Romance novels create this illusion that men show their love with some kind of mandatory checklist of so-called romantic gestures. The bubble bath with rose petals! The candlelit dinner for two! The long walks on the beach!

Well, Carrie Underwood is busting that myth.

And I think she speaks for most women when she says she is more likely to get turned on by a man emptying a dishwasher.

In the special American Idol issue of People magazine, Underwood talks about what she and husband Mike Fisher do to keep the passion.

Date nights? Yes.

“We’ll go to dinner, and it will be nice,” she said.

Then she gets to the heart of the kind of romance that she loves the most.

“Honestly," she revealed, "I’m the kind of person that’s like, 'Aw, you changed the light bulb in the bathroom. Thank you.’ Or ‘You took the trash out. Aw. Oh, my gosh, you emptied the dishwasher, yay! I don’t have to do it now.’

"I like that stuff. Everyday stuff.”

Those little random acts of romance mean more to her, because then she knows Fisher is thinking of what it means to her.

“Somebody’s thinking, 'I’m going to do this' … gives me free time,” Underwood said.