Tweet Treats

The Distant Shore - A Review

2012-02-09T08:44:00.003Z

One of Tweet Treats' great supporters is @Mariam_Kobras from Germany. Mariam very kindly hosted a stage on the Tweet Treats blog tour, so it seems only right for Tweet Treats to return the favour. Be sure to read to the end if you want to enter a terrific giveaway!

A talented writer, Mariam is the author of the newly released The Distant Shore, book 1 of the Stone Trilogy. The novel deals with Jonathon Stone, international rock star, who has pined for years over the One That Got Away. When an unusual fan letter arrives he drops everything to finally find her - Naomi - and the son he never knew he had.

This is a gorgeous book; from the strangely tactile, softly coloured cover right through to the unresolved ending, Kobras plays on all the senses to weave a tale of love that is bigger than either of the main characters.

The book begins unconventionally with a lost love regained, leaving the reader wondering where the story can possibly go from there. However, though drawn helplessly together, the main characters have oceans between them, complex histories and enormous amounts of baggage to overcome. The language of the book explores the depths of their characters, leaving them raw and open for the reader, at times almost uncomfortably so.

Geography and landscape play a large role in the story, and are exquisitely drawn by Kobras to the extent that the reader feels the warmth of the sun, the salt spray of a frigid sea, or a cold stone held in a hand making the reader absolutely present within the story. It takes a great writing craftsperson to draw in the reader in such an irrevocable manner, and Kobras is such a writer. Her style is reminiscent of Anita Shreve, and if you liked Body Surfing, then you will love this. I highly recommend it and Tweet Treats wishes Mariam all the best!

This was the thirteenth stop on Mariam’s The Distant Shore “Love is in the Air” Blog Hop and Giveaway. We hope you enjoyed this review and will join us tomorrow on the next stop at Satisfaction for the Insatiable Reader for a post on creativity.

Buddhapuss Ink is giving away copies of Mariam’s book, along with some pretty terrific (and very romantic) gifts, as we count down to that most romantic day of the year—Valentine’s Day!

Want to enter the giveaway?

Leave a comment for this post for one entry. We also encourage you to “Like” this blog and follow it! Tweet a link to this blog including the hashtag #TDSBlogHop for another chance to win.

Want more chances to win? CLICK HERE for all the info!

Want to see that TV interview that Mariam and Marci mentioned? Here it is.

Hughes and Hughes Competition

2011-12-05T15:03:00.000Z

Greetings all! If you're a) in Ireland and b) in Dublin City Centre on Thursday coming, 8th December, then come and meet me in one of the Hughes and Hughes branches where I'll be signing copies of Tweet Treats.

My itinerary is as follows; 10.30am (ish) I'll be in the Stephen's Green Shopping Centre branch; 11.30am (ish) I'll be in the Jervis Centre branch and 1pm (ish) I'll be in the Dundrum Shopping Centre branch. Come along and say hi if you're out and about!

Now for the really exciting bit; @Hughes_books have just announced an absolutely amazing competition in Tweet Treats' honour, running from today until midnight Wednesday (ROI residents only, I'm afraid). The prize is fantastic; you could win ALL 30 of the books in the Hughes and Hughes BUY ME! stocking filler range, including a copy of Tweet Treats! I'll be picking the winner in store on Thursday morning. The details are here so check them out and try your luck :)

The Travels of Tweet Treats! Warning: contains Neil Gaiman

2011-11-15T17:39:00.001Z

If you follow me on Twitter (and if you don't, why not?) you would know that I'm a total fangirl when it comes to Neil Gaiman. You would also know that he donated a recipe to Tweet Treats. Finally, you would know that my hubby @ukegnome and I had a fit of insanity and decided to fly to Seattle last week to see Neil and his wife @amandapalmer on the final night of their west coast tour.

There are plenty of bands, actors, comedians, writers who could be appearing in my own hometown, who I wouldn't bother going to see. There are a few for whom I might travel as far as Dublin; or, if they were really special and I fancied a shopping trip as well, maybe even London. But for Neil Gaiman I was willing - nay, happy - to travel half way round the world.

Why do I love Neil Gaiman so much?

To be honest, I don't fully know the answer to that myself. There are probably better writers out there; certainly, there are better-known writers out there. (Sorry Neil, but most of my family and friends would have no idea who you are if it wasn't for me raving about you constantly.)

Really, I think it's his voice. No, not his singing voice (though that's not half bad, and I'm still wandering around the house singing 'You Think I'm Psycho Don't You, Momma' to the dogs. They love it.) I'm talking about his writer's voice, that thing that every creative writing coach tells you you have to develop for yourself. Before I'd ever seriously thought about writing myself, before I'd wondered if I could develop a 'voice' of my own, I was aware of Neil's.

I was a damn good essay writer when I was in university - A's and A+'s were the norm. However, as the result of my own peculiar brand of warped logic, I convinced myself that if I could write non-fiction well then I would only ever write fiction poorly. All my dreams of being a writer - forget it. Maybe I had the ability to review books, spend my life parasitically feeding on the creativity of others, but I certainly didn't hold any of that creativity myself.

Then, around about 1999 I read Gaiman's The Price. I held my breath the whole way through, then read it again. And again. My hair stood on end; not only at the story, but at the fact that this story was VOICE, pure and simple. To paraphrase Yeats, it was impossible to tell the dancer from the dance, or where the author ended and the story began. I read The Price and felt like I knew the author, as though he had sat beside me and told me the story directly. The Price is a simple tale, written in simple terms, and it changed my whole mindset on writing. Suddenly I thought, "I can do this too." It was a whole new concept for me. (And yes, it is the mark of any good art that it makes you think "but I could do that". I know that. Don't burst my bubble.)

So, now I have Tweet Treats published and that's terrific. I'm fiercely proud of this cute little blue book - it was creative in its own way, in its concept - but I want more. I want to publish a work of fiction that is entirely of my own creation. Frequently I feel the fear, that old conviction that I'll never write good fiction; but when I do, I re-read The Price. Or any other Gaiman short story - or novel. His voice rings clear through them all. It comforts me, and I know I can find my own.

So what has this post got to do with Tweet Treats, you ask? Well, I did get to give Neil a copy of Tweet Treats - and got him to sign mine. A spurious excuse perhaps, but I'm ok with that.

You can find Neil's contribution to Tweet Treats on page 159, called Cthulhu Crumble. Will I copy the recipe here for you all to have a look at? Will I heck. Go buy a copy yourselves, you wastrels (or look closely at the pic above!). If you live in Ireland, you can visit Irishfoodbloggers.com who are giving away five copies this week - just leave a comment.

And thanks for tolerating my fangirlisms. (What? It's a word if I say it is.)

Yes, I know this is a Cthulhu Cookie, not a crumble. So sue me.
Source

Last Day of The Tweet Treats Blog Tour!

2011-10-27T12:10:00.000+01:00

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.

source

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!

Sweet Charity

2011-10-25T11:55:00.000+01:00

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.

source

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! :)

Tulle, Tentacles and Tweet Treats

2011-10-24T12:32:00.000+01:00

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.

source

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.

The Dinner Dilemma

2011-10-20T13:07:00.001+01:00

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.

source

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!

Flying High - And Down To Earth With A Bump!

2011-10-19T17:11:00.000+01:00

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!

A Day of Tweetin' and Treatin'

2011-10-18T11:29:00.000+01:00

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.

Source

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... ;)

Nostalgia and Sleb-Sluttery

2011-10-17T12:34:00.000+01:00

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?

source

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.

source

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.

source

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.

source

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!

Bargain of the Day

2011-10-14T11:50:00.000+01:00

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.

source

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. ;)

Back to Normality

2011-10-12T11:44:00.001+01:00

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 :)

Source

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... :)

"I declare Tweet Treats to be launched!"

2011-10-11T12:33:00.000+01:00

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!

Publication Day!

2011-10-10T09:53:00.000+01:00

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.

Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

2011-10-06T16:21:00.000+01:00

Source

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.

Scream!

2011-10-04T15:51:00.000+01:00

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 ;)

Results Not Typical - A Blog Tour! And An Awesome Thing

2011-09-30T09:00:00.006+01:00

You might remember a few days ago I promised you all a very cool thing indeed. Well, here it is - a fantabulous book trailer for Tweet Treats!

Tweet Treats Trailer from Catherine Ryan Howard on Vimeo.

And who is this Catherine Ryan Howard who made this fabulous trailer, I hear you all ask? Well. Not only is she a rather good writer, she's also a whiz at the whole self-publishing thing and pretty darn tech savvy, to boot!

Catherine's first novel, Results Not Typical, has just been released and she's kicking off her blog tour right here on Tweet Treats! And to make things extra lovely, the Tweet Treats blog tour is starting today on... you guessed it... Catherine, Caffeinated :) So read on about Results Not Typical (which I highly recommend) then go here to catch the start of the Tweet Treats blog tour. Don't forget to read all the way to the bottom for a giveaway!

About Results Not Typical:

The Devil Wears Prada meets Weightwatchers and chick-lit meets corporate satire in the debut novel from Catherine Ryan Howard, author of the bestselling memoir Mousetrapped: A Year and A Bit in Orlando, Florida. Through their Ultimate Weight Loss Diet Solution Zone System, Slimmit International Global Incorporated claim they’re making the world a more attractive place one fatty at a time. Their slogans “Where You’re Fat and We Know It!” and “Where the Fat IS Your Fault!” are recognised around the globe, the counter in the lobby says five million slimmed and their share price is as high as their energy levels. But today the theft of their latest revolutionary product, Lipid Loser, will threaten to expose the real secret behind Slimmit’s success...The race is on to retrieve Lipid Loser and save Slimmit from total disaster. If their secrets get out, their competitors will put them out of business. If the government finds out, they’ll all go to jail. And if their clients find out… Well, as Slimmit’s Slimming Specialists know all too well, there’s only one thing worse than a hungry, sugar-crazed, carb addict – and that’s an angry one. Will the secret behind Slimmit’s success survive the day, or will their long-suffering slimmers finally discover the truth?

Available now in paperback and e-book editions.

Catherine, what compelled you to write a book about the slimming industry? Anyone would think you had vast experience of same.

Well, after ten years of trying to be an internationally mega-selling, filthy rich, highly-acclaimed author, I figured out that the main obstacle between me and my dreams was the fact that I hadn’t written a book yet. Turns out that’s kind of crucial. Further pondering revealed that the reason I hadn’t written a book yet was because I didn’t have any good ideas for one, and so my goal became to find one, and find one quick.

