Guys, you have run out of ideas.

In my run through the dating scene, I have been on all the dates that you can possibly come up with. Catching a new movie, bowling, trying a fancy steak house, getting coffee, riding the Ferris wheel, going dancing—they all tend to blend together into a soup of first kisses, expensive dinners, and nights waiting by the phone.

So how can we break this mundane cycle? Make your next outing memorable by treating your significant other to a homemade meal. It doesn’t need to be elaborate—just heartfelt. Cooking a meal for someone says a lot of things: from “I’ve taken the time to perfect a useful skill” to “I want to share with you something I’ve made myself.” Melt your date’s heart with epicurean expertise using these top five cooking basics. From Maria Skold, pro Minneapolis cook, we bring you these tips to spice up any evening with style and savoir-faire for a home cooked meal.

Make an omelet: We’ve all been there. You throw the eggs and toppings into a pan and no matter how hard you try, you get scrambled eggs with bits of lunchmeat and cheese. Keep three things in mind: don’t overstuff, keep the heat at medium, and fold the eggs like a burrito—not a taco. It’s breakfast made simple, but food that’s good enough for any time of day.

Boil Pasta: Grandma was wrong about pasta. Never, ever, rinse pasta after draining. Boiling pasta releases sticky starches, enabling the sauce to cling to each noodle. Remember to add a dash of salt to your water. Says Skold, “Adding salt makes the dish go from being ‘eh, it’s okay,’ to ‘this is delicious.” It’s the only chance you’ll get to infuse flavor throughout the entire noodle.

Sauté Vegetables: Frozen vegetables are cheap and handy, but beware! Unattended microwaving leads to mushy peas and anemic broccoli. Instead, lightly sauté your fresh veggies in a pan with oil to release their leguminous goodness.

Deglazed pan sauce: To make any meal complete, add butter and flour to the hot pan used to make the meal. Once the mixture has turned golden brown, pour some wine over the mixture to release all the yummy bits that stuck to the pan while cooking. Don’t forget to tell your date that you’re “deglazing the pan,” the culinary lingo is sure to impress. Stir until smooth and prepare to be complimented.

Cook Steak: Is there anything more manly in this world than eating steak? Whether you prefer T-Bone or filet mignon, steak is best cooked simply. No need to gob on the A1—all you need is a little salt and pepper. Skold suggests using a stainless steel skillet (ditch the Teflon). Let the pan get screaming hot on the stovetop, then drizzle the surface with a little cooking oil before applying the meat. A steak will lift free of the pan when one side is seared, so just flip once. For any doneness above medium rare, finish the meat in a hot oven.

It’s no secret that food and pleasure are inextricably linked, so you’re sure to please with these new tricks. But like any skill, cooking takes practice. As Skold recommends, “The first couple things you make won’t be too great. Just pick a few dishes to make your signature thing. Eventually, you’ll be golden.”

By Cristeta Boarini

Several weeks ago, I got stuck behind a woman at Target whose bill totaled $1200.00. She handed over a giant box of coupons, and after about a half an hour of the clerk running them through the scanner, her bill was down fewer than 200 bucks. The clerk looked like he was going to cry.

“What in the world?” I thought/questioned. “I want a piece of that action! I want to make a clerk fear for his job after I’ve come through the line! I want in.”

I watched shows about people who saved so much money couponing, they retired to Tahitian villas and hired manservants to feed them off solid gold plates.

I read websites about couponers who had to rent extra storage space and buy multiple deep-freezers and U-hauls to accommodate all the Axe body spray and Green Giant frozen vegetables they got for free. For free.  But how to do it? Double the what? Stack the what?? Send in the what? Help!

“I know! I’ll have a party,” I thought. “People have parties for all sorts of reasons. Why, there are candle parties and makeup parties and cleaning parties.   I’ll have a party where I invite some friends to my apartment to listen to a couponing expert who will teach us all the secrets and special code words of the couponing world! I’m a genius!”

You know how they say if you think you’re crazy, you’re probably not actually crazy? I believe that goes double for thinking you’re a genius—literally in my case–I once got so caught up in an on-line
Mensa test, I was late for work.

Anyway, I calmed down and realized that sounded about as fun as an advanced calculus party (no offense to those of you who enjoy advanced calculus in your free time).

I still want to save money, but let’s get real, I don’t have time to be driving all over town to save two dollars, nor do I have the space for an extra deep freezer or case of Axe body spray. And I don’t have any friends. That was a joke. I have plenty of room for a deep freezer. My point is, I decided to wade in slowly and not immediately try to get cast on the next episode of Extreme Couponing.

I bought a Sunday paper. I clipped out a dozen coupons from three different stores in reasonable proximity to each other, and set aside the afternoon for my shopping trip.

In store number one, I got the hairy eyeball from an old man parked right in front of the nutrition bars, for which I had a 2-for-1. There were literally 2 bars left. His message was clear: Beat it, sister. I’ve been doing this since you were knee high to a grasshopper and I got here first. So I didn’t get those, but I did score a 48-pack of Claritin with a 5 dollar off coupon. 5 dollars off! That’s impressive. If only I had allergies, I’d have been feeling pretty smug.

In store number two, I got all the items I had coupons for, then had the embarrassing experience of realizing in the check-out lane I had 2 bags of Oreos, a jumbo pack of toilet paper and a bottle of 409. All the makings for a festive Sunday evening.

I never made it to store number three, because I left the coupons for it on my kitchen counter.

I’ll keep trying, but obviously there are some bugs I need to work out of the system.

By Katie McCollow