The Taste of Austerity: Party Snacks

It's that time again. Before your team do, after your team do, before dinner with your folks, at your annual XXX-mas Party. You need snacks. We've got the recipes.

Actually, that's a lie. Food.com, which we somehow subscribed to at one point in our culinary life, has them. And the promise of a list of 25 'Fuss-Free' Party Snacks was just to much for us to, shall we say, pass up.

Divided by type, you can check them out here.

For those on a time-budget, we pick our favourites. And yes, we've checked the recipes to ensure they're really 'fuss-free'.

From Cheesy Starters: The Dessert Cheese Ball

Not exactly what you were expecting, huh. No, neither were we. But with six ingredients, all of which are pedestrian and delicious, this looks like it's a winner. We're making it on New Year's Eve.

From Meaty Bites: Sausage Balls

Let us first say that we love meat, but hate the word 'meaty'. Secondly, on this recipe, we'll skip the 'bulk' sausage (really, could there be anything scarier?) and buy something lovely that requires decasing. No problem. After that, three ingredients! And we're off...

From Quick Dips & Spreads: The Melting Pot's Cheddar Cheese Fondue

It's time for us to come clean on two points: 1) We usually buy fondue cheese at Waitrose that needs nothing more than to be chucked in the fondue pot; and 2) Someone in our office has actually eaten at The Melting Pot. (OK, yeah, that was totally me.) Fine. We'll try this recipe next week (with beer instead of milk or broth, obv).

Holiday Nuts & Snacks: Candied Almonds

While we can't ever see a reason to make anything other than our Damn Good Nuts, these are pretty fuss free. While you don't have to toss them every five minutes (as you do with the DFN), you do have to baste them twice in 20 minutes. So that's what, approximately every seven minutes? It'll be worth it. And if not, revert back to Damn Good Nuts.