Around the same time, I had the misfortune to cross paths with a “behaviour modification clinic” who specialised in weight loss. As I specialised in eating, I signed up, handed over an alarming amount of money and embarked on what could only be described as twenty weeks of senseless torture: protein shakes, meals and bars, mind molestation and – worst of all – no caffeine whatsoever. (Nooooooooooo!) You weren’t even allowed cough syrup or throat lozenges because their sugar content was too high. I could go on and on about the horrors of it, but what stands out in my mind was their breakfast prescription: a bowl of not-completely dissolved feet-flavoured protein flakes in hot water. They claimed it was porridge and when I complained about the taste – it was so bad I’d gag on it – my appointed consultant said it was because I was used to porridge loaded with milk and sugar and so didn’t know what porridge actually tasted like. But of course, the problem was that I was used to ACTUAL PORRIDGE.

At the time I was working in an office, and when I’d tell the girls at work about I was dealing with it at the clinic, they’d fall about the place laughing. They couldn’t believe that it was even true, but I knew that it was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to Ridiculous Ways to Lose Weight. Then it dawned on me: that might be a good idea for a novel...

I've just started back to Weightwatchers after years of eschewing any and all product-driven slimming plans. Reading Results Not Typical is not helping! What do you have to say for yourself?

I think Weightwatchers is great, because they don’t want you to do anything stupid, they promote healthy eating and exercise and their product lines are only intended to help you – you don’t have to live off them, and in fact can do the entire program on real food.

My point about dieting is really this: all diets work if you do them, because all diets basically boil down to a low calorie intake and increased activity. But if you’re like me and were absent the day your brain learned how to deal with food the way a slim person does (i.e. only as fuel, not a reward, a way to pass the time or tasty Prozac), then it’s extremely difficult to stick to any diet plan. So you don’t and either stop doing it, or just about manage to do it and then put weight back on again later. Soon your body doesn’t know what’s going on because it’s had periods of feast, famine and healthy eating, so your metabolism slows. Maybe your blood sugar’s out too. Now, it’s easier to put weight on and harder to lose it. You start another diet, and the cycle of yo-yo dieting continues. Result: dieting makes you gain weight in the long run. I mean, if I was the weight I was when I first seriously undertook a diet back in 2002, I think it was, I would be deliriously happy. Now Me can’t even understand what Back Then Me was even doing dieting in the first place, because she perfectly slim.

Personally, I think the only way to stop the cycle is to figure out what’s happening in your head that made you overeat or eat the wrong things in the first place. Otherwise you’re just treating the symptoms. Problem is, I have no clue what that is in my case – despite me watching every episode of Oprah since 1999 AND having the 18-hour, 20th anniversary DVD box-set. Answers on a postcard, please...

Results Not Typical is very funny, cynical, tongue-in-cheek. Are you ever serious?

I wrote Results Not Typical as satire just because I felt like that was the best way to do it. Us dieters have enough to deal with without reading misery food memoirs or sad-sack fat camp tales – and if you want to read those things, there’s plenty of them out there already.

The fact that it’s not serious is one of the reasons I couldn’t get it published, actually. But I’ll get to that in the next question...

I am occasionally serious if the occasion calls for it. Why, just yesterday I chaired a family meeting about how Hellman’s Mayonnaise is mayonnaise, and that thing Aldi calls mayonnaise is, in fact, NOT. It’s some sort of icky salad cream thing, and anyone would know just by comparing the consistencies. It’s, like, obvious.

And thank you for saying it’s funny. (Consider that secret contractual obligation involving a fiver and the postal service we discussed duly fulfilled.)

Why did you decide to go down the self-publishing route again?

Results went to some editors at some very big publishing houses here in Ireland and the UK, and while they all had positive things to say about my voice and the writing, they felt the satire/comedy lacked the underlying “meatiness” that would make it suitable for the Irish/UK market. Right now, what’s doing well in women’s commercial fiction are books that make you laugh, but have real emotion behind them. (Some seriousness, if you will.) Therefore, they didn’t want to publish Results because they felt it wouldn’t do well enough to warrant them publishing it – and I completely understood.

But for me, there’s no financial risk, really, in self-publishing a book. I can generally recoup my upfront costs in about 500 sales. And when I self-publish, I don’t just sell to Ireland and the UK – I sell globally, mainly to the US. So taking into account the fact that I’ve already established a readership, online platform, etc. I decided to self-publish Results.

For traditional publishing houses the numbers didn’t add up but for me, they did. Let’s hope it’s not just because I’m bad at maths...

Is it still your ambition to be published traditionally, or have you decided you really like doing it completely your own way?

It is absolutely my ambition to still be published traditionally. That’s always been my dream, and it continues to be. I enjoy self-publishing and I’m thankful for all the opportunities it’s brought me but essentially, it just pays the bills. It may sound strange but it doesn’t satisfy any “I want to be a published writer” desires even though technically it should. I’m currently working on a novel that’s completely different to Results that I plan on submitting to traditional publishers next year. Here’s hoping!

You've brought out four books in just over a year! That's a hell of an achievement. Are you proud of yourself?

I am downright smug.

And also, my fingers are like claws. Claws, I tell you!

You've become such a dab hand at this self-printing lark, have you ever thought of setting up your own publishing company? Everyone knows publishers are filthy-rich gatekeepers who keep out people with genuine talent, wouldn't you like to join their numbers? ;)

Good God, no! I’m only self-publishing because I have to – I am ready and willing, pen poised, to sell out to Publishing’s Corporate Overlords as soon as the opportunity arises. And I think everyone else should be too. Trust me: I’m not one of these precious types who’s all, “I prefer self-publishing because I have control over all aspects of how my book is packaged, etc.” Someone once told me that they self-published because they didn’t want to do readings in public, the implication being that their (mythical) publisher would force them to do that. I couldn’t even formulate a response. It’s like wanting to be singer and not auditioning for X-Factor because you don’t have space on your shelves for a Grammy. SPARE ME THE HORSE FECES.

Also if I did start a publishing company I would have to recreate the Black Gates of Mordor in my office because as you said, everyone knows publishing is an evil club that meets once a week to drink pig’s blood and laugh about all the aspiring writers they’re keeping out, and I imagine that would be expensive.

If you had just one piece of advice to pass on to new writers who are trying to figure the whole industry out, what would it be?

Don’t. This will save them years of heartache, headaches and a third thing that starts with “h” that I can’t think of right now, and – added bonus – reduce my competition.

If they insist on doing it though, I’d say you have to find your own path, to figure out what’s best for you and your work. The internet is full of evangelists who see everything in black and white – you’ll make a million self-publishing, print books are dead, agents are horned demons, etc. etc. – but the reality of the situation has many, many shades. What’s worked for me mightn’t work for you, but maybe something that hasn’t worked for me will.

(Or something. That was a very confusing sentence!)

Oh, and buy this.

So what's next for you? Are you working on anything else at the moment?

Between now and Christmas I’ll be focused on finishing the first draft of the More Serious Novel. Then just out of curiosity, I’m going to price those Black Gates...

Catherine has also told me about a giveaway: if you visit here you can enter a giveaway to win one of five paperback copies of Results Not Typical. Open for entries from September 30th-October 31st. Open to all countries.

About Catherine:

Catherine Ryan Howard is a 29-year-old writer, blogger and enthusiastic coffee-drinker. She currently lives in Cork, Ireland, where she divides her time between her desk and the sofa. She blogs at
www.catherineryanhoward.com.

The REAL Reason To Buy Tweet Treats - Guest Post From MSF

2011-09-29T10:44:00.000+01:00

Ok, all joking aside, there is one cast-iron reason why you should buy Tweet Treats - and that's because every copy sold directly benefits Médecins Sans Frontières. Today I have a guest post from Deirdre Mangaoang from the Dublin office of #MSF.

"Yesterday’s announcement that Twitter will open its newest international office in Dublin is being greeted with joy across Irish air waves. Dublin is now a front-runner for ‘social media capital’ of Europe and the prospect of new jobs is a really welcome bit of news.

Over here at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Ireland we’ve been fans of Twitter for a long while. Twitter lets us get news out fast from our medical humanitarian projects all over the world. The speed and global reach of twitter helps us to raise awareness about crises that may or may not be in the media spotlight, and this in turn helps in being transparent to our donors about what MSF is doing on the ground.

Over the past year we’ve been tweeting about Ivory Coast, where MSF teams are treating civilians caught up in political violence. We’re also tweeting about our campaign in remote areas of Congo to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children against measles. Since the conflict in Libya first took hold, twitter has been a great way to keep our supporters informed of the work MSF is doing alongside Libyan health staff to treat casualties. We’ve tweeted about our medical supply line, rescuing war-wounded patients by boat, and performing trauma surgery. And from Somalia, we regularly tweet interviews with MSF doctors and nurses who are caring for severely malnourished children at the frontlines of a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Those are the serious reasons why we’re fans of the micro-blogging phenomenon. But there’s another reason why Twitter makes us smile: Twitter was the inspiration for a fantastically original, creative and fun fundraising project for MSF. When Jane first approached us with the idea for Tweet Treats we scratched our heads for a bit and thought “could this really work?” A book of recipes all comprising no more than 140 characters is a bit different from our usual fundraisers. But Jane’s enthusiasm and energy quickly won us over. We’re delighted that she chose MSF, we appreciate her patience while we got used to the idea, and we’re truly humbled by her generosity in donating all the royalties from sales of Tweet Treats to MSF.

Tweet Treats is set to launch on October 10^th. For those of you who can’t wait ‘til then, pre-order a copy by clicking on the link below. Every copy bought directly benefits MSF. And you can keep track of how your money is being used to deliver emergency medical aid around the world by following us @msf_ireland."

Tomorrow I'm launching the blog tour for Tweet Treats over at @CathRyanHoward's fandabbydoozy blog, Catherine, Caffeinated. Tune in then, as the silliness returns :)

Reasons to buy Tweet Treats, Volume 5

2011-09-26T16:22:00.000+01:00

So your little darling wants to buy a Christmas present for her teacher.What do you buy? We're all familiar with the phrase 'an apple for teacher', but these days your discerning tutor expects a little bit more. There's always one child in the class who'll present teech with a ludicrously expensive gift, like perhaps something else bearing an apple logo... But you can give something much more thoughtful. And everyone hates that child and his mother, anyway.

