative ideas, it’s a great Valentine’s Day gift for the ones we love. Plus, everything tastes better with a little chocolate.

1. CHOCOLATE SUGAR LIP SCRUB

A little scrub goes a long way, so why not throw in two of our favorite ingredients, chocolate and sugar? The lifestyle blog Live Laugh Rowe shows us how chocolate is not only delicious to eat but is also full of antioxidants and will rid you of those dry lips during cold weather.

2. CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT SPREAD

A rich addition to fruit, crackers or toast, this spread is a perfect gift to share. A combination of chocolate, hazelnuts, sugar, butter and cream featured on the website Epicurious, the treat also can be spooned over ice cream or swirled into brownies.

3. HOT CHOCOLATE SPOONS

With only three simple ingredients — sugar, cocoa powder and chocolate chips — these handmade chocolate molds from the Adventures of Cake Girl blog will keep you warm all winter long.

4.CHOCOLATE ALMOND BARK

Chocolate bark is one of the easiest and prettiest gifts you can make. There are no rules and really no recipe required. Bon Appetit has a recipe for a salty, sweet bark, but feel free to sprinkle in your choice of nuts, dried fruit or candy pieces.

5.CHOCOLATE CREAM SHOOTERS

Whether you need a cocktail or a mocktail, chocolate cream shooters will win your heart. Food Network shares one of its favorite chocolate drinks filled with rich chocolate syrup, half and half, and a shot of seltzer water to make it foam.

6. CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER PRETZEL BALLS

Two pantry staples, peanut butter and pretzels, make it easy to whip these up for a Valentine’s Day celebration. This bite-size candy was created with the perfect amount of salty, sweet and crunch. It will be hard to have just one.

7. CHOCOLATE CARAMELS

These little gems fall somewhere between the chewiest caramels and decadent dark chocolate fudge. If you are a lover, play around with the different intensities and choose your favorite brand to make these bite-size confections your very own. FIND THE RECIPES at advocatemag.com or inkfoods.com.

This month, show your Valentine just how much you care. Nothing says “I love you” more than a pizza from Greenville Avenue Pizza Company. Late in and Delivery!

Now open until 1 A.M. on Monday nights.

NEW! Online ordering! Our famous homemade pies, cakes, cookies and muffins can now be made to order in any quantity for take out!

The

Winter blues? Warm up with house-made burgers, or pizza by My Family’s Pizza, at the Pour House. Specialty beer and cocktails until 2am. Open for lunch Mon-Fri 11AM

In The Age Of Technology

WHEN INTERNET DATING GOES RIGHT (AND WRONG)

With each advance in technology and communication comes the broadening of romantic opportunity. Neighborhood couples share the ups and downs of seeking love, courtesy of contemporary innovations.

STORY BY BRITTANY NUNN — PHOTOS BY DANNY FULGENCIO

But Seriously

Lakewood neighbor Karina Riedle wasn’t taking the whole online dating thing even a little bit seriously.

“To me, online dating still had that 38-year-old virgin living in the basement of mama’s house while protecting the world from zombies via an Xbox feeling to it,” she explains.

And who doesn’t hate awkward first dates?

But one night while alone and bored in her apartment with “too much cheap champagne and too little Lifetime movies,” Riedle decided to give the online dating site OKCupid a shot and began filling out the questionnaire:

On a typical Friday night I am: Reliving my parents’ divorce. What I’m doing with my life:

Whiskey

So, she was shocked when dozens of messages began rolling in, she remembers.

“In that moment, online dating became a man buffet for me,” she jokes. “I could browse as long as I wanted. I could go back for seconds. I could actually go out with some of these guys while keeping the internet as my very own sneeze guard.”

She’d already come this far, so she started arranging drink dates. She didn’t commit to dinner, and she always paid for her share. Although she was an active participant, she still wasn’t totally sold on the practice.

“I was just fascinated by the idea of selling yourself on a screen to live up to your own words in person,” Riedle says.

“I had some terrible dates and some notso-terrible dates. I never heard from some boys again, and a few turned into lifelong friends. But three months in, I was finally tired of talking about myself and having to identify strangers in bars by the length of their beards and/or pompadours.”

But before shutting down her account, there was one last guy she wanted to meet — Jeremy Siler. They’d been messaging but had yet to meet because he’d been away on business in Nuremberg, Germany, which Riedle points out, is only 90 miles from her hometown of Augsburg.

Siler also lives in East Dallas, so he invited Riedle to a concert at the Granada Theater. Riedle suggested they meet up for drinks the week before, and she says she was neither nervous nor hopeful driving over.

Riedle recognized Siler instantly from his long, curly, dark hair and beard down to his chest. The sleeves on his bright cerulean blue, button-down cotton shirt were rolled up just enough for a feather tattoo on his forearm to peek out, Riedle noted. She, too, has a feather tattooed on her forearm.

“Nervousness swept over me as we exchanged pleasantries and ordered drinks,” she recalls. “The next few hours are a blur because the more we spoke, the more nervous I became. I could tell he was nervous, too. We eventually tabbed out and made plans for the concert.”

Unlike with her previous dates, Riedle looked forward to seeing Siler again, and they hung out a couple more times before the concert.

“He was charming, genuine, funny, smart and gorgeous, and completely unaware of it all,” she says. “By the time we were dancing and laughing at the Granada, it was all over for me. I’ve never had so much fun with anyone in my life. That was the best and hopefully last first official date I’ll ever have.”

Less than four months later they were living together in a 1937 red brick house in the middle of Lakewood. A year and a half after that, they now are talking about what adventures the next five years will hold, including possible marriage.

“I’m so glad there was nothing good on television the night I signed up for internet dating,” Riedle concludes.