Spicy mixed nuts, tossed with a seasoned butter and honey blend and roasted.

Bar Nuts

It's been a minute since I've spent anytime at all in a bar whether it's around town or on vacation, but I do remember a time where there were freely available snacks available.

Mostly they were intentionally savory and salty, purportedly to encourage your thirst so you'd buy more drinks!

These days it's more about offering paid for appetizer menu items, or if there are any kind of snacky freebies, it's typically small plates of food or appetizers called tapas,

Sugared Pecans, Almonds, Cashews or Walnuts

Sugared nuts are a holiday tradition. Made with pecans, cashews, walnuts or almonds, tossed first in an egg white wash, then dredged in a sugar and spice mix and slow roasted. Add a tiny pinch of cayenne for a little kick.

Sugared Nuts

Sugared and spiced pecans, almonds, cashews and even walnuts, have been a holiday favorite in many a Southerner household for many years. It's a very simple way to dress up plain nuts to serve at a party, to give away as favors, and even to add to a holiday goodie tray or special occasion gift basket.

They are even good chopped and crumbled on top of savory dishes and salads.

Rolo Pretzel Turtles - Super Easy Turtle Candy

 

Super easy turtle candies, made from pretzels, rolo or caramel kisses, and then topped with pecan. Delicious, easy and a great holiday candy to get the children involved to help make.

Rolo Pretzel Turtles

These little Rolo Pretzel Turtles are about the easiest and most clever candy recipe anybody could have thought up. Made from mini pretzels, rolo candies or caramel kisses, and a pecan half, they are a super easy treat to do with your kids.

I always do a cookie and candy tray every year, but didn't get around to doing as much homemade as I usually do, so I let the grocery store give me a hand this year with some of it.

I even grabbed some of my favorite New Orleans creamy pralines, Aunt Sally's Sugar & Spice Pralines #ad (with hot sauce, oh yeah!) and added those to the tray. I also picked up a strawberry filled Christmas King Cake.

Apple and Walnut Pie made in layers of crushed walnuts, apples and cinnamon sugar.

Apple and Walnut Pie

I had some apples to use up and considered doing a good ole old fashioned apple pie but I settled on doing this Apple & Walnut Pie instead. This is actually an old Slavonian recipe that is intended to be made as a slab pie in an oblong dish and cut up into squares, but I had some ready-made Pillsbury pie crusts in the fridge that also needed to be used, so I decided to adapt it for a regular pie pan instead.

I also thought I would use the thin slicing blade on my food processor this time in order to slice the apples real thin (chip), but honestly, I wasn't real stoked up about the results. I should have known better to be honest, because I much more prefer texture to my apples and chipping them takes that away.

Chocolate cake mix with marshmallows, sweetened coconut, sliced almonds, butter, chocolate chips make Almond Joy Cake, a fabulous and well loved candy bar cake.

Almond Joy Cake

Almond Joy Cake is one of the most popular of the doctored up cake mix cakes and it's no wonder really. Chocolate cake, topped with a layer of gooey marshmallow and coconut cream, that is topped with a creamy layer of chocolate and almonds, and more crunchy almonds on top - it's really rich and decadent I promise ya.