There's another old saying that if you give a teacher an apple, she'll eat for a day; but if you teach her how to, um, "apple" she'll eat for the rest of her life. Or something.

So you think giving a teacher a book is a bit like teaching your granny to suck eggs, do you? But teachers love books, and even more than that, they love to encourage children to buy books. With its bright cheery chirpy cover, Tweet Treats will appeal to the kids as a gift, and its useful pages within will appeal to the teacher.

Actually, maybe you should give teacher an apple along with her copy of Tweet Treats and she can learn how to make something with that apple...

Sorted :)

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Reasons to buy Tweet Treats, Volume 4

2011-09-21T13:54:00.000+01:00

Well y'all, I hoped to be able to show you something really cool yesterday, but I'm not allowed. Yet. Boo, etc. In the meantime, here is yet another reason to buy Tweet Treats:

Sam the Scrounging Student. Ok, he's your big brother (by a whole year, big whoop - in boy terms that makes him at least five years younger, right?) and you love him and all, but he's a complete pain in the ass. He's just started at university and he's coming home at weekends talking about all the cool parties he's been to and dumping all his washing on your mum (while you have to do your own! Where's the justice in that, huh?). But to add insult to injury, he raids the kitchen every Sunday night before he goes back to college, taking all the biscuits, crisps and pot noodles to get him through the week because he "doesn't cook" and "the canteen food stinks". And your mum just indulges him!

So now it's coming up to Christmas and you have to buy him a present, 'cos your mum insists. Well, why should you have to spend your hard-earned pocket money on him? He'll get away with not buying anything this year, 'cos he's a so-called poor student. It's just not fair.

So, you're trawling through the shops, determined to spend less than a tenner on the layabout, and you see - like a little blue beacon - Tweet Treats. It's small, it's cheap, it's cool and twittery; and best of all, if you give it to Scrounging Student Sam, he'll no longer have an excuse not to cook for himself! Look, there are easy recipes, and recipes for people on a budget, and everything!

Even better, you'll have change left over to nip into the chemist and buy that little bottle of twitter-bird-blue nail varnish you've had your eye on. Blue is the new black, you know. And if your mum complains about the gift you've chosen, you can just point out that all the royalties go to Medecins sans Frontieres to help people in countries like Somalia and Haiti. There's no way she can complain about that without looking churlish.

Sorted :)

Momentousness!

2011-09-19T12:33:00.001+01:00

It's Monday, I got feck-all sleep, but I'm buzzing. Why? Because THIS arrived in the post! (Thanks Donna @OBrienPress!)

Sure, I'd seen the image dozens of times before, but there's something very special about holding it in your hands for the first time. Somehow it looks different (though still crazy cute!). For me, the best moment was this:

It's been a dream of mine to have a book published ever since I was a little girl, and to finally see my name on the spine of a book... well, my eyes might have gotten a little moist. I'm only saying they might have, mind you, cos as we all know I'm tough as old nails. Ahem.

Not only that, but as @barbarascully pointed out, I'm sharing the front cover with non other than Marco Pierre White! Ulp. It might sound bananas, but that had never really occurred to me before. It's a good thing I'd just eaten, or I might well have fainted :)

O'Brien Press have an amazingly talented in-house designer (looking at you, Emma!) who took the vague ramblings that passed for my attempt at describing how I pictured the layout of the book, and produced THIS!

Pastel... Pretty...!

Anyway, enough of such gratuitous self-congratulation. I shall flagellate later in atonement.

The important stuff - where can you buy this wondrous tome? And when? Well, it's available on 10th October, though you can pre-order now, and the book is available from all of these fab places:

O'Brien Press Amazon Book Depository Easons Dubray Books Waterstones

and loads of great bookshops all over Ireland and the UK!

Tune in tomorrow for some more utter fabulousness from a really wonderful person! Until tomorrow, you'll have to guess who that is :)

Reasons to buy Tweet Treats, Volume 3

2011-09-16T09:12:00.000+01:00

Home-baked Betty. She's the office Mammy, the one who likes to mind everyone else; the one who always has paracetamol in her bag, or tissues, or wet wipes if you've spilled mayonnaise on your blouse. Betty is the one who instigated Fattening Friday, a day for home-baked cakes, buns and scones - always made by Betty.

That would be great, if Betty's buns weren't about as appetising as Hagrid's rock buns. Poor Betty, she's just so busy being mother hen that she doesn't have time to read recipes properly. The last sponge cake she brought in was more like a lump of asbestos, and just about as good for your health!

Do Betty a favour, give her a copy of Tweet Treats. The recipes are so short, sweet and easy to use that even Betty can bang out some light and fluffy scones, or a really tasty banana bread.

This banana bread was made from a recipe by @mduffywriter, and it's yum!

While you're at it, get yourself a copy of Tweet Treats too, and give Betty a run for her money. Try some golden syrup cookies, or orange biscuits maybe... You'll surprise yourself and realise how quick and easy it is to throw together some home baking when you don't have to wade through pages of ingredients, method and guff about the history of a recipe!

Sorted :)

Reasons to buy Tweet Treats, Volume 2

2011-09-15T16:42:00.000+01:00

Dear old "Agony" Aunt Agatha. She means well, I suppose, but secretly she just wants everything her own way. Remember last year, when she said there was too much suffering in the world, and that she didn't want any frivolous Christmas presents? Remember how you went online and bought a goat, put the certificate in a charity Christmas card and presented it to her proudly on Christmas day? Remember her face when she opened it, and how she kept sneakily looking in the card as though she was sure she'd missed her real present? And will you ever forget her counting up her presents at the end of the day and complaining that everyone else got more presents than she did?! So much for €50 worth of goat.

There are some people who, despite their best intentions, just really want to receive a physical present to look at and ooh and ahh over. This year, buy "Agony" Aunt Agatha a copy of Tweet Treats!

It's pretty, it's useful, it's cool and funky. It's flat and book-shaped, therefore much easier to wrap than a goat. Every copy sold directly benefits Medécins sans Frontières so that Aunt Agatha will feel that she's doing good in the world; and at €7.99 or £6.99 you'll have plenty of change from €50 to throw in a couple of chickens or even a beehive to match Aunt Agatha's hairdo.
Sorted!

Reasons to buy Tweet Treats, Volume 1

2011-09-14T12:41:00.000+01:00

Oh god, it's that time again already, which comes earlier and earlier every year. The Christmas chocs are already on the shelves in Tesco (yes, really!) and any day now someone is going to tell you how many shopping days are left till Christmas. (No, it won't be me. I hate those jerks.)

Inevitably, it'll be Secret Santa time in the office, and who will you draw this year? None other than Halitosis Harry, the man who has brought egg and onion sandwiches to work every day for the last twelve years. What on earth do you get for the man who smells of everything? Why, Tweet Treats of course! There are enough alternative sandwich suggestions in Tweet Treats to persuade even Harry to try something new every day, and hopefully he'll end up with a new favourite that's altogether less stinky.

At the very reasonable price of €7.99 or £6.99 you'll even have change from a tenner to throw in a packet of breath mints. Sorted!

Of course, if you happen to receive a copy of Tweet Treats from your Secret Santa, don't be alarmed; you've obviously received it because you're cool, happening, trendy and discerning. If, however, this awesome gift is accompanied by a packet of breath mints, you should probably take the hint. ;)

Press from my hometown

2011-09-13T13:03:00.000+01:00

Just a very short post to thank Brian Byrne of The Nationalist and Kilcullen Diary (the blog he runs in my hometown) for a lovely piece he wrote about Tweet Treats - you can read it here.

News!

2011-09-12T13:44:00.000+01:00

Afternoon all!

I know you haven't heard much from me for some months now, but I have been sworn to secrecy. *pious face* Now, however, I can reveal all - Tweet Treats will be out soon! Those fantastic folks at The O'Brien Press are publishing Tweet Treats, which will be released on 10th October, four short weeks from today. You can pre-order it here or here or here... or look for it in any good bookshop from Oct 10 :)

In addition, the good people at Knorr have agreed to sponsor the book, and the superstar who is Marco Pierre White has very kindly donated the foreword! As you can imagine, I am currently dancing like this. :)

As I always planned, I'm still donating all royalties to the incredible organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). They are on the ground at the moment in disaster-struck places like Somalia, and every copy of Tweet Treats sold will directly benefit them.

I want to thank once again every single one of you who donated recipes, told other people about the project and helped to spread the word. Now it's time to ask you all to dig deep once again - buy a copy of Tweet Treats! Hell, buy two. Or ten. Give them to everyone you know for Christmas! G'wan, you know you want to :)

And watch this space for updates!

A Pint And A Haircut

2010-09-29T10:53:00.001+01:00

While working on tweettreat, I was introduced on Twitter to @PintAndAHaircut, a guy called Garret Pearse who was working on a similar project; a compilation of true Irish stories to benefit Haiti. I sent a very short piece to Garret, and was delighted when he decided to include it in the book.

The book has now been launched, titled A Pint and A Haircut: True Irish Stories for Haiti, and all royalties are going to Concern's Haiti Fund.

I decided to interview Garret for this blog, curious about the similarities between our projects:

So Garret, how did you come up with the idea for Pint and a Haircut in the first place?

Last Christmas, I got a book from my sister called ‘True Tales of American Lives’ which was a compilation of true American stories submitted by listeners to a show hosted by the author Paul Auster on National Public radio. While I was in the middle of reading it, I heard about the awful earthquake in Haiti and I had the idea of doing an Irish version as a way of raising money for Haiti.

Where on earth did the title for A Pint and a Haircut come from?

I racked my brains for weeks to come up with a title but couldn’t think of one I was happy with. They were all a bit clichéd and unremarkable. I then ran a competition for people to submit their suggestions and while I got some pretty good ones, none of them really grabbed me. Then I got a suggestion from a lady called Jean Cousins to just use the name of one of the stories I’d posted on my blog, ‘A Pint and a Haircut’ and I thought – yep – that’s it! Now why didn’t I think of that weeks ago?! Funnily enough, ‘A Pint and a Haircut’ was the very first story I received.

Compiling a book like this is a huge amount of work to take on. Are you by any chance slightly mad?

I’ve a great ability for blind optimism and self deception. When I first sent out the email asking people to send in their stories, I thought it would be just a case of checking my email account a few days later and selecting some of hundreds of stories and then sending of to a publisher who would fall at my feet in admiration while offering me a deal on the spot!

