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Greetings from Read Max temporary HQ in Atlanta, Ga., and Happy Thanksgiving! In the spirit of the most fuck-ass “work-week” of the year, and the onrushing holiday-party season, today’s newsletter will be about: food.

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Two perfect party recipes

On Substack this newsletter is categorized under “technology,” which is fair enough I guess, but a significant portion of it is given over to “recommendations.” Usually these are suggestions for books to read, movies to watch, music to listen to, etc., but sometimes I enjoy giving “recommendations” for “ways to live or life”--or, as my friends and I call them, “strats.” (As in: “What’s your coffee strat?” “What’s your travel packing strat?”) This week last year I shared my bean strat (I stand by it with no major updates since last year); this year, I want to share another food-related strat: A party strat.

Now that I am an adult (40 years old), when I attend a party I like to bring something that is not a six-pack of Red Stripe and a bag of “Hal’s” chips in a black bodega bag. This is not that difficult a conundrum, really: A bottle of wine with an insouciant cartoon label, a four-pack of whatever Nice Beers are available at the store, flowers (from an actual florist), good cheese, pastries: All of these are more than acceptable host gifts, depending on time of day and other mitigating factors.

But sometimes you really want to impress upon your host your Thoughtfulness, as well as your Inborn Talent and Domestic Ease, and in this case the only option is to bring something you made yourself. But what? Presumably if you really do have Inborn Talent and a sense of ease and confidence in domestic and social situations, you already have some party-trick dip or baked good ready to whip up. But you don’t, allow me to recommend my own two go-to Social Occasion Cooked Goods, which have covered up my own lack of talent, thoughtfulness, ease, etc. time and time again.

The first is Melissa Clark’s Rosemary Shortbread, which is perfect for this kind of thing for two reasons: (1) the rosemary (or whatever herb or spice you choose; see below) gives the shortbread an air of sophistication that suggests you are worldly, urbane, and chic in addition to being the kind of person who whips up cookies before calling at a friends house; and (2) it’s psychotically easy to make, probably with stuff you already have lying around your kitchen, i.e., flour, sugar, butter, salt, and, of course, the rosemary:

• 2 cups flour

• ⅔ cup sugar

• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (finely chopped)

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 2 sticks unsalted cold butter, cut into chunks

Mix the dry ingredients well, then pulse with the butter chunks in a food processor till the dough starts to crumb but well before it starts to smooth out. Press dough into an 8 or 9-inch pan (I use a pie pan and cut the resulting cookies into triangles from the center). Bake at 325 until golden, at least 35 minutes and probably more like 45. Cut and serve.

The recipe is adaptable: Add honey, maple syrup, crushed walnuts, lemon zest… fennel seeds?! But I think it’s at its best as an extremely simple, addictive, rosemary-forward snack.

The second recipe I recommend, especially around the holidays, is Deb Perelman’s Sugar-and-Spice Candied Nuts. They’re perfect, as Deb suggests, to bring to a holiday party. My local grocery store sells walnuts and pecans in 12oz packages so I usually combine them and 1.5x this recipe; it produces around four Mason jars worth of nuts.

• ⅓ cup dark-brown sugar

• ⅔ cup white granulated sugar

• 1.5 teaspoon kosher salt

• ¼ to ½ teaspoon cayenne, paprika, pimenton… whatever you have, and depending on how spicy you’re looking

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1 egg white

• 1 tablespoon water

• 1 pound walnut or pecan halves (or mix)

Mix the sugar, salt, and spices. Separately, beat together the water and egg white in a large bowl. Add the nuts to the bowl and coat them in the egg white mixture; then add the sugar-spice mix and thoroughly and evenly coat. Spread in a single layer on parchment paper on a baking sheet and bake at 300 for 30 minutes. They’ll stick together but you can break them apart once cool.

Just as the rosemary in the shortbread above suggests sophistication and taste, the addition of cayenne to the nuts imbues them with a kind of dangerous and intriguing edge. When people ask you where you got the recipe, please tell them “a sort of vaguely tech-oriented Substack,” and offer to buy them a gift subscription.