About Me

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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.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Last Day of The Tweet Treats Blog Tour!

Morning all! (What? It's still morning. Somewhere.) You'll no doubt be thrilled and delighted to know that today is the last day of the Tweet Treats blog tour! I'm sure I've bored you all senseless dragging you all around.. What's that? You've enjoyed every minute of it? Aw, shucks.

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Anyway, today in many ways I'm back where it all began. The first thing I ever had published was a tiny piece called My Mother Wears a Car on the Third Finger of Her Left Hand in the anthology A Pint And A Haircut, True Irish Stories For Haiti edited by Garret Pearse. It, too, was for charity and was to directly benefit Haiti. At the time I'd finished collecting the recipes for Tweet Treats but had no idea if I'd ever get it published, so I was delighted to be contributing in some small way.

Garret very generously offered to host a stage of the Tweet Treats blog tour, so it seems very fitting to end it all on his blog. Read about it here, and there's also a link to buy A Pint And A Haircut if you haven't done so yet. You can still win a copy of Tweet Treats on @jonpinnock's blog too, or click the link below to buy your own. Thanks for reading, everyone!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Sweet Charity

Morning all! Today the Tweet Treats blog tour heads to Bolton in England to talk about charity and how it doesn't just have to be dull and boring and stuff. And junk.

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The tour host today is @BoltonBulls, themselves a charity trying to raise funds for their wheelchair basketball team. You could donate to them while you're there, if you felt so inclined; or you might even win a pair of tickets to the see the Stone Roses! Read the Tweet Treats guest post here.

Remember, all this week you could win a free signed copy of Tweet Treats over at @jonpinnock's blog here. There are some good entries so far, stretch your brains and keep them coming.

If (when!) you try a recipe from Tweet Treats, let me know what you think! Tweet an opinion with the #tweettreats hashtag, or even take a pic to tweet or to tag Tweet Treats on Facebook.

As ever, you can just buy your own copy by clicking the link below. Thanks and happy tweeting! :)

Monday, October 24, 2011

Tulle, Tentacles and Tweet Treats

Today the Tweet Treats blog tour touches down - with some trepidation - on @jonpinnock's blog. Pinnock is responsible for the terror and dreadfulness that oozes from Mrs Darcy Versus The Aliens, which is a stonking good read and I recommend it rather highly.

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Anyway, over to Jonathan we go. I really hope he's not too mean to me... Read all about it here. There's also a chance to win a free signed copy of Tweet Treats, but you need to be witty! Failing that, you can still buy your own copy by clicking the link below.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

The Dinner Dilemma

Today the Tweet Treats blog tour is flying all the way to Germany, and without even needing our passports! That very lovely, encouraging and supportive lady @Mariam_Kobras asked me all about the genesis of Tweet Treats, about dinner dilemmas and favourite foods. Read all about it here.

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This just in: a terrific interview with me me me by @iainbroome for writeforyourlife.net. You can read it here, if you're so inclined.

Remember, you can still win a free signed copy of Tweet Treats all this week at @mduffywriter's blog here. Or click the link below to buy your own!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Flying High - And Down To Earth With A Bump!

Greetings all!

Today was rather spiffing I must say. I dragged the ever-petulant dd to the Whitewater shopping centre in Newbridge, where we beheld THESE two behemoths! (They're genuinely mahoosive!)
Purty...
Snogging teens used for scale
Even dd took a good look at the posters and said "The Script? You got a recipe from The Script?! I love them!" "Yes," I replied, serenely. "Very nice boys they are, too." I swear I saw something close to respect in those 9 year old blue eyes...

Just as well I had something so lovely to brighten my day, since today the blog tour stops off at @Chiddle84's blog, where she's not terribly nice to me. Not at all as nice as I deserve, anyhow. Go on over and have a read.

But @mduffywriter is still being all gushy, and you can still win a copy of Tweet Treats here. Or buy one yourself by clicking the link below!


Tuesday, October 18, 2011

A Day of Tweetin' and Treatin'

Oh I say, I am a happy bunny! That very nice person (and Tweet Treats contributor) @jennyfoxe offered to host the blog tour today, since she writes for fab blog @culch_ie aka Culch.ie. She told me she was going to review the book, but I didn't expect what she'd do next! Read all about it over here.

