Happy Hour Snacks

Happy Hour Snacks is a go-to guide to simple, delicious food to share in the looser, lazier and louder comfort of your own home. Containing 80 moreish recipes, this cookbook is about making bites with less utensils, more shortcuts, and with a drink in hand.

Experience the shared joy of effortless entertaining with recipes that encourage everyone at the table to get involved. Learn how to shuck oysters, make an easy fresh pasta and graze on great-tasting dishes such as Lazy man'oushe, 'Nduja with super honey and Kimchi garlic bread. Chapters are split into snack cravings: You're a bit salty (salt), The spice and smoke show (spice and smoke), How good is acid? (zest and tang), Cheese sleaze (cheese) and Afters, always. (liquor-based desserts) with options to do a little more, or even less, plus Batch cocktails to keep glasses full.

Pick your level of time commitment ('quickie', 'minor investment' or 'go the distance'), pour up the drink pairing and feel free to use a knife, scissors, or just your hands. We're using pre-made ingredients, submitting to sticky fingers and are really just here for a good old time. We're entertaining your way – hey, go you.

About the Author

Born in Australia, with a culinary career launched in London, Bec Vrana Dickinson has worked across a variety of food-based roles. Completing a diploma at Leith's School of Food & Wine and spanning stints in New York to London, her experiences have ranged from food styling to photography and writing to working as a chef in restaurants and in catering. Writing her first cookbook Love Your Lunches (2016, Hardie Grant) led Bec further into editorial work, including ghost-writing and food editing Maura O'Connell Foley's acclaimed Irish cookbook My Wild Atlantic Kitchen to senior recipe development and copywriting for HelloFresh. Currently based in Sydney, Australia, Bec works across projects ranging from the intricacies of pasta to waste-wise cooking.