Welcome to the column to go to when you’re a broke, tired college student in a dorm. Valentine’s Day is coming up. As mentioned, you’re broke. You can’t afford to take your partner out to eat. Flowers end up dying. Chocolates are out of style. You need something new, but still in theme, to give that love of your life, crush or Netflix and chill buddy. The answer is in this column: A pepperoni bouquet. Something new, but still flowerlike, and another thing that happens to be edible in your room tonight.

A close-up shot of roses made of pepperoni. (Contributed/Mind Over Munch)

What you’ll need is: one pack of pepperoni (or another circular cured meat such as pastrami), two cans of crescent rolls, 16 slices of sliced cheese, folded in half and separated (I used provolone and American white cheese), half a cup of pizza sauce (or another of your choice) and cupcake papers.

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Open up one of your cans of crescent rolls and lay flat on a parchment paper. Knead the seams together. Then, cut longways into four long strips of dough. Put four cheese halves on the dough strips. Then, spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce over the cheese. Finally, put the pepperoni slices on the sauce, more towards the top. Make sure they are overlapping slightly. Now, you roll them up and place the pepperoni side up into a cupcake holder in a muffin pan.

You’ll do this with your second can of crescent rolls as well.

Once all of the rolls are rolled and in the muffin tin, bake for 15 minutes, longer if you prefer. The muffins should look like roses. Optionally when they’re fresh, you can glaze in garlic butter and sprinkle with parmesan. Place in an aesthetically pleasing way to hand and display to your love.  

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