Girly night snacky food

Chips and dips; pizza (either normal size or mini pizzas); popcorn (better if watching a film); chocolate

If you like cooking i can give you some fab party type food, pretty easy, very moreish. but if youre after chips and dip type things then no ?

I love cooking, and am a 'good cook' but am not all that innovative for some reason these days, lack of sleep.., so yes yes please I would love your suggestions please Nick,

Thanks Orly, the nachos do cover chips and dips, I really wanted to do something nicer as my Best friend is always the one who entertains for everyone else and they rarely get asked anywhere for reasons I can't fathom, so I would like to spoil her. I can fathom it actually, she makes it all seem so effortless and have a massive house and kitchen people just don't think she'd like a break.

Nibbly food can take as long to prepare as a meal.....we did a brunch on Friday and it took all morning to get ready!!

If it was me, I would make something the day before which you can whack into the oven or reheat with minimal fuss such as chili and rice. I have a great chicken recipe that always works (chicken, broccoli, sauce, breadcrumbs) or a really nice lamb macaroni dish that did the rounds a couple of years ago.

If you definitely want the nibbly route then smoked salmon on bread with caper, onion and horseradish, quiche, spicy cocktail sausages, giant prawns in sauce served on individual lettuce leaves....etc etc.

We do tend to go in for salmon blinis, devils on horseback (the prunes in bacon), so want to move on from them. Also croustades and bloody mary tomatoes.

Not afraid of putting some work into it. Actually it would be a good opportunity to try out new party food without falling on my face at a party.

Cheese board (with grapes, celery and nice pot of chutney) would be nice. I like to do a antipasti latter of nibbly stuff of parma ham, nice mozzarella, olives, artichokes, other bits you can find in jars! A little bowl of chorizo with chickpeas and spinach (sizzle some garlic in a pan, thrown in chooped up chorizo, chuck in the tin of chickpeas, leave to warm for a bit, chuck in your spinach). Rye bread topped with horeradish and creme fraiche mixed together and a slice of smoked salmon.

I making myself hungry!

Thanks Tilly bean and Poshpaws. Antipasto stuff is a nice idea. Salmon always creeps in, perhaps I should not resist..

Actually I know why I've lost my innovation, the last year and a half, until December we were on such a tight budget and feeding many mouths (students etc) I tended to lapse back to big, cheap, filling stuff, Nais Goreng, Macaroni pie etc, once a week to Asda instead of round Waitrose every day like before. Now we can relax a bit it's nice to be able to try new things again. 2 small children to cook round means I just go gung ho to get it done and so I can flop on the sofa after all the madness of the day. So yes..bring it on.

Ok i ll post some things in a little while - am a slave to dough at the moment and it needs my attention ?

Get a pack of ready rolled puff pastry, and let it get to room temp for an hour. Roll it to a square, about the thickness of a pound coin, then cut it in half, so you get two rectangles of equal size. Put one aside.

Take the other, long side in front of you so its side to side on the long way, and leaving a centimetre all the way around, lay strips of proscuitto along it, butted up to one another, so the whole piece is covered. Sprinkle grated parmesan all over, not so thick that its like a carpet, but don’t be mean with it. Grind some pepper over. Egg wash the bare edges.

Take your other piece of pastry and lay it on top. Roll it down hard, so its pretty thin, but don’t go mad, you don’t want the ham to come through. Then with a sharp knife, cut down from top to bottom into strips, about a centimetre wide. Youre cutting down the short side, to give ou a good number of strips. When you ve done that, twist them slightly, or a lot, upto you. Stick them on a tray, then in the oven at 190 for about 8 mins – but check on them, you want them to be brown but not burnt. Gorgeous with a gin and tonic.

Another one I love is get some stale bread and cut circles of it with whatever cutter you have, I d say minimum diameter about 8ish cm. take a piece of mozzarella, a piece of proscuitto or similar, and about a fingernail of anchovy, and place on one disc. Then put the other on top and press the edges down really hard. Dip them in beaten egg and fry on both sides til their a golden colour.

With both of those you can serve a jar of baby artichokes, some decent olives and maybe some manchego and some quince.

Rather than nachos you could do a multi layered taco dip. Buy/make some taco seasoning and mix it in with a tub of sour cream, put that in the bottom of a deep plate. Mash up some avocado, mix with a little lemon juice and place that over the top. Cover in grated cheese. Dice a tomato and white onion and scatter over the top. Spoon onto corn chips.

I'm so out of my depth on this thread, aren't I ? ?

Hope you and your friend have a good night.

One of my favourite snacky foods is potato wedges & ribs. Ribs are so easy to do & highly underrated IMO. And the wedges would be great with dips ?

In fact, that is what I had for dinner last night with my H whilst watching Les yeux sans visage. Not very girly though ?

Great - nice and easy, brill, thanks very much. I have some nice puff pastry in the freezer.

Thanks everyone so much. x