About Me

My photo
Three and a half years ago I became vegetarian. Three and a half weeks ago, anticipating a certain health diagnosis at any time, I also gave up all added sugar in my diet. My mother is of a certain generation and, although a very good cook, struggles to know what to offer guests with specific dietary restrictions. She once had a vegetarian and a coeliac for dinner at the same time, and nearly lost her reason! So, the idea for this blog was born. Every recipe that features here will be vegan (and, obviously, vegetarian), gluten free, sugar free, lactose and dairy free, and suitable for people on a low sodium diet. That's right, you read that correctly. Even if you have guests with each of these restrictions coming to the same meal, everything here is safe for them. And, before you expect weird and wonderful ingredients to make an appearance, everything I'm using can be bought in larger branches of all major supermarkets - you don't even need to visit health food stores. Try the recipes and tell me what you think!

So What's This Tweet Treats Thingy All About?

Watch the brilliant 30 second trailer below and all will become clear!

Tweet Treats Trailer from Catherine Ryan Howard on Vimeo.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Festival of World Cultures

This weekend saw the annual Festival of World Cultures return to Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin for two jam-packed days. I was contacted by @msf_ireland and asked if I would join the MSF staff at their tent on one of the days to tell members of the public about #tweettreat.

I was delighted, duly decorated a t-shirt with some information about #tweettreat and trotted along on Saturday 24th July. There I met fundraising officer Gareth and press officer Deirdre, both of whom I'd met before, as well as a number of other volunteers and staff. They are such an absolutely lovely bunch of people!

It was terrific to see a steady stream of traffic in and out of the MSF tent. Some were people who were very familiar with the organisation, others were hearing about it for the first time, and all had a chance for a good chat with members of the MSF team.



It was a very enjoyable day and it was great to see firsthand the fantastic goodwill that this organisation generates. I was also very chuffed to be there having reached the goal of 1700 recipes! People generally were fascinated by the celebrities who had contributed so far, so hopefully that interest will translate into sales once the book is published. 

Even the kids got involved, playing with toy doctors' kits, drawing pictures and looking at some of the equipment. My own darling daughter (with the pink leggings) was fascinated by the Plumpy'nut - a peanut based food fed to malnourished children - and with the MUAC tapes used to determine whether or not a child is in danger of starvation. Placing it around her own, well-nourished arm, she was able to see just how severely emaciated a starving child can be - an interesting lesson for a first-world child who has never been hungry.  


It was a thoroughly enjoyable, jam-packed day and I'm very grateful to the MSF staff for inviting me and for their huge enthusiasm for the #tweettreat project. I hope I can do them proud. 

3 comments:

  1. the festival was on one year when we were making our annual trip home. it's so much fun. i'm glad you had a successful day!
    nice post. x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well done, sounds like you had a great day! And how pretty is your little girl, you must be proud both of her and of the brilliant work you're doing. :)

    ReplyDelete