HALLOWEEN AT AMBERFELL — EAT

Picky Bits After Dark

Dinner was cancelled due to a more interesting arrangement of tiny plates.

There are evenings that require dinner. And there are evenings that require cheese, something warm from the oven, very good crisps and at least three little bowls nobody technically needed.

This is the latter.

Picky Bits After Dark is not a menu. It is permission to put a frankly unnecessary number of small things on the table and call the whole arrangement dinner.

If there are only two of you, naturally prepare enough for six.

A large wooden board of picky bits - bread, cheese, a green dip, wraps, meatballs, warm bites and skewers, set out for the evening.

How Much Are We Actually Cooking?

Be honest. There are no prizes for making pastry from scratch.

Your Picky Bits Prescription

Choose how much you’re actually cooking above to see the prescription.

Surely That’s Enough?

It is. Which is precisely why we should add one more thing.

FROM MY TABLE

An Actual Saturday Night at Mine

This is what picky bits usually looks like at ours: no theme, no careful menu planning and absolutely no sensible relationship between the number of people eating and the amount of food on the table.

There will usually be bread. There will definitely be cheese. Something has gone into the oven, several packets have been opened, and one of us has suggested one last thing approximately four times.

It is one of my favourite ways to spend a Saturday night at home.

Esther holding the large round wooden picky-bits board, set with bread, cheese, dips and small plates.

Make It After Dark

Halloween food does not need plastic eyeballs to know what month it is.

THE LIGHT: Turn off the big light. Candles do more for a bowl of olives than any themed serving platter ever could.
THE BOARD: Dark wood, warm ceramics, little bowls, rumpled linen. Let the food provide the colour.
THE FOOD: Baked cheese, dark chutney, figs, grapes, warm bread, roasted nuts, something crisp, something sticky and at least one thing straight from the oven.
THE COLOUR: Deep red, burnt orange, blackberry, cream, brown and candlelight. Halloween without requiring a single fluorescent green dip.
THE ONE WINK: One slightly theatrical detail is enough. A dark taper candle. An old key. A tiny pumpkin. Then stop before the table starts wearing a costume.

Atmosphere first. Novelty food a very distant second.

The Picky Bits Rules

01The big light stays off.
02Packets may be opened. Packaging may not remain on the table.
03Cheese counts as a course.
04Tiny bowls improve almost everything.
05There is always room for one more thing.

I don’t make the rules. Except, once again, apparently I do.

THE FOOD IS SORTED

Now We Need Something to Watch

The board is full, the candles are lit and nobody is cooking anything else. Excellent.

Choose Tonight’s Movie →Browse The Great October Watchlist

Something for the speakers: Amberfell After Dark — A Spooky Playlist