I love all holidays, but I especially love Valentine’s Day. To stretch out the fun and make the occasion last, I create a day-long celebration by indulging my sweet-tooth at every meal!  It’s Valentine’s Day, so calories don’t count.

Read Valentine's Day Cocktails

Since St. Valentine was Italian, I treat myself to all sorts of Italian sweets and easy-as-pie recipes, all ready in well under 30 minutes.

Breakfast:
I start my day of sweets in the morning. I use pandoro, a star-shaped buttery vanilla Italian bread-cake that’s available in supermarkets at this time of year, as the pan-toast for my fried egg. I call it a "Starry Eyed Egg," and the combo is just delicious (see recipe below). It’s like semi-instant French toast, but with less mess, less fuss and more taste!

I then plop a piece of Italian chocolate called Baci (which means kisses)  into my coffee for delicious hazelnut mocha coffee in an instant. Mmmm.

Starry Eyed Egg

Makes 1 Serving

Ingredients:

1 slice of pandoro, store-bought Italian cake

1 teaspoon butter

1 large egg

Preparation:

1. Using a cookie cutter or wine glass cut a circle out of the center of the bread.

2. Melt the butter in a small frying pan and put the pandoro in the pan. Crack the egg in the center hole and cook until done.

Lunch:
For Valentine’s Day lunch, I make my love and I sandwiches made with panettone. Panettone is a dome-shaped bread-cake with raisins and candied oranges from Italy that’s big at Christmas time, but still available throughout the Spring. The fruity-sweet panettone is terrific for making sandwiches with peanut butter and bananas, cold cuts, or just toasted with slices of cheese (pictured above).