A low-stress guide to date night dinner

As January bled into February, a reader sent me a question that landed somewhere between practical and existential: “My husband and I cook most of our meals at home, for a variety of reasons surrounding cost and health. That will be the case this year for Valentine’s Day, too, because of our work schedules. How can we make Valentine’s Day, or any date night at home, feel different when we already cook at home so much?”

I read it and thought: Ah yes. The curse of the domestically competent.