The reality was obviously a little different. Everybody said ‘oh that’s a great idea, I know someone who could give you a story’ but that missed the point – I wanted them to tell me story. In hindsight, I now realise how hard it can be for someone to sit down and put pen to paper.

All the same, it’s been amazing how generous people have been in so many ways to get the project to where it is now – generous with their stories, their advice, their help, their money (Thanks SoftCo!) and even just their enthusiasm which kept me going through the darker moments.

You seemed to get a publishing deal very quickly. Who did you have to sleep with to get that? ;-)

What? I could have slept with someone instead?! Now there’s a bit of advice I could have done with ages ago!

Seriously, I got some good advice from the likes of Willie O’Reilly at TodayFM who suggested getting a sponsor to help defray some of the publishing costs. I’m very fortunate that I work for an Irish company (yes that same SoftCo) who are incredibly supportive of charity projects. Securing some very generous sponsorship from them made the approach to publishers a lot easier. I submitted my idea and a few of the stories to Londubh and it moved pretty quickly from there.

Who exactly will benefit from the book, and how?

All the royalties from the book will go to Concern’s ongoing relief work in Haiti. The last story in the book is from Mary Donohoe, a Concern worker in Haiti and it illustrates better than I can, how critical it is that Haiti continues to receive help and how beneficial that help can be.

Who are the people who contributed to the book?

One of the most pleasing aspects of the book is how diverse the contributors have been. Stories have come from people from all walks of life, of all ages and from all around the world. I received a few stories from established writers but also from people who have only recently started to write and even those who’d never put pen to paper before and just wanted to help with the project.

Was it difficult to choose the stories that finally made it into the book?

Yes, extremely. And that’s not a facetious answer. We had to leave some fantastic stories out for the simple reason that we didn’t have room and I tossed and turned for a week fretting over which ones to include and which ones to leave behind. Included in those left out was one by submitted by my mother. She seemed to take it well although she did mention something about meeting her solicitor the next day ‘to make some changes’ to something or other...Actually now that I think of it, she hasn’t had me round for dinner in ages either...hmmmm....

Were there any common themes running through the stories?

While not every story necessarily fit into a theme, we did receive a number of stories relating to similar topics – death, health and parents being the most common (which, it being an Irish collection, didn’t surprise me). What was great was the diversity of stories even within those themes.

Have you a personal favourite story, or one that really struck a chord with you?

It sounds trite but all the stories mean something to me. However, I do find myself coming back to a few in particular. If I were to pick one that I think combines everything I was hoping for in a story, it would be Speech! Speech! by Ian O’Malley. It evokes many emotions from humour to sadness to hope and is an unmistakeably Irish story.

And finally, how can we get our hands on a copy?

The book should be available in all good book shops throughout Ireland. It is being distributed by Argosy and Easons Wholesalers.

It is also available to buy online direct from the publisher, Londubh.

Thanks for that, Garret, and I wish you every success with the book - it's an amazing thing to have taken on!

If you'd like to read more, the gorgeous cover design is by @eolai who has blogged about it here.

The Name of the Game

2010-09-21T10:51:00.000+01:00

Hello wonderful, clever Twitterversians and Blogosphericals! I am in need of your assistance.

I'm currently beavering away at a book proposal for TweetTreat, and it has been pointed out to me that our title so far - TweetTreat - is a little unwieldy on the tongue. Therefore, I'm looking for an alternative title, or a subtitle, for the book.

As far as I'm concerned, the important details to bring out in the title are: 1) the recipes are short, 2) the recipes are easy, 3) the book is a bit of fun.

There are many popular cookbooks out there with titles like Meals in Minutes, so I want to play on that idea; but while not all Tweettreat recipes are for quick meals, all the recipes themselves are quick. Do you follow?

Anyway, I'm throwing my poor brain on your tender mercies, to see if you lot can come up with a better title than I have so far. Best one will be a new rockstar for the day, and will get credit in the book! Can't say fairer than that... ;)

Updated Celebrity Lists

2010-08-18T18:22:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

I've finally found the time to fully update the list of celebrities who have donated to TweetTreat on the right hand side of this page. Isn't that some list?! It's fully uptodate as of last night.

We're very, very nearly there... :)

Warning: Contains Nerdishness

2010-07-29T18:54:00.000+01:00

Hi all, I'm going away for a week on Saturday so I've been just catching up with some of my spreadsheets etc. before I go. Want to know some of the latest nerdy statistics about #TweetTreat? Course you do!

So far, we have received:

1717 recipes from:
400 contributors, of whom:
95 are celebrities

Contributions to date have come from 17 different countries, and the combined total of followers of those 400 contributors is 5,895,407! Wowsers!

I know, I know, the celebrity box on the right hand side is seriously cluttered and out of date. I'll sort it as soon as I have a minute, I promise.

Anyhoo, while I'm on my holliers I'll be dropping in and out on Twitter (depending on connections etc) but I'm leaving my baby in the capable hands of celeb-chaser extraordinaire, @mduffywriter. :)

I'll be back in charge on Monday 9th August. If I can wrest the reins from @mduffywriter's grip, that is. ;)

Enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend, Irish people! ;)

Festival of World Cultures

2010-07-25T20:02:00.000+01:00

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.

You know, for Kids! - Again

2010-07-20T22:16:00.000+01:00

Hi all, today's challenge was children's food, even though we'd done it before. I noticed I hadn't as many children's recipes as I'd like, and boy am I glad I asked for more - some fantastic ones came in today!

As soon as I saw this one I knew it was a winner:

"Cup of milk, one egg, halfcup plain flour, pinch salt, drop blue food die. Pan fry in butter, add bacon.#greeneggsandham"

How fantastic is that?! Thanks once again to @emilyjaneross!

Now for some significant news; our #tweettreat total is now at 1706 recipes, which means that we've exceeded our target! It's utterly incredible that we've collected so many, in slightly under twelve weeks. Thanks again everyone for your help. :)

So, what does this mean? Well, basically it means that today's challenge was the last. Unless I discover a gap in the book somewhere, which might mean one or two more; but certainly today's was the last regular one. Boo, sniff.

Now, our attention needs to turn more strongly towards celebrities. We have a great list of contributors so far, numbering 90; but our aim is to get 140, so we have 50 to go. Please, anyone and everyone, if you can help to get celebrities' attention on Twitter, I would be very, very grateful.

So, now the work also begins on compiling the recipes I've received into a book. I've had so many offers of help with this, which are hugely appreciated. Most recently, @MJulieMiller, who is an indexer, offered to do the index for me. I'm astounded by her generosity, and have very gratefully accepted! @MJulieMiller is new to Twitter, and is well worth a follow. :)

I'll continue to blog daily, to keep you all posted on any news, updates and celebrity acquisitions, so don't go away!

Just Another Manic Monday

2010-07-19T22:08:00.000+01:00

Hi all and happy Monday! For starters, the results of the jury are in on the frozen #tweettreats from Friday, and the winner is....

1 banana, half punnet of strawberries, half a large pot natural yoghurt, blend, then pour into ice lolly molds, freeze - Well done to @Pamreader!

Now, today's challenge was Manic Monday - food that can be prepared very quickly when you're having a busy day! My favourite was this:

"Tin green lentils (drain, wash) salt, oil&vin & sliced scallion. Nice w Fennel Salad: slice, oil&vin, salt & toasted pinenuts"

I was completely won over when @aoifemcl told me it was her kids' favourite dish! Wow.

That brings me rather nicely to tomorrow's challenge. We now have 1685 recipes and are very close to our notional target of 1700, so I'm starting to look at areas and categories in which I'm short. So, tomorrow's category that I need to pad out somewhat is Kids Food - it can be sweet or savoury, I don't mind. As ever, the best recipe will be rockstar. I wonder if we can get to 1700 tomorrow?

Wow, that's kinda scary...

Freezer Friday

2010-07-16T22:27:00.000+01:00

Hello all, and welcome to the weekend! Today's challenge was frozen food; hints or tips for freezing, meals to make and freeze ahead, ice-cream, etc. Got some great recipes, mostly ice-cream funnily enough... ;) We now have 1656 in total!

Having found these ridiculously hard to judge, I decided to put my favourites to the public vote. Vote for your personal favourite in the comments below by their number, please (and no, you can't vote for your own!) and the recipe with most votes will be declared rockstar on Monday.

1. Sugar High Cake: Mix 2 fave ice creams, add 2 fave candy bars (crushed). Pour into pan. Drizzle choc sauce. Freeze. @HOHWwriter

2. 1 banana, half punnet of strawberries, half a large pot natural yoghurt, blend, then pour into ice lolly molds, freeze @Pamreader

3. Mix 2 eggs & 2 tsp sugar. Dip a scoop of ice cream in mix. Roll in crushed corn flakes. Deep fry for 15 secs & serve w/coulis @EleanorFitz

4. Heat 1/2pt tonic &1oz sugar til sugar dissolves. Cool. Stir in 1/4pt gin. Freeze in rigid container 3hrs. Stir. Freeze overnight. @rosamundi

5. IrishCreamsicles: 2/3c sug, 1/4c cornstrch, 1/4tsp salt, 3c milk, 3 yolks. Whisk&cook til thick. Add 1/2c IrishCream, freeze. @MontanaGael

6. Two frozen bananas-1 frozen mango-all in blender= raw vegan ice cream! :) @olivosartstudio

There's also another challenge for Monday - it's Manic Monday, and I'm looking for lightning-fast meals. :)

Have a great weekend everyone, and don't forget to vote!

Turkey Thursday

2010-07-15T22:46:00.000+01:00

Thanks to a question from @Fictional100 I realised yesterday that I had rather a dearth of turkey recipes, hence today's challenge.

Today this one was my favourite:

"Sweat 6 leeks in butter for 30mins. Add wine, rosemary, thyme & cream, simmer. Add turkey & season well. Top with puffpastry."

And so today's rockstar of tweettreat is @emilyjaneross - Thanks Emily!

Now, tomorrow's challenge is one suggested a while ago by @thejayfaulkner, and it is for frozen food. Either quick dishes you can rustle up from your freezer, or good meals to freeze till later, methods of freezing certain foods, anything goes. And, of course, ice-cream. :)

We've hit a total of 1,644 recipes today, which is a great number. We're so, so near our target (which is a notional 1700). Keep up the good work, everyone! Thanks for all your help. :)

Finally before you go, and in honour of Turkey Thursday, here is Ireland's unofficial mascot Dustin singing his version of Lemon Tree, "Christmas Tree". Enjoy. :)

Till tomorrow.

