Three Ideas for a Fun Hang
Plus my 2025 treat box
Since the both of us live quite a distance from our immediate families, Vincent and I often talk about how what we miss most is the ease of “unstructured time” spent with them. Unstructured time, hanging out, being together — the gist of it is that there’s a loose kind of invitation, and only the bare bones of a pre-set agenda.
Evidently hanging out is an activity in decline, and looking back on my past year of work, I noticed that one of my most popular newsletters was about how to host a dinner party with minimal mess (the idea being that if there’s less burden on hosting, we’re all more likely to do it).
So to pick up on that piece, my offering today, as we look to the holidays and resolutions for the new year, is loosen the rules even further. Below are three ideas to help a make a hang happen. There are also three printable recipes tucked in, for what I’m putting in this year’s holiday treat boxes. I hope you enjoy — and let me know how you make hangs happen in your life.
1. Make Holiday Treats Together
My mom and grandmother used to set aside an entire day to bake off Christmas cookies, which would see them through the entirety of the holidays. There were Grandma’s “funeral cookies” (a sugar cookie that yields dozens and dozens, and has such a light, delicate texture), the box brownies she studded with York Peppermint Patties, my mom’s shortbread, and also her salty-sweet nut-based bars that I’m still struggling to find the recipe for.
As I’m in the process of making treat boxes (above) to share with some of my neighbors and friends, I realize how much work it is! Mom and Grandma had it figured out, splitting the effort and making a day of it with someone. Project baking makes hanging out easy and productive.
Being a bit more of a snack person than a cookie person, my treat boxes skew savory, with some of my favorites that I’ve shared in this newsletter: Buttery, Spicy Maple Nuts, Nut & Seed Crackers with Dates, and my go-to Biscotti. Below are the printable recipes, which I’ve shared before but tweaked slightly below. And if you’re interested in how I packaged them up, I used these gift boxes and these cellophane baggies.
2. Choose a Cookbook to Organize Around
This is really just an idea for dinner party, but one of the great activities of my twenties and thirties was a cookbook club that three friends and I did regularly. It started because we were all such fans of Laurie Colwin. After we exhausted the Home Cooking and More Home Cooking recipes, we moved onto other cookbooks, trying everything from Alice B. Toklas and Mollie Katzen to Amanda Hesser and Joshua McFadden.
It was a terrific way to experience a cookbook more thoroughly, divvying up the work so that everyone cooks a different dish, and then gets to sample all the fruits of the labor. It also provides the opportunity to try something more ambitious (eg, hand-pulled noodles) and to take risks (eg, vintage cookbooks, cheffy restaurant books).
The idea is that everyone reads the book, too, and since the cookbook is a focal point, this makes for an easy way to widen the social circle. You’ve got a ready topic for conversation.
Here are a few new and old books from my stack that have been great to organize such a dinner party around — fun food and recipes; excellent, immersive writing; and lots to learn and discuss. Your local library is always terrific resource, as they have cookbooks in their stacks, too.
Prune: A Cookbook by Gabrielle Hamilton
Buvette by Jody Williams
3. Bring a Game!
We had some new friends over for dinner a few months ago, and after the plates were cleared, one of the guests set out Code Names. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. I never really considered myself to be much of a game person, and in that moment, my feeling was that the night was winding down.
But when you’re widening the social circle and gathering with new friends for the first few times, it can be a lot to keep the conversation going. An activity to fixate on, and especially a silly game, helps everyone to relax and just relieves a lot of that kind of stress.
When I see Vincent’s family, it’s become commonplace to play a few rounds of Up and Down the River (also called “Oh, Hell” according to my dad) after dinner. Monopoly Deal and Spoons is fun when I see my nieces. And even though it is not a game I ever excel at, I often have to indulge my Dad with a couple rounds of Yahtzee, because he always wins.
So the next time you head to a friend’s house for dinner, throw a deck of cards or your favorite game into your tote bag.
Happy snacking, cooking, and hanging! —LV
The link to the gift box and cellophane baggies go to a lovely Yahtzee game. I especially love the gift box and would love a link. Thanks!
This is my baking week, so thanks for timely inspiration! Can you take a look at the cracker recipe? I can’t seem to find instructions for when to add the dates….