The food of love

The Danish Pastry House Fine Bakery and Cafe makes a 10-inch French baguette that's about 2 1/2 inches high and slices into hearts ($2.50). The bread comes in regular wheat, whole wheat, multi-grain, and cinnamon-raisin varieties. Make kids their favorite peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the small slices, or wow adults with toasted heart-shaped crostini topped with pate or a mixture of chopped tomatoes and basil, or broil tiny open-faced grilled cheese nibbles. The bakery produces only three loaves a day, but a phone order with a day's notice (that means call today) will get you as many as you like. Can you think of a cuter way to say, "Be mine?" The Danish Pastry House Fine Bakery and Café, 330 Boston Ave., Medford, 781-396-8999, and 205 Arlington St., Watertown, 617-926-2747, danishpastryhouse.com. - RACHEL TRAVERS

In the windows framing the entrance to ChocoLee, Lee Napoli's new South End shop, a pair of oversize stainless bowls look like they're brimming with chocolate. If imagining yourself at arm's length from all that melted goodness doesn't compel you to poke your head inside the store, thoughts of Napoli's confections will. Once in, you'll find chocolate-dipped beignets ($7 for three), a special this week, or assorted handmade dark chocolate truffles ($2.25 each), including a version with an assertively salty caramel filling. Acclaimed pastry chef Napoli - who has worked at Icarus, Maison Robert, and most recently the South End Buttery - has opened the place she's long imagined, "a little closet," as she calls it, "where I can focus on doing what I like." The window dressing might be a trick of the eye, but the chocolate fixation here is for real. ChocoLee Chocolates, 83 Pembroke St., Boston, 617-236-0606. - LEIGH BELANGER

Pursuing a valentine with food can be complicated. A bowl of pasta is nice, but not exactly romantic. Food delivered in a heart-shaped box, however, should precisely communicate the message. Lola's Heart Tin ($25) is filled with Belgian chocolate and espresso cookies, each kissed on top with a nonpareil. Lola's Cookies & Treats is a Leesburg, Va., company, but Lola - a.k.a. Lorraine Hooper - grew up and learned the cookie trade here. After college and working at Boston Chipyard in Quincy Market, Hooper landed in Virginia. Recipes she uses sometimes come from family and friends up North. So her tin might say "I [heart] you" with a Boston accent. Lola's Cookie & Treats, lolacookies .com. - DARRY MADDEN

Cocoa is just one sweet, dark drink made from one of America's favorite ingredients. In "Hot Chocolate," by Fred Thompson ($12.95, Harvard Common Press), you'll find a collection of 50 recipes, including a peppery version with chili powder and honey based on the liquid chocolate Montezuma considered an aphrodisiac. Chocolate novices will learn about cacao and the difference between dark and bittersweet. If you want to be ready when the urge for a cup of hot chocolate strikes, you'll appreciate the homemade mixes and homemade marshmallows, too. Available at New England Mobile Book Fair, 82-84 Needham St., Newton Highlands, 617-527-5817, nebookfair.com; and Stir, 102 Waltham St., Boston, 617-423-7847, stirboston.com.- JEAN KRESSY