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Now that you've read that, you want your own copy of Tweet Treats, don't you? Well, I don't blame you! Don't forget, all this week you have a chance to win a free signed copy of Tweet Treats over at @mduffywriter's blog. Or you could just click on the link below... ;)

Monday, October 17, 2011

Nostalgia and Sleb-Sluttery

Huge thanks to @NettieWriter for hosting last week's giveaway, and generating lots of giggles along the way! You can check to see if you've won here. If you didn't, don't despair - there's another chance starting today!

Now, today I'm feeling nostalgic. Ah, nostalgia! Doesn't it make you feel all warm, fuzzy and, well, nostalgic?


Today's stop on the blog tour (with a new giveaway) is with the original sleb-slut @mduffywriter. While collecting recipes for Tweet Treats, Maria found she had a rather uncanny (read: scary) ability to chat to celebrities and to bring them around to her way of thinking. I owe her a lot of thanks since a goodly proportion of the celebs who feature in Tweet Treats wouldn't have been there without here. Anyhoo, you can read her version of events here.

Having Maria blogging today reminded me of another piece of writing that she did about Tweet Treats. I blogged about it a year or so ago, but just thought I would reproduce it here. Enjoy!



In Twitford all the fairies came
to hear their fairy queen.
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She had a great idea and
was hoping they’d be keen.

So Fairy Jane began to tell
her real exciting news.
She needed help to form a plan;
they didn’t dare refuse.

Although they quite admired their Queen;
an energetic fairy,
she sometimes donned a grumpy face
that made her seem quite scary.

She never wore the sparkling stuff,
or fairy wings so pretty;                                                              
preferring dark & gloomy clothes
to make her seem more gritty.

She didn’t drink the fairy dew
but loaded up with coffee.
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Instead of nibbling magic stars,
she just chewed gum and toffee.

But when they heard her plan in full,
they all became excited.
They’d help her every way they could;
Team Fairyland united.

A plan to gather recipes
was what she had decided.
She’d surely quickly reach her goal
with all the help provided.

Now very soon the word was spread
of Fairy Jane’s new mission.
And fairies all applauded her
for having such ambition.
The recipes were flooding in,
but Jane still wanted more.
Celebrities would do the trick;
she’d pound their Twitter door.

The wizards and the fairies who
were helping Fairy Jane,
would listen to her nagging;
(God, she really was a pain!)

The weeks went by, the team worked hard,
and Jane soon cracked a smile.
She realised her team was fab;
they’d made it all worthwhile.

No longer did the fairies fear
the fury of their queen.
For now she only ever smiled
and never more was mean.

She even tried some sparkly clothes
and ditched her gloomy cloak.
She started to endear herself
to all the elfin folk.

And so she called a meeting where
she promised all her team
she’d bring them to Avoca for
some scones with jam and cream!




Friday, October 14, 2011

Bargain of the Day

Morning folks! I did my usual trawl of the Tweet Treats listing on Amazon this morning, and lookee lookee what I found! A bargain, if ever there was one. Lulz, etc :)

Anyhoo, today's stop on the blog tour is over on the other side of the atlantic! My little cheffy twitter bird had to get a special passport (with a bird flu vaccination exemption) to go and talk to @erinfaye all the way over in Florida. And the poor lil fluffer got sunburn on his beak, too.

Still, it was worth it. That Erin is lovely, and though she's probably still in bed and hasn't posted about Tweet Treats yet, you could wander over and take a look at her blog here - it's smashing, and there'll be stuff about Tweet Treats there in due course :)

As ever, you can buy Tweet Treats in all manner of quality bookshops. However, I wouldn't recommend paying more than €7.99 for it. ;)

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Back to Normality

Hello! I'm trying hard not to be too annoying today, after I completely lost the run of myself the last two days and #tweettreated all over the Twitter. I'm calm now, honestly :)








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Today's stop on the blog tour is at My Little Notepad with @rebeccaebrown, one of my oldest twitter buddies, greatest supporters of Tweet Treats and, although I've never met her, someone I consider to be a true friend. After all that, she'd better say something nice about the book! Thanks for hosting Becca, I owe you one. Hell, I owe you lots... :)


Tuesday, October 11, 2011

"I declare Tweet Treats to be launched!"

Those were the immortal words of @patomahony1 in the Odessa Club last night as The O'Brien Press, Medecins sans Frontieres, friends, family and I celebrated the launch of Tweet Treats. It was a fantastic night, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and hope everyone who attended did too.

However, they say that a picture speaks a thousand words, so feast your eyes on the fab pics that Alan from MSF took last night.

