What’s more magical than spending the holidays with your significant other? Aside from one of you being an actual magician, I'd suggest conjuring up a little culinary charm and eating the South’s most romantic comfort foods with your boo. From cocktails to dinner, desserts and more, here’s a list of recommendations and recipes from the Southern Kitchen collection that'll make for rapturous holiday dining.

Run Rudolph Run Cocktail
The only drink more romantic than wine is sparkling wine. Just doctor yours up with a little anise, sugar, kosher salt and a few more add-ins, and you’ll have at least two flutes full of a perfect holiday sipper for proposing a toast, or other ideas...
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Ginger Jelly Candy
Sugar and spice; that’s what these chewy niblets are made of. Make these as a sweet starter, and play a little Christmas R&B while you’re at it.
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Oysters with Muscadine Mignonette
By now you’ve probably heard that oysters are famous for being aphrodisiacs, apparently due to amino acids that affect hormones, or something science-y like that. Whatever — just share a dozen with your sexy Santa and see what happens.
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Strawberry Spinach Salad with Pecans and Blue Cheese
It’s gorgeous on the eyes, delicate and simultaneously decadent on the palate, with a balance of sweetness and nuttiness. Doesn't that sound exactly like your better half?
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Linguine in Spicy Chipotle Cream Sauce With Seared Sea Scallops
First of all, pasta. Second of all, seafood in a creamy, spicy sauce. Third of all, is it getting warm in here (or is that just the adobo)?
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Grilled Lamb Chops with Rosemary and Thyme
There’s definitely something romantic about slowly devouring a little red meat with the one you love. Lamb is a bit softer than steak, and the herb marinade adds sensory appeal as well as seasoning. Just remember to have a couple mints nearby — it’s a little garlicky!
Get the recipeTruffled Mac & Cheese
Sometimes sexiness comes from within. Make yourself feel good from the inside with one of the South’s most loved dishes of all time. Show your significant other that you share the same level of devotion in your relationship … by serving her or him a delicious forkful of love (mac and cheese is love, BTW), and savor the flavor together. It also reminds you that love is sometimes cheesy.
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Chocolate Snowcap Cookies
These bite-sized cocoa cookies are frosted with powdered sugar, giving them a flurry-fied appearance that’ll make you wanna snuggle up even while they’re still warm from the oven. And warm chocolate, to our knowledge, has never in its history ruined a romantic night.
Get the recipeRed Velvet Cupcakes
Just looking at red velvet cake makes you wanna fall in love, doesn’t it? You could always share a slice with someone if you’d rather make a cake, but with cupcakes you can do that little arm-twist-feed-my-boo move they always do in the movies.
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Bread Pudding French Toast
On “The Sweetest Taboo,” Sade sings, “Every day is Christmas, and every night is New Year’s Eve.” You are probably not Sade, but you can definitely have a holiday taboo just as sweet with this breakfast-in-bed treat. Besides, even if you’re not a Sade fan (which you really should be), what about “bread pudding French toast” doesn’t sound like a romantic song?
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Anne Byrn’s Hot Spiced Wine
Wine is already the universal drink of seduction, but warming it up and adding a little cinnamon and nutmeg is sure to heat things up even further. Make this the finishing touch.
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Hot Spiced Wine photo: Danielle Atkins
Red Velvet Cupcakes photo: F_A (Flickr)