Your excellent profile, photos, and introduction letters have now paid off. You found a girl/guy that has piqued your interest, and you have been emailing back and forth for a while. That led to a couple of phone calls and now the two of you have planned your first date. However, let’s discuss a few things before you go out.

Here are three recipes from courtesy chef, media personality and food publicist Karine Backhoum, which are perfect for winter. We hope you take the time to try them out!

As the holiday winds down, think you can eat one more fried delectable? I offer you these tasty and simple homemade doughnuts. They puff up light and airy making it all the easier to scarf down more! Don’t worry, there is always next week to get back on the diet!

“…just before my membership ended, I met my Mr. Right.”

From wedding registry re-gifts passed down from the newly married to that ever-so-useful stash of Starbucks certificates, regardless of religious denomination or region, when it comes to gift giving singles might as well be on the receiving end of a bag of fake chocolate gelt. The holidays should be magical for everyone, so in the spirit of fairness, SingleEdition.com has assembled this Chanukah Gift Guide for singles to pass along to friends and family!

At your next Chanukah party, why stop at topping the fried crispy beauties with just applesauce or sour cream? Have a latke bar. Place a large platter of latkes out and add bowls of toppings. Let your guests customize their own latkes. Forget the stress and supplement the latke bar with store bought goodies as well. You can add purchased chutney, salsa, caviar, chopped onions, chopped chives and fresh herbs.

“Ethan knew that I was the one for him the first time I kissed him…”

“Rodrigo had just joined JDate in an attempt to meet a ‘nice Jewish girl.’ Just my luck, I was his first and last date!”

I recently fell in love. No, not with a match made on JDate (I am married) but with a relatively little known ingredient. I am absolutely smitten with Jerusalem artichokes. I am using them in EVERYTHING. I had toyed with them on menus in my restaurants and have written about them in my latest book, Jewish Slow Cooker Recipes (John Wiley and Sons), but I have really fallen head over heels this season with these ugly ducklings of the vegetable world. (There is a lesson in this for everyone on JDate!) I am putting them to use in soups, gratins and purees, and next week for Chanukah I am putting them in my latkes – stay tuned for that recipe next week. Yum!

“I could not believe it, but Rabbi Finkelstein did not simply brush how the couple met under the carpet; rather, he made their meeting part of his speech. Rabbi Finkelstein emphasized that it was God’s hands that assisted the two in finding each other through the modern day miracle and venue of JDate.”