By Libbie Summers
Assisted by Candace Brower
New Snack Obsession courtesy of Nourish Snacks

For a yacht chef, snacks on charter boats are nearly as important as an unflappable disposition and a sober captain. No matter what time of the day or night, someone is hungry. MOST times crew –ALL times guests. Ten minutes after breakfast service –”What’s for lunch”. Fifteen minutes after lunch service –”I wonder what we’re having for dinner”.

I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve read a food preference sheet (those things the guests or their executive assistants fill out before coming aboard) with notes that said, “We aren’t really snackers” or “We RARELY eat dessert” only to find out there has never been a bigger snacking group and they ALWAYS have dessert. It’s the rule of the water. The one constant in a yacht chef”s life. Whatever the preference sheet says…be prepared for the opposite.

I can’t blame the guests about loving a good snack. If there was a Snackers Anonymous, I’d never miss a meeting. I’ve been in search of the perfect snack for 15 years. And now I found it!

A snack of popcorn is my vice, but I don’t always have the time to make it myself and I refuse to eat a microwave popcorn. Refuse. Those surprise treats at the bottom of the popcorn bowl are my favorite part –half-popped kernels of goodness that have a big crunch but don’t cause dental damage. If only I could buy a bag of just half-pops…and then this happened.

Thank you Nourish Snacks for answering my prayers with the perfect snack! Your Mr. Popular half-popped corn kernels are the rainbow at the end of a great day of sailing…with no guests aboard.

Nourish Snacks, Mr. Popular half-popped corn kernels (1.2 ounce bags/190 calories/5g fiber)

Just a few of the other snacks offered by Nourish. How about this cute serving idea for a “nautical-inspired” party!

If I had to have a second date with another one of Nourish Snacks, I’d definitely choose the Mind Your Ps & BBQ’s.

What’s the perfect “nautical bowl” for serving your snacks in? A boater for sure!! This one my husband wore at our wedding and I use it all the time as a unique serving vessel.

BONUS!!!! Nourish is giving my readers a 10% discount on all orders through the end of July. Just enter the code SALTEDANDSTYLED when you check out!

Want to have some fun with your snacks at your next party? How about a game of chance! Find the half-popped!

By Libbie Summers 
As read on Fetch Magazine for Taigan

For most people, when they think about “white” they think about wintertime. For them, it’s a cold color found in snowflakes and ice crystals. White is woolen sweaters, sheepskin rugs and the frilly decoration on a holiday coconut cake. But for me, white is Summertime –breezy linen dresses, white bucks and a boat’s mainsail. White sangria and white sandy beaches.
White doesn’t keep you warm. It makes you cool.

My White Hot Summer Picks from Libbie Summers for Taigan.com

Taigan.com asked me to pick a few of my favorite things currently on their site and write a sentence or two about why I loved them…It wasn’t hard since I love to shop and I love Taigan. As far as the written words about my picks –they might not have realized who they were asking. 

The Nava Shorts

I love these shorts…part skirt, part boy knicker, all short! Super chic and so comfortable. I’m currently wearing them with a white t-shirt, blue Chuck Taylors and the coolest pink leather bracelet.

The Sutton Top 

This little breezy polka dot top would go with anything! I love that it could be dressed down with a pair of cut-offs or dressed up with a skirt that twirlable.

The Gemma

A rich linen, loose fit and pockets…perfection.

Resin Champagne Bucket

I am over-the-moon about this modern organic ice bucket. Not only do I want to ice down a bottle of rosé, I want to use it at an outdoor party…on the buffet line to hold the napkin rolls of flatware or in the center of a long wooden table filled with a bouquet of cosmos.

Pimp Sunglasses by Selima Optique

Because sometimes you want to be seen, but not be seen.

The Cuban Table

I can’t wait to visit Cuba and taste it’s food first hand, wear a white scarf and drive an old blue motorcycle around the island…daydreams.

Pippi Longstocking Horse and Monkey

Funny, I always wanted a white horse when I was a little girl. Now as an adult I’d like it to have azure blue polka dots.

Jacques + Sienna Lucky Charm Bead Necklace Elephant

Because Summer is about being brave. Swimming deeper, traveling farther, going faster, taking leaps of faith.

Set of 2 Guest Towel Herringbone Stripe

If you can’t have a cabana boy on staff full-time at least you can have towels that make you think you do.

Berti Italian Regional Folding Knife

I always carry a knife in the summertime. Seems like I’m forever cutting a piece of fruit or cheese or a frozen Snickers bar in half.

Leather Collar with Gold Accents

I have a red headed Vizsla named McGuire Jo Summers. She goes by Maggie in our home and “The Bitch” to the world of Instagram. Maggie is very opinionated about things such as proper manners, fashion, food and crafts. She will only sleep on a white monogrammed blanket and insists on a pillow to lay her head. My guess is, if she had thumbs, she would give this collar two up.