Like Momma Used To Make

2010-07-14T23:08:00.000+01:00

In ongoing honour of my recuperating husband (who had better stop overdoing it post-surgery or he'll have me to answer for), today's theme is convalescent food, the sort of thing your Mum used to make for you when you were sick.

Some lovely recipes came in, bringing us to the terrific total of 1630. My favourite was this:

"L'Aigo Boulido
4C water slt 12clv garlic To boil Add 1baylf chpd sage dash olvoil Ck 2m Steep 10m Slice brd in bowl Top olvoil grtd cheese soup."

Apparently it's a Provencal recipe, reputely an elixir for convalescents and new mothers - and a godsend for those with hangover! That's according to @JackyHSF, our rockstar for today. :)

Now, thanks to a question from @Fictional100, I've realised that we have a dearth of turkey recipes. So, tomorrow is Turkey Thursday - I'm looking for recipes for ground turkey/mince, turkey steaks, turkey legs, you name it. As ever, the best one will be rockstar.

Till tomorrow!

This One's For My Other Half

2010-07-12T21:55:00.000+01:00

Happy Monday everyone, and apologies for my absence over the last few days - I was dutifully nursing my beloved husband through a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (that's gall bladder removal to you).

Anyway, last Thursday's challenge - which carried over till today - was for low-fat, high-fibre foods in my husband's honour. You guys are amazing - you kept pushing and plugging away at the #tweettreats all weekend, and we now have a grand total of 1605 recipes! Hopefully another 100 should do the job. We're also close to 90 celebrities, which is incredible - 50 or so to go. :)

Today's winner was very hard to choose out of so many, but I really liked this one and can see myself using it:

"Low Fat Houmous:
1 tin chickpeas,1/2gn chilli,1/2tsp cumin,2tbsp lem/juice,3 minced garlic,1 tbsp chickpea liquid. Blend until smooth."

That's from @CountryLets - thank you! Thanks also to the various new contributors to #tweettreat who joined over the last few days - lovely to see you all. :)

My dear husband has also suggested tomorrow's challenge, which is for nice convalescent food - stuff your mom used to make when you were sick, chicken soup etc.

As ever, if you try any of the #tweettreat recipes do let us know. :)

Toad-in-the-hole with Pavlova

2010-07-07T22:53:00.000+01:00

Hi all, today's challenge was for food that was named after someone or something. It was also an opportunity for some ridiculously silly puns, and you didn't disappoint!

It was a hard choice, but here is my favourite for the day cos it's dead posh, so it is:

"Tournedos Rossini
Fry filet mignon in butter,place on a crouton,top w/slice foie gras,garnish w/black truffle,madeira sauce."

And today's rockstar is @LevParikian! :)

Now, I may not be around much tomorrow. My beloved husband is having surgery (nothing major - should be home tomorrow evening!) so I'll be in hospital for the day. I'll pop in and out of Twitter when I can.

Anyway, hubby has been advised to eat a low-fat, high-fibre diet for a while after the surgery, so that's tomorrow's challenge - Hubby Helpers!

Talk to you all at some stage tomorrow. :)

Chews-Day

2010-07-06T21:19:00.000+01:00

Happy Chews-day everyone! Today's challenge was simple - it was for chewy food. My willpower has been sorely tested today, as I received not one but two recipes for fudge - my greatest weakness! Both fudge recipes were fantastic, but I had to choose this one as rockstar (even if I had to edit this person's recipe down to 140 characters. AGAIN.)

"Baileys and White Chocolate Fudge
Heavy saucepn,stir500g sgr,500ml cream,50ml Baileys, simmer.Boilwhen sgr dissolved.Stir FTTT.Add150g white choc. 22cm LINED tin,cool.Cut"

Apparently FTTT means "from time to time". This one had to win cos as well as fudge, it also featured Baileys. Drool. And today's rockstar (for what, the third time? Fourth? Lost track) is @chiddle84! You're starting to sound positively domestic these days, you know.

Now, tomorrow's challenge came to me in a convoluted way. I was thinking about Wednesday, and how it was named after Odin or Wodin the Norse God, especially as I was thinking of @neilhimself's American Gods a lot. Then I started thinking about things that are named after other things, and the end result is this: Tomorrow's challenge is food that is named after animals (toad in the hole?) or people (Pavlova?). There you go, a fascinating insight into the working of my brain. ;)

See you all tomorrow!

'Merican Monday

2010-07-05T22:29:00.000+01:00

Howdy y'all and I hope you had a great 4th of July if you were celebrating it!

Ok, I'll drop the awful accent. Today's challenge was 'Merican Monday, in honour of 4th of July. All American recipes were welcome, and some great (and peculiar!) ones came in. I especially liked this one:

"Hush Puppies
Mix 2 beaten eggs,1/2c sugar,1 diced onion,add 1c flour,1c cornmeal, drop by tsp into 2inches 350 degree oil, fry til golden"

I find that recipe fascinating, cos if you're Irish this is what Hush Puppies are. ;) Anyway, today's rockstar - who also happens to be a Yank - is @DazedPuckBunny! She's well worth a follow, too. Thanks for the recipes, hon. :)

Now, tomorrow's challenge; it's Chews-day. Did you see what I did there? Didja? Didja? Basically, anything chewy is welcome. That can be toffee or caramel, or fudgy brownies, or sticky flapjacks, or soft-baked cookies... oh boy, I'm drooling! Looking forward to tomorrow now.

Tonight we hit 1555 recipes - what a lovely number! What are our chances of hitting 1600 tomorrow? It's a long shot... We've also received recipes from 86 lovely, charming and obliging celebrities. I wonder who'll join us next?

Till tomorrow!

Fry-Day

2010-07-02T21:13:00.001+01:00

Welcome to the weekend, everyone! It was another great day on #tweettreat, starting with the receipt of a recipe from @heatherofficial - Heather Mills herself! Heather is a big campaigner for charity, so it's fantastic to have a contribution to #tweettreat from her. Kudos to @mduffywriter who tracked her down and asked her. :) We have now received 1525 recipes, exceeding our target for the week which was 1500. Our number of celebrity contributors is also up, and now stands at 83.

Today's challenge was fried food, particularly for food that you wouldn't normally expect to fry. As ever I got some great recipes in, some of them utterly intriguing. My favourite was this:

"Mix cream cheese, grated Cheddar, grated apple,Tabasco, salt, pepper. Make wholemeal bread sandwich. Fry in butter both sides."

And today's rockstar of #tweettreat is @ClodaghMMurphy - thanks Clodagh, I've got to try that one. :)

Now for Monday's challenge; as Sunday is the 4th of July, a big event on the American calendar, I hereby declare that Monday is 'Merican Monday. I'm looking for typical American food, particularly if you would normally eat it on July 4th. I know that 18% of contributors to #tweettreat thus far are from the US, so there should be no excuses! As ever though, I'm happy to take any recipe, any time.

In other news there is now a Facebook page for #tweettreat thanks to @rebeccaebrown. Please go and "like" it to help spread the word!

Finally, in the spirit of Fry-day (and with thanks to @davidgilray), go to Google, type in 2204355 and click on "I'm feeling lucky". Enjoy!

Have a great weekend everyone, and if you're celebrating 4th of July I hope you have a ball. :)

Cakes and Bakes

2010-07-01T22:04:00.001+01:00

It's almost the weekend! Time for a spot of baking, don't you think? Today's challenge was cakes and baked goods. Some of you found this challenge quite difficult, but came up with some good recipes nonetheless, bringing us to a total of 1509.

My favourite for today was this:

"Mugfin:
Lge mug,mix 4tbsp ea SR flour/sugar 2tbsp cocoa,1 egg then 3tbps ea milk,oil ½ tsp coffee essence M'wave 3mins @ max When risen/set tip out"

In fact, I liked the sound of this one so much I decided to try it with my daughter to see if it really worked. The results are here:
Picture one
Picture two
And today's rockstar, for the second time, is @JackyHSF - well done!

Well, tomorrow is Friday. Since so many of you were horrified earlier this week by my fried jam sandwiches, I have declared tomorrow to be Fry-day. I want to hear about food that can be fried, especially food that you wouldn't normally fry but is somehow delicious! (Did I ever tell you about my father-in-law who discovered that he could cook an entire fried breakfast in his deep fat fryer? Sausages, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, bread... only the eggs escaped. Now that's a real cholesterol special!)

I expect to be shocked, horrified, entertained and amused by tomorrow's offerings... :-D

Packed Lunches and Picnics

2010-06-30T22:16:00.000+01:00

Evening all!

This morning started off very exciting in #tweettreat land, with recipes donated by @LouDPhillips - Lou Diamond Phillips himself - and by @Schofe - Philip Schofield! How cool was that? Thanks and kudos to @ShirtnTie and @thejayfaulkner respectively for those two, very well done guys. :) That brings our celebrity total to 82 - a mere 58 to go! Very doable.

Some lovely, unusual recipes came in for today's challenge. Though we didn't quite hit the 1500 mark - we have 1494 recipes - I'm sure we'll get there tomorrow. I really like this one:

"Fry onion garlic add Shi-i-take s&p put in wrap smeared with smashed avocado+juice fresh lemon tomato&salad on top"

And today's rockstar is @CreaZin! Well done, nice to see another newbie winning a challenge. :)

Tomorrow's challenge, as suggested by yesterday's winner @Danoosha, is for cakes - or any and all baked goods, including cookies, etc. As ever, the best recipe will earn rockstar status.

Have fun!

The Staff of Life

2010-06-29T21:37:00.000+01:00

Happy Tuesday everyone, especially to newcomers to #tweettreat - feel free to read down through the blog, try out some of the recipes, and spread the word! :)

Today's challenge was Bread; either baking it or recipes featuring it. You have been a very busy lot and loads of great recipes came in; it was really, genuinely hard to pick a winner today. In the end, I chose this one:

"Brioche
60g bttr, 3tbsp mlk, 2 egs, 30g sug, 275g pl four, 1 sch yeast tsp mixspc milk into melted bttr, add rest set brd mker on sweet 500g loaf"

That is a perfect example of a #tweettreat if ever I saw one - concise, intelligible and yummy! What's amazing to me is that this great effort came from a #tweettreat newbie, @Danoosha, who is today's rockstar of #tweettreat. Some of the rest of you could learn a thing or two from that (cough@chiddle84cough)

Tomorrow is my darling daughter's last day of school before the summer holidays (can you smell the dread from there?). So, tomorrow's challenge is for packed lunches (cos no more of them for a while) and picnics (if the weather holds!) As ever, the best recipe will win rockstar status. :)

At time of blogging, we have 1482 recipes and 80 celebrities! I'm sure we'll easily pass the 1500 mark tomorrow.