I can confirm that the rumours of a Tweet Treats cake were not unfounded! Note actual book, for scale :)

Some people didn't believe that the cake was actually cake. Proof to the right! ->









Left to Right: Ivan O'Brien of O'Brien Press, Me, Pat O'Mahony who launched Tweet Treats 


Here's Ross, Deirdre and JaneAnne from MSF with Tweet Treats :) 

Fantastic Tweet Treats canapes from the staff at the Odessa Club, recipes from @BoyGeorge and @LouDPhillips among others ->




It was a terrific night. Pat O'Mahony did us proud and made a great job of launching the book! I managed to get through a short speech without throwing up on his shoes, so it was all good :)

Today's stop on the blog tour is at @derekf03's blog here and the fantastic @alisonwells has devoted her weekly Tuesday Interview to the book here.

Thanks everyone!

Monday, October 10, 2011

Publication Day!

Woohoo, it's publication day! Tweet Treats is now officially available to buy, just about anywhere.



It's hard to believe that this day has finally arrived. That dreary Thursday in April when I came up with a certain daft idea seems like only yesterday (or 4 days ago, if you want to be painfully chronologically accurate). An awful lot of work has gone into getting this book to the point where you can all hold it in your hot little hands - and not all of that work has been by me! No sirree bob, youse lot did a load of it yourselves what with the tweetin' and the retweetin' and the tweet treatin' - I owe you all a huge amount of thanks :)

One pair who did a shed-load of the above tweetin' etc was mother and daughter team @NettieWriter and @clairecatrina, the youngest contributor to the book. You can read all about their side of the story today on Nettie's blog here. Thanks again, Nettie!

So, tonight is the launch. The very cool @patomahony1 is launching the book! My tummy is, um... Well. Let's not go there, shall we? There are rumours of cake. I can confirm that there will indeed be a rather awesome (if I do say so myself) Tweet Treats cake, but you'll have to wait till tomorrow to see the pics.

Meantime you can buy Tweet Treats from Amazon, Book Depository, O'Brien Press, Eason, Dubray, Waterstones, etc etc from today.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Hello? Is it me you're looking for?



I do know a lot of nice people. There are those who would say that they only seem nice in comparison to how cranky I am, but I think they're jolly nice people.

One such nice person is @hotcrossmum who blogs for Hello! and wrote a terrific post about Tweet Treats. You can read it here. If you don't already, follow her blog Hot Cross Mum - it's a hilarious slice of modern motherhood.

Then there's the very lovely and talented @colettecaddle who said kind things about Tweet Treats on Facebook. Colette is a hoot, wait till you read her recipe! It still makes me laugh, a year after I first read it.

Most importantly of all, the really lovely people at @msf_ireland wrote this.

I have high hopes for this book. I want it to do well, stratospherically well, not just to bolster my already over-inflated ego, but because I think of every copy sold as money going directly to Somalia, Haiti, Pakistan. I want to sell thousands of copies; maybe a hundred thousand. The royalties from that many sales would make a very considerable difference to the lives of countless numbers of people.

It's all down to you, folks. The more copies you buy as Christmas presents, thank-you gifts, housewarming presents, going-off-to-college presents, or just for yourself, the closer I come to that goal. If you've already bought Tweet Treats, thank you. If you haven't, click on the link below - please.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Scream!



It seems that people who pre-ordered Tweet Treats from Amazon are starting to receive their copies in the post! I'm all of a flutter as people are tweeting me about recipes that tickle their fancy. @julianstockwin (historical fiction author of the Thomas Kydd series) tweeted:

"Just got my Tweet Treats from Amazon. Great little book for v. worthy cause so well done,@janetravers!... I hope it becomes THE Christmas stocking filler for 2011."

Was I chuffed at that? Well, maybe a little bit ;)

@neversarah pointed out her favourite recipe, one from @Beathhigh (Ian Rankin, creator of Inspector Rebus)

"'Rebus' Scotch Eggs' my current fave from #TweetTreats book@janetravers @beathhigh "

to which @Beathhigh replied: 

"Haha: yes, took a lot of work in the kitchen to perfect Rebus's Scotch Eggs...."

@ClodaghMMurphy (author of Girl In A Spin and The Disengagement Ring) tweeted about her own recipe,

"Is that the fried cheese & apple sandwich one? It's dead good, but best to have the cardiac unit on speed dial.;)"

If (when!) you receive a copy of Tweet Treats, and if (when!) you try a recipe, please let me know what you think! You can take a pic and tweet it with the hashtag #tweettreats or tag me on Facebook. You could like Tweet Treats while you're there too, I wouldn't mind at all ;)