Barr Co. Fine Shea Butter Lotion

Nautical Chic

Nothing says summer more than a nautical stripe. Navy and White…old school. I worked in the yachting industry for years, cooking on beautiful wooden sail boats and I can tell you first hand that some of the chicest people in the world travel on the water.

Crew Hat

Because nothing is hotter than a guy who rows crew.

Lemon Sugar Cookie

I am obsessed with Grey Ghost Bakery Cookies, especially the lemon sugar. Just enough lemon to be refreshing and just the right size for an afternoon pick me up. If you looked in any of my Summer hand bags you’ll probably find a 2 pack of Grey Ghost Bakery cookies.

Libbie Summers has authored three books, The Whole Hog Cookbook(Rizzoli, 2011), Sweet & Vicious –baking with attitude (Rizzoli, 2014), and Brown Sugar (Short Stack Editions, November 2014). She resides in Savannah, Georgia with one husband, one son, and one opinionated-dog who is lobbying for her own Instagram account.

By Libbie Summers
Event Design by Nan Myers
Hosted by Nan Myers and Carol Whitney for The Shotgun Supper Club
Photography by Daniel Shippy

First impressions are everything…even for a table.

If you have ever been to an event I’ve cooked for or dinner at my house, you know I like to start the meal off with something on the table to feed the mind before I feed the belly. Sometimes it’s a simple line from a poem, or a photograph, or a radish under glass. And, sometimes it’s a cheeky bowl of brightly colored pom poms and pipe cleaners…a playful spaghetti and meatball first course.

This Shotgun Supper Club event hosted by Nan Myers and Carol Whitney has been one of my favorite events to date. Not just because the setting was so exclusive and elusive, or the guests were some of my favorite people ever, or the food being to die for, or my team killing it but because Nan and Carol welcomed me into their artful world with open arms. It was a special night. One that I’ll never forget. One that touched my heart.
  

By Libbie Summers
Assisted by Candace Brower

When I was very young, my mother pulled me in a red wagon up a bumpy hill to our small town’s Main Street to watch a parade. Regardless of my tender age, I was old enough to recognize the lameness of this parade. I didn’t see one clown, nor a single baton twirler and there were no sugary confections being sold on a stick. My mother had duped me. Her parade enthusiasm had me so excited I waited in the wagon for nearly an hour before she emerged from our house looking like she was going to some fancy party and not to a stop on the side of a road that only went one way.

The so-called parade consisted of a line of shiny race cars and one particular car that caused the crowd of showily dressed middle-aged women to scream, and two to faint. The driver of the car was Paul Newman.

Since that day, long before salad dressing, and maybe just to have one thing in common with my mother, I became a Paul Newman fan. I’ve watched every one of his movies –too many times to count. Cool Hand Luke will forever be my favorite.

Fast forward to a silly day in my studio working on content for a hard-boiled egg story and this happened.

He said he could eat 50. I new I could eat 51. We both lied and at least one of us puked.

Words and Styling by Libbie Summers
Photography by Chia Chong
Original post on Salted and Styled

A 6-year-old South African boy introduced me to the joy of loquat eating. 

My family moved to the southern most part of my history on a hot Spring day. As the moving truck was pulling out of our shiny new driveway, a pip of a boy riding a bike much too large for his frame was pulling in.

“My name is Clayton, I live in the yellow house” “Can I have some of your fruit?”, he said in a boy’s voice with a well-traveled man’s accent.

Funny, this wasn’t the first time in my life I’d been asked that question –just not from a boy this young.

Clayton ditched his bike in the middle of our driveway (the same place he left it many times after), grabbed my hand and walked me around the North side of our new home. In a space no wider than a church door grew the most magnificent tree that was heavy with fruit. A loquat tree.

“Lift me up!”, Clayton shouted even though we were just inches apart.

Finally! My cheerleading days were about to pay off. In less than 30 seconds, Clayton was standing on my shoulders dropping the ripe sherbet colored fruit to the ground.

For the next half-hour, Clayton and I sat under the shade of the loquat tree eating the small sweet fruit. Clayton taught me you can either eat the skin or peel it off (he chose to peel it). He taught me that most times there were two seeds inside, but sometimes just one –and that was a lucky one (we found luck twice that day).

I learned a lot about loquats, 6-year-old boys and the warmth of hospitality sitting under my single tree urban orchard with Clayton.

Clayton was a fixture in my life for 3 years –stopping by after-school most days still wearing his once pressed uniform. My back door was always open for him and he knew where I kept the candy. During loquat season, he switched from the man-made candy to the natural kind and helped himself to the ripe fruit from my tree. 

Clayton and his family moved back to South Africa when he was a few days shy of his 10th birthday.

I think about him every year when the first loquat falls.