Thanks again everyone, and huge ongoing thanks to #teamtweettreat - I couldn't have picked a better bunch of people to work with even if I had, you know, actually picked you. Instead of you foisting yourselves on me. Love you all! ;)

Musical Monday

2010-06-28T21:27:00.002+01:00

Hi all and I hope you had a good weekend!

My Monday got off to a truly stonking start when I received a #tweettreat from none other than @neilhimself - Neil Gaiman! A very nice recipe it is too, for cherry crumble. I'm still on cloud nine. :)

Anyway, today's challenge was for musically inspired food, either suggested by the title of a song, featuring in a musical, etc. There was less messing today than I'd feared with this topic, and some very good recipes were tweeted. Today's winner is one which put a nice twist on the music-inspired theme:

"Toast 2 sl of bread. Put peanut butter on 1 piece, banana on other. Sandwich together and fry in real butter. Bow to the King."

Today's rockstar is @jeanharrie! Well done you. As of today, I've received 1442 recipes from 340 contributors including 79 celebrities. Not half bad. :)

Tomorrow's challenge, as suggested by @chiddle84, is bread. You can tweet recipes for baking bread, or to use leftover bread (breadcrumbs?) or even things to make with bread, such as sandwiches. A nice, versatile task that - so no excuses, right?

Now, a few more statistics for you. I've been getting rather nosy about you lot and wondering where all of the #tweettreats have been coming from, so I spent the day on some more statistics. So far, I've received recipes from 15 countries, with the nationalities of people donating #tweettreats breaking down as follows:
UK 47.18%
Ireland 19%
USA 17.8%
Scotland 3.26%
Canada 2.37%
France 1.48%
N. Ireland 1.19%
Australia .89%
Netherlands .89%
Kenya .60%
Bahrain .30%
Israel .30%
Mexico .30%
Qatar .30%
Spain .30%

I find this sort of thing fascinating, though it'll prolly bore you lot to tears! I thought it very interesting that although this project started in Ireland, by far the most contributors to date have come from the UK. On a day you're all probably pretty down about the World Cup, that's something you can feel good about!

Talk to you all tomorrow.

Thank Crunchie it's Friday!

2010-06-25T21:13:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the weekend!

Today's challenge was Thank Crunchie it's Friday - or thank Mars, or Maltesers, or Skittles, or anything else. You were invited to create quick and easy desserts with choccie bars from the corner shop (so long as they weren't Nestle.)

Now, remind me never to do a challenge like this again, cos I've had a longing for chocolate all day that has nearly been the undoing of me! You all relished this task, with double cream, caramel and chocolate abounding in your recipes. Evil sods that you are.

Anyway, it was hard to pick a winner cos they were all massively calorific, but this one really sounded good to me:

"Melt 300g mlk choc & 25g butter Bash sm pk Rich Tea bisc & 4 Crunchies & stir in Press into 15cm sq foil tin Chill Cut into sqrs"

Today's rockstar is a relative newcomer to #tweettreat, but a very welcome one - @JackyHSF! Well done, and keep them coming. :)

We also beat our goal today, which was 1400 - we now have 1409 #tweettreats, and 73 celebrities! The celebrities section on the right hand side of the site will get a makeover during the weekend, cos it's getting a bit unruly...

On to Monday's challenge; given how much fun everyone had with Food on Film, Monday is Musical Monday. Food in songs (even bad puns; "Oh, EClaire..."), food from musicals (Oliver?) etc. Let your imagination run wild! Try to make actual recipes, though. If you can.

Now, if anyone reading this blog is still confused about what Twitter is and what it's for, this video... really won't explain anything at all. Sorry.

Have a great weekend everyone, enjoy and have a good rest - you've earned it!

Tart Thursday

2010-06-24T22:58:00.000+01:00

I despair of the twitterverse, I really do. I mention that today's challenge is for tarts, and suddenly you all turn into giggly ten-year-old boys. Honestly.

Still, you seemed to be having fun coming up with the goods! Some fantastic recipes came in today, bringing us to a total of 1384. We've also now received contributions from 70 celebrities - half our goal of 140! Huge kudos today to @mduffywriter, who managed to get a contribution from @PaulaAbdul of all people - and to everyone else who's spread the word and pushed the message today, thank you too.

On to tonight's winner, which is this:

"Fill cooked pastry case with stewed apple.Dot with bits of marzipan,cook in mod hot oven til marzipan rich brown& sort of crispy on the top"

Tonight's rockstar is @Chadwickauthor! Fabulous sounding recipe. It had me at marzipan. ;)

Now for some interesting statistics, which took me all day! Thus far, I have received:

1384 recipes from:
323 contributors with a combined following of:
3,348,350

How incredible is that?! And how amazing are all of you, for all the work you've done!

Round of applause for yourselves, please!

Now, tomorrow's challenge is an easy one; Thank Crunchie it's Friday! I want simple recipes that involve Crunchies. Or Mars Bars. Or Maltesers. Or crisps. Anything, really, so long as it's not a Nestle product - no Nestle products will make the grade in this book!

Have fun with this one and I'll talk to you all tomorrow :)

Romancing the Stones...

2010-06-23T23:45:00.000+01:00

A very quick blog post tonight, hopefully before midnight so it counts as today! Sorry, I had some friends drop in for a couple of drinks and got very held up with tonight's bloggage.

Anyway, today's challenge was Romance - romantic food, aphrodisiacs, food your beloved loves, etc. All I can say is that this challenge proved that there are some very sick, very kinky people out there in the twitterverse! I expected oysters on the half shell, but I actually got multi-flavoured chocolate body paint from @mduffywriter...

However, that's nothing on tonight's winner, which is this:

"Aphrodisiac: One for the men, obviously! Cojones al ajo. Skin, slice, and gently fry sheep or stallion testicles in olive oil with garlic."

This jaw-dropping offering was from tonight's rockstar, @davidgilray! Remind me never to come to your house for dinner, ok?

Tomorrow is Tart Thursday. Tarts of all descriptions are welcome. Sweet, savoury, miniature, @mduffywriter ;) - whatever. As ever, other recipes are also welcome. Today we reached the respectable number of 1355 recipes, and 60 celebrities. How far can we get tomorrow?

Mother Hubbard Miracles

2010-06-22T20:17:00.001+01:00

Today's challenge was for those meals that you manage to ingeniously scrape together from whatever is left in the cupboards, rather than going shopping (or if you're broke!). You came up with some great ones, one or two that I'll definitely be trying. Today's winner is this:

"Slice potatoes thin, parboil for 10 mins. Put in dish with onion, mushroom, cheese layers. Add stock and milk. Bake for 30 mins"

I really like the sound of that. Today's rockstar is @dorristheloris - your student days have been worthwhile after all!

Tomorrow's challenge - as suggested previously by @neversarah - is Romance. It's a loose category (phnar phnar), so you can tweet heart-shaped food, recipes that sound romantic/poetic, aphrodisiacs, even your loved one's favourite dish. I'm not fussy. :) Remember, the daily challenges are just for fun and I'm happy to take any recipe, any time.

Now, some news. The wonderful and very very clever @neversarah suggested some time ago that I should aim for 1400 recipes in the finished book, as a direct reflection of the number of characters in a tweet. She also suggested aiming for 140 celebrities. See what she did there? See? Told you she was clever. :)

Anyway, after due consideration, that's what I'm going to do. (I hope.) It means I'm going to have to increase the target from 1200 (which we've exceeded now anyway, we're at 1326) to about 1600, once again to allow for editing and culling.

At present I've received recipes from 58 celebrities, so we're not quite halfway there on that score. Come on, #teamtweettreat! :) I hate to keep asking and pestering you all to help, but so many of you have gotten so good at celeb stalking - I mean, asking - that it's a little scary. ;) I know it's easy to start flagging at this stage - I'm fairly wiped myself - but I really believe that it will all be worth it in the end. I couldn't have gotten this far without all of you helping and contributing, and I really hope you'll put up with me for a while longer. :)

Talk to you all tomorrow!

Last minute edit - forgot to add this link, to another funny recipe blog post. Enjoy!

Muggle Munchies and Magic Meals

2010-06-21T21:37:00.000+01:00

Well I for one am pretty glad Monday is nearly over! Getting recipes today has been rather like pulling teeth. I suppose you're all exhausted after your huge movie-meal effort last week, is that it? ;)

Anyway, today's challenge was for food from Harry Potter. I didn't get many of those, though I got a good few other recipes today from some newbies - hello and welcome to #tweettreat! A special hello to @paulakahumbu who single-handedly tweeted about 20 recipes today. :) Well, since I can't award rockstar status to myself (can I? No? Ok.) today's winner is this:

Slug Jelly
"In glass bowl layer diff coloured jelly & jelly Bugs sweets.couple drops green food colouring to whipped cream & use to top."

That was from @NettieWriter! Well done Nettie. :)

Tomorrow's challenge - as set by @rebeccaebrown - is for store-cupboard meals. You know, those dinners you manage to pull together out of what's lurking in the back of the fridge/cupboard cos you just couldn't be bothered going to the supermarket! Inventiveness is the order of the day. Let's call it the Mother Hubbard challenge, shall we? ;)

We hit the 1300 mark tonight, which was fantastic. I'm aiming for 1350 tomorrow - can we do it? :)

Till Tuesday, byee!

Football Fever

2010-06-18T21:39:00.001+01:00

Thank Crunchie it's Friday, eh? This week has been insane, so it was quite a relief that today was rather quiet in #tweettreat land. Still, we've reached a total of 1255 recipes, which is very respectable.

Today's challenge was for World Cup related grub - anything spherical, or served in a cup, or eaten while watching football. My favourite was this:

"Whiz 1/2onion, 1garlic, 2 eggs, bread crumbs, grated nutmeg, salt. Add to 1kg minced meat. Form balls & brown.#Tweatballs."

I mean come on! It even features a jolly good pun. :) Today's rockstar is @SCallejo!

