Mood Food

We like to believe that certain foods increase our libido—hence, all those boxes of chocolate tempting us on February 14. But what if you could better the romantic odds with two aphrodisiac foods—cocoa (boosting feel-good brain chemicals) and chili peppers (it's the fiery molecule capsaicin). The spicy-sweet combo is not as strange as it sounds. Spice giant McCormick came out with a gourmet cocoa-chili-pepper blend last year and called it one of its top flavor pairings, suggesting using it in chili as well as chocolate cake. And Atwater's makes a Sweet Heat Aztec Brownie (pictured, $2.50) with unsweetened chocolate and ground ancho chili peppers from Baltimore-based tsp spices. (If you're a do-it-yourselfer, you'll find the recipe on the spice company's website, tspspices.com.) Now, that's amore.