What is Bachelor Night? It is a weekly tradition that revolves around guilty pleasure TV and serious snacking. Often accompanied by wine and snarky comments.
Bachelor Nation
These low key parties occur while watching ABC’s The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and Paradise. The shows typically come on at 8pm Monday nights, making the start of the week much easier to stomach.
I started participating in Bachelor Nation when I had a roommate who was a big fan. Then I carried it on after I moved out and started watching with friends.
The tradition became a weekly ritual and the snacks got more decadent. My friends Irene and Mandy started taking cheese platters to the next level.
Sometimes we did many bottles of wine. Sometimes we had dessert after. It was was glorious.
How the Bachelor Show Works
For those who haven’t seen it, the show is a contest for love in the form of an engagement. It starts with 30 contestants and a single bachelor. (If it’s the Bachelorette, there’s a girl and 30 men).
With each episode there are dates to get to know the contestants. At the end of the episode roses are given to contestants who get to stay on the show. The rest go home. At the end of the season there is one contestant left, and he has the option of proposing. Ah, modern tv romance.
The show is always a sad display of humanity, but a glamorous display of sparkling gowns and dreamy dates. It’s kind of like seeing Cinderella stuck in the land of the stepsisters. The men can be just as petty or magical, it all just depends on the season or episode.
The show is reality tv, but there is always some skepticism about whether or not the producers are in the driver’s seat.
Spaghetti Mondays
But let’s get back to the important stuff: food. For a long time we went full dinner on show night. I decided my go-to would be pasta. Spaghetti Mondays were born.
Each week I would look forward to choosing noodles and doctoring my own marinara concoction. The smell of cooking tomatoes and fresh cut basil would fill the air.
Eventually I noticed I was making enough for a month and after Monday most would go uneaten. Alas.
But cheese platter life was still a frequent meal of choice.
The most beautiful dresses since the Oscars.
Since it’s the beginning of the week, we have to go easy on the wine. We go hard on the snark though. It’s important to discuss matters of hair, jewelry, dress, shoes, makeup, suits and possibly personality.
Some seasons we do brackets. Post season we might find a new podcast to listen to (shout out to Scrubbing In and Off The Vine). There might be a new insta to follow – so many ex-contestants become influencers! It’s a busy world out there for Bachelor Nation.
So the point of all this really is to find out . . . how good is your cheese platter game?