Special mention also has to go to @thejayfaulkner, who seems to have trawled through his entire address book today in search of more #tweettreats - thanks Jay!

As you may remember, yesterday's winner was a recipe for pumpkin juice from Harry Potter. Earlier today @dorristheloris suggested that food from Harry Potter be the next theme, and a jolly good idea it is too. Therefore that is Monday's challenge! Much of what they munch in Hogwarts is classic English fair; pies, puddings and custard, and so on. You can reproduce any dish - or have a go at Bertie Botts' Every Flavour Beans, if you fancy it! There's plenty of inspiration over at Mugglenet.

A late addendum here; I knew I was forgetting something when I was writing this post! Here, courtesy of @davidgilray, is a very topical article - read and enjoy! (If you're male, you might want to cross your legs.)

Hope you all have a great weekend, talk to you on Monday. :)

Food on Film

2010-06-17T21:49:00.000+01:00

Heavens to Betsy, what a day!

Today's challenge of food from the movies - as suggested by @neversarah - seems to really have captured everyone's imagination. 104 recipes flew at me from all directions, I could barely keep up! Our new total is an incredible 1237. Wowsers. That means we beat today's target, beat tomorrow's target and even beat Monday's target! (That means I can take tomorrow off, right? Right?)

Anyway, things got a little silly today, but it was all part of the fun. A lot of the recipes weren't actually edible, but did cause great hilarity. You can read them all in the #tweettreat stream, and some in the #movietweettreat stream created just for today.

However, I've decided that since this is a recipe book, the winning recipe actually needs to be edible, at least in theory. It's still an incredibly difficult job to narrow down all the great recipes I received today, but this one stood out most:

"5 cups apple jce,1 cup pumpkin puree,ground ginger & cinnamon to taste.Whizz tog,serv over ice. Pumpkin Juice / Harry Potter"

Today's rockstar is the wonderful @NettieWriter! :)

Now, in keeping with the "theme" theme, tomorrow's challenge is the World Cup. You can tweet ball-shaped recipes, dishes of whatever nationality is playing, food you'd eat while watching football, or even things you can eat in a cup. I really don't mind, have fun with it! (But not as much fun as today, please, I'm flattened!)

See you all tomorrow, have a good night. :)

Regional Recipes

2010-06-16T17:41:00.000+01:00

Welcome to Wednesday, whose challenge was for regional recipes - or dishes that are popular in your own neck of the woods. We've now reached the terrific number of 1133 recipes. I wonder if we could hit 1166 tomorrow, and break the 1200 barrier by the end of the week? That'd be amazing!

This challenge generated some interesting and unusual recipes, my favourite of which was this:

Pease Pudding
"Split peas, onion, water. Bring to boil then simmer till soft. liquidise, add egg. oven gas 4 30 mins"

I finally know what the nursery rhyme of my childhood was all about; "Pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold, pease pudding in the pot, nine days old" etc. And so, today's rockstar is @rebeccaebrown!

Mind you, that's one recipe I definitely won't be trying. Groo. ;)

Tomorrow's challenge - as suggested by @neversarah - is food from the movies! It can be a dish suggested by the title of a movie, or a dish eaten or mentioned during a movie. Don't worry, I'm not asking anyone to recreate Babette's Feast in 140 characters. :)

Finally, I'll leave you with another funny recipe-type blog post, this one by @ElizabethBastos. It seems very apt, given that I'm Irish and today's challenge was for regional dishes; anyone with an Irish mother (or Mother-in-law!) will relate. :)

See you all tomorrow.

Food for a Fiver

2010-06-15T19:39:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

Todays challenge - as set by the lovely @rebeccaebrown - was Food for a Fiver, or budget family meals.

The great news is that we've passed another milestone, that of 1,100 recipes - we now have 1,102! Thanks again to all of you, old hands and #tweettreat newbies, for putting up with me and continuing to produce the goods. :)

And so, on to today's rockstar, which is this:

"Savoury Bread and Butter Pudding:
Slice+butter stale bread. Layer in dish w/chopped onion+ham. Add beaten eggs/milk/blk ppr. Top grtd chs. Bake 180 till golden."

Today's winner is @helen_kara! Well done, that dish could't come to more than £2.50, never mind a fiver. :)

Tomorrow's challenge is for typical dishes for your country/region. I've received some great recipes over the weeks from various different countries, many of which I'd never heard of before, and I'm interested to read more. It doesn't have to be an official, national dish; just something that's popular in your neck of the woods. (For all you English followers that'll be curry, then?) ;)

As ever, the best recipe tomorrow will win rockstar status for its tweeter. Let's try to hit the 1,125 mark tomorrow, ok?

And now, to leave you on a light note, have a read of this - I think it's the funniest food/recipe related blog post I've ever read, courtesy of @PenguinGalaxy.

Till tomorrow!

The Evolution of Fairy Jane - Goth to Glitter!

2010-06-15T15:19:00.000+01:00

Just a little added extra today; @mduffywriter wrote a poem in my honour. I told her I was going to put it up on the blog, so here it is:

In Twitford all the fairies came

to hear their fairy queen.

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.

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!

THE END

You've Been Kept Stewing!

2010-06-14T20:56:00.000+01:00

Hope everyone had a good weekend?

Today's challenge was for stews, of any description. I've received recipes for meat stews, vegetable stews, even stewed fruit. Our total is now at 1076 recipes!

One of the recipes I'll definitely be trying myself is this one:

"Vegetable Stew:
Sauté onion.Squeeze 1/4 cup grated ginger, add tin toms, chilli paste, boil Cook 5 mins + 2 chopped sweet potatoes & half cauli, 15 mins"

And today's rockstar is @HazelKLarkin - well done, Hazel!

I just want to say as well that I tried this recipe for tzatziki yesterday by @helen_kara:

"Tsatziki: Rub bowl with cut garlic. De-seed and finely chop cucumber. Mix in bowl with Greek yogurt, fresh dill, salt to taste."

It was fantastic - really easy, tasted fabulous. Will be making that again. :)

Now, tomorrow's challenge - as set by the genius who is @rebeccaebrown - is for Food for a Fiver. It can be any sort of food so long as it's a complete meal for four people for £5 or less. (If in Europe, think €8; if in US, $8; Canada, about $10, etc.)

It's a great suggestion, well done Rebecca. :)

Keep an eye on the list of luminaries to the right of the screen; it's changing daily! Thanks again to #teamtweettreat for all their hard work chasing people up.

Till tomorrow!

Start Spreading the News!

2010-06-11T23:11:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone, and welcome to the shiny new-look #tweettreat blog! (With grateful thanks to @ukegnome who saved my sanity at one point, and didn't even raise his voice.) ;)

You can now see a list of the luminaries who've joined us at #tweettreat down the right-hand-side of the page, and details of how to get involved are further down on the right. I hope you all approve? :)

Anyway, today's challenge was spreads, since we're spreading the word so well about this project (with heartfelt thanks as ever to #teamtweettreat). So without further ado, you may all drool over this:

"Small piece poached salmon add mayo lemon juice black pepper salt. Whiz in blender. Spread on sliced toasted baguette."

And today's rockstar is none other than the very lovely @austenonly! Well done Julie. :)

Now, since we're all going to be stewing over the weekend anyway, your challenge for Monday is stew. You can stew anything you like, from meat, fish, or vegetables to fruit. You can even stew your tea, if that takes your fancy. And if you can make an interesting #tweettreat out of it. :)

Remember, if you try any of the recipes, let us know here in the comments or on Twitter. Also, please let me know what you think of the new-look blog in the comments!

Have a great weekend everyone, and thanks again to you all for your help and support. :)

Starters for Ten

2010-06-10T21:04:00.000+01:00

Howdy all,

Things continue to go swimmingly in the #tweettreat camp. We now have 1029 recipes, and have been joined by yet more well-known names, such as:

@austen_addict - Laurie Viera Rigler, auther of Confessions of an Austen Addict and Rude Awakenings of an Austen Addict
@wendytalksback - Wendy Austin, BBC Radio Ulster anchor
@RFLong - fantasy writer, author of The Scroll Thief and others
@ClaireAllan - bestselling author of Rainy Days and Tuesdays and others

Again, they're just the well-known names who joined the ranks of #tweettreat today. :)

Now, our latest challenge was for starters or appetisers. As usual you didn't disappoint, I received lots of lovely recipes. Here's my favourite:

"My fave starter-steam asparagus, wrap in prosciutto & grill, serve w/flakes of parmesan, pine nuts & balsamic vinegar"

I chose the above cos it features several of my favourite foods! And today's rockstar of #tweettreat is @RFLong! Well done and thank you. :)

Now, @mduffywriter has very kindly been mounting a campaign to drive up the followers on this blog - so if you're reading this and you don't already follow it, please click the follow button now. We need to drive the numbers up to help spread the word about #tweettreat.

And, in the spirit of spreading, that's your next challenge - spreads! It can be anything at all that's spreadable, such as jams, preserves, pates, chutneys, etc. etc.

I'm also aiming to beat the 1050 mark tomorrow - can we do it? Yes we can! :)

We're going Bananas over here!

2010-06-09T21:21:00.002+01:00

Welcome to Wednesday!

The last 24 hours have been very exciting on #tweettreat. Not only have we passed the 1,000th recipe mark - yes, we're now at 1,008 - but we've also been joined by several other well-known names. Such as:

@SJRestaurant - St John Restaurant
@justcookit - Masterchef finalist Alex Rushmer
@TheBobbyBall - comedian Bobby Ball
@fionalooney - writer, journalist and playwright
@Paul_Cornell - Novelist, comics and TV writer, notably for Doctor Who, Coronation Street, Primeval
@shobnagulati - Actress best known for her portrayal of Sunita in Coronation Street

- and they're just the notables who've joined us recently! #Tweettreat seems to be really taking off, which is enormously gratifying. However, it certainly wouldn't be anywhere close to where it is now, if it weren't for a group of very helpful people - @mduffywriter @rebeccaebrown @NettieWriter @LevParikian @TheJayFaulkner @cathyby and @chiddle84 - who are now the self-styled #teamtweettreat! I'm very grateful to them all, and to everyone else who RTs and spreads the word. :) I'm also terrified I've left someone out; if so, my humble apologies!

Now, today's challenge was for banana recipes, and our rockstar is this:

"Cuban rice: Serve boiled rice with fried egg, tomato puree and fried bananas."

I chose that because it was so unusual; today's rockstar is @SCallejo! Well done.

Tomorrow's challenge is for appetisers, starters, whatever you like to call them; I don't have enough, and I need more!

See you all tomorrow. :)

Snack Attack

2010-06-08T18:23:00.000+01:00

Happy Tuesday, all!

Or, not so happy if, like me, you're in the Republic of Ireland and yesterday was a bank holiday. Which makes this a surrogate Monday. But howandever.

The #tweettreats are continuing to come in thick and fast. Lots of new people are joining in, some of whom are very well known. It's great to see so many new faces (avatars?) :)

Today's challenge was for snacks; the sort of thing you nibble on while watching TV or a good movie. A huge variation of snack suggestions came in, some were really unusual; but today's rockstar just jumped straight out at me. It is this:

"Big bag nacho chips. Tin chopped tomatoes. Chilli. Top w. cheese. More chilli. Bake till cheese melts. Add Tarantino and serve!"

How could you beat that? And today's rockstar is @joannechocolat, no other than Joanne Harris!

Tomorrow's challenge, by popular request (well, by @DazedPuckBunny and @thejayfaulkner) is for banana recipes. Anything and everything to do with bananas - do you curry them? Put them in a cocktail? I don't care, so long as it features that yellow fruit. As ever, the best recipe will earn rockstar status. :)

Finally, I need to reiterate again how much I appreciate the continuing efforts of so many of you to spread the word and ask people for #tweettreats. I really, really couldn't do it without all of you guys. Keep up the good work!

It's Breakfast time again, hip hip hooray!

2010-06-07T14:41:00.001+01:00

A very happy Monday to you all!

What a busy weekend it's been for #tweettreat. Thanks to the concerted efforts of many, many people who've spread the word about this project all over the Twitterverse, the recipes have been coming in thick and fast. We've also had contributions from some very well known names indeed!

68 new recipes came in over the weekend, bringing the total number of recipes received to 944. We're very close to cracking the 1,000 mark, and we're flying towards our goal of 1,200.

Some of the names who joined us this weekend need no introduction. They include:
@JillMansell
@swannyg66 (Graeme Swann)
@LoreleiKing
@joannechocolat (Joanne Harris)
@Beathhigh (Ian Rankin)
@campbellclaret (Alistair Campbell)
@domjoly
@sheilaoflanagan
to name but a few! Thanks again to everyone who helped to stalk - I mean, ask - various celebrities for their help. ;)

Now, today's challenge was for breakfast dishes, and some lovely ones came in. The two that leapt out at me, though, were these:

"Split a roll n toast inner surfaces. Fry an egg so it crisps at edges but yolk stays soft. Red/ brown sauce. Messy/delicious"

and this one:

"Rebus's Scotch Eggs: boil 2 free range eggs. Pour yourself a malt while you wait. Discard the eggs and keep drinking."

Both are from @Beathhigh - Ian Rankin himself - who is today's rockstar of #tweettreat!

Tomorrow's challenge is for TV/movie snacks - what do you nibble while ensconced before the screen? As ever, best one will be tomorrow's rockstar. :)

This project relies so much on all of you - I could never have come this far without you. Please keep spreading the word and hounding your friends for recipes. Remember, it's all in aid of Medecins sans Frontieres - a good cause if ever there was one. :)

Rice to the Occasion

2010-06-04T21:45:00.000+01:00

Wow, what a day this has been for #tweettreat! Thanks to concerted efforts from some fabulous friends, the word about this project has been spreading farther and faster than ever. A huge push is on to get the attention of various celebrities, and hopefully get recipes from them.

This evening alone recipes came in from Graeme Swann (@Swannyg66), @JillMansell, @LoreleiKing and @clairehennessy. Hopefully more and more well-known names will join our ranks over the coming days!

It's incredibly hard to pick one rockstar on a day like today, when so many people have done so much work. Lots of new people have tweeted recipes for the first time, other people have badgered on my behalf. However, today's challenge was for rice/pasta/couscous salads, so one of those will be honoured. Today's rockstar is:

"Tropical rice salad. To cold cooked rice add tinned/fresh pineapple chunks, mandarins cut small, dessicated coconut & sultanas."

And today's rockstar is @hmhunt! Congratulations. Really like the sound of that one, will be giving it a try. :)

Special mentions also have to go to three ladies I had a great chat with this morning, and who have given me tremendous help to drum up interest in #tweettreat. They are @mduffywriter, @Strictlyinkblot, and @HowDidUGetThere. They are not alone - lots of you have helped so much - but they deserve special mention.

Now, before I start blubbing and thanking my mom and my neighbour's cat, I'm just going to set the next challenge. Monday is a Bank Holiday in Ireland, but not everywhere, so I will be blogging; and Monday's challenge is for Breakfasts. Or Brunch, I'm not too fussy; but you know, that first meal of the day.

Have a great weekend everyone, and keep spreading the word!

Comfort Food

2010-06-03T21:24:00.000+01:00

Evening all!

Well, you exceeded my expectations today; I was hoping to get to 840 recipes, but actually now have 846. Give yourselves a round of applause!

Today's challenge, in light of the terrible events yesterday in Cumbria, was for comfort food. The recipes I got today were carb, fat, sugar and alchohol laden - perfect, in other words. ;)

They were all great, and it was really hard to pick a rockstar, so I'm cheating slightly. Tonight we'll have a headline act and a support group. (Hey, it's my blog, I can do what I like!)

So, our support act (a bit of a no-hoper, but let's give him a round of applause for effort) is this:

"In a glass, mix Coke, Fanta, Sprite and Lilt. Add either fresh cream or vanilla ice-cream and serve. nommy nom, nom nom."

He calls it a Creamy Uku. The support act is none other than the tweep we love to torment, @mruku!

And now (drumroll, the crowd goes wild!) our big-name headline act is:

"2 pkts digestive bisc, 2 oz sugar, 4 oz butter,2tbl sp cocoa.Mix crushed biscs in melted butter with sugar&cocoa. Put in tin & cover with choc."

Tweeted by Ireland's fave current-affairs-TV-talk-show-host-type person, @MiriamOCal!

Thanks to both of them, and to everyone else for your recipe contributions today. There are a lot of new faces appearing in the #tweettreat stream and it's great to see you all. :)

Tomorrow's challenge - as suggested by @fmulreany - is rice salad. That may seem like a limited topic, so you can tweet pasta or couscous salads as well. Happy cooking!

Nothing half-baked here

2010-06-02T19:51:00.000+01:00

Happy Wednesday all!

Today's challenge was for baked goods; the sort of recipes I find very difficult to get into 140 characters personally. They're also the sort of recipes I want most; I like to bake something for a special occasion, but haven't the patience for long step-by-step recipes.

So I was particularly impressed by the standard of the recipes that came in today, which was very high. After much deliberation (and an unnecessary amount of drool) I have chosen the following rockstar:

"Cream 115g butter w/1/2 cup sugar. + 1 tblsp golden syrup, .5 tsp vanilla ex., pinch salt, cup self raising fl. Form balls, bake 170c 12 mins."

Added points, of course, are awarded for the outrageous use of the word "balls" in a recipe. ;) Today's rockstar is @chiddle84, for the second time!

Now, in light of today's shocking events in Cumbria, it doesn't seem right to announce a frivolous or silly challenge. As a result, tomorrow's challenge is for comfort food; either food you make for yourself, or for family and friends, when in need of a bit of cheering up.

The total so far today is 824; I'd love to get to 840 tomorrow. :)

Take care everyone.

Waste Not, Want Not

2010-06-01T20:41:00.000+01:00

In these recessionary times blah blah yawn yadda yadda.

Anyway, it's not cool to waste food anymore - if it ever was, that is. Today's challenge was for new and interesting ways with leftovers. I got some good ones that I'll be trying out myself. I especially like today's rockstar winner, which is this:

"Left over rice salad: add peas, finely chopped celery, chopped walnuts, grated ginger, garlic, dress with sesame oil and sherry."

And today's rockstar - a newbie, who hopefully won't be a one-hit-wonder - is @juxtabook! Thanks for that one, it's really unusual. :)

Tomorrow's challenge is for baked goods - cakes, tarts, bread, muffins, cookies - anything baked.

Remember, if you try any of the recipes I'd love to hear about it. I'm also collecting all kinds of recipes all the time, not just the daily challenge ones.

By the way, the running total is now 815 - not too shabby. ;) The goal of 1200 is really starting to look achievable!

Sorry for the belated bloggage tonight, I'll see you all tomorrow. :)

Get Cracking!

2010-05-31T15:21:00.000+01:00

Happy Monday, everyone. Today's challenge was for egg recipes, and I'm delighted to announce that I have now got over 800 recipes - 803, to be precise! I'm now two thirds of the way to my goal of 1200. Again, thank you all - I couldn't have gotten this far without you. :)

Now for our challenge winner. I got plenty of egg recipes, but most of them were savoury. The winning recipe stood out because it was sweet (and sounds yummy). It is this one for custard tart:

"Heat 750ml cream, beat 12 egg yolks, 115g caster s. Blind bake pastry. Whisk egg, sugar, cream 2gthr. Into pastry, shake allspice. 200c 50min"

Today's rockstar is @chiddle84! I knew you were good for something, really. You'll have to make that one for us. ;)

Speaking of making recipes, I really want to hear from anyone who's tried a #tweettreat recipe to see what you think. Was it easy to understand? Did it turn out well? Tell us in the comments or on Twitter using the #tweettreat hashtag.

Since it's Monday, traditional cold cuts day, tomorrow's challenge is for recipes for leftovers. Bits of meat or chicken; stale bread; cooked vegetables; even sauces. What do you do with them to avoid waste?

Best/most ingenious/tastiest recipe will win rockstar status for tomorrow. TTFN!

24 Carrot Gold

2010-05-28T13:37:00.000+01:00

Today's challenge was for genuinely vegetarian recipes, and it was suggested by @helen_kara. Well might she suggest that theme, for she promptly churned out 38 vegetarian recipes between yesterday and today! An incredible number from our one-woman #tweettreat machine. :)

I received a total of 48 recipes over the last 24 hours, bringing our current total to 782! Today's rockstar will therefore surprise no-one. It is this one, which I like especially for its whimsy:

"Humorous English Breakfast canape: make small crostini, smear with tom puree, top with small piece ham, add fried quail's egg."

