Bar Night
Marcona Almonds, Clueless and Trifle
I love bar snacks. Bowl after bowl of salty popcorn while drinking a pitcher of beer. Pickled eggs with differently hued whites, colour corresponding to flavour. A packet of patatine (potato chips) obliged at every bar in Italy. Briny and perfect gildas, morsels of olives, anchovies and guindilla peppers in Spain. Corn nuts. Peanuts.
My love of bar snacks guided an evening with my friends. Hosting a bar themed night was epic. I made hot wings, Chex mix, pickled eggs and pizza, and bought corn nuts, popcorn, and Sichuan peanuts, as well as a few high life six packs. I asked all my guests to bring beer.
Providing bar snacks as a host is easy. The ratio of homemade to purchased bar snacks is up to you, but both options can be achieved with ease and deliciousness. Beer as the drink of the night is cheap, and if everyone brings a six pack, your evening becomes a beer bacchanal. Better than going to a bar! Bring the bar home.
For a slightly fancy bar snack, one that works for bar night, or whenever you have people over for a couple drinks, here is my recipe for toasted marcona almonds with sage.
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6-10 sage leaves
1/2 cup marcona almonds
maldon salt
Method:
Add olive oil to a small pan. Add sage leaves and the marcona almonds in an even layer.
Heat over medium low for about 10 minutes, until almonds become a fawn colour. Stir almonds every once in a while.
Using a slotted spoon, remove almonds and sage from oil, onto a plate lined with paper towel. Sprinkle with flaky salt. Let cool.
Keep in an air tight container. Enjoy with a beverage!
This is the recipe I used for pickled eggs. Nothing like the dusty jars of organisms in formaldehyde that the words “pickled eggs” often conjure. Spicy and tangy, these eggs are a fridge treasure.
Cookbook Club
I simply adore Party Tricks by Anna Hezel. Her cookbook thesis is the same as mine on bar night: just have people over for drinks and snacks, the food can be fun and easy. Your repertoire of “party tricks.” For bar night, I made her brown sugar and rosemary Chex mix recipe. Sweet and slightly rich, it was nice offset from the other salty or spicy bar snacks. And yes…The bowl was empty at the end of the night, babe! Some of her recipes are more substantial, but the execution is always simple, with an emphasis on dishes that can be prepared almost completely before the party. To pull something out of the oven right as the clock is striking guest o’clock (Cher Horowitz’s classic hostessing advice), and to finish it with a flourish in front of them, truly makes one feel like they are pulling a rabbit out of a hat. And an edible one at that.
Popcorn
Even though my apartment gets absurdly hot with the oven on, I am still living my Cher Horowitz fantasy every time I have people over. The payoff is so worth it. Heaven is the scent of chicken wings and pizza wafting through your home. Or, go the Clueless route and make chocolate chip cookies.
I recently baked this Emergency chocolate chip cookie recipe from Ed Kimber to take on a plane (plane treats are necessary). The recipe yields one big cookie and is easily doubled or tripled, whether you urgently need a plane cookie, a cookie for you and your guest, or just a cookie to scent your apartment.
Sexy Little Snack
Jam season is just about here!
I have been going through my last few jars of 2025 jam in order to make way for this year’s preserves! These are a few jam applications in particular I adore.
Trifle: À la my latest video! I was gifted a jar of strawberry fennel jam and used it for a strawberry jam, lemon cream, olive oil cake and sherry trifle.
To finish off the strawberry fennel jam jar I made a fruit tart - sweet pastry dough baked off, then topped with jam, lemon pastry cream and strawberries. My trifle ingredients, remixed.
Crostata alla marmellata: the classic Italian dessert/breakfast/snack/sweet! Pasta frolla (Italian shortcrust pastry) filled with my last two jars of grape jam, encased in a lattice.
On the Left: Strawberries and cream tart. On the Right: Grape crostata.
Ciao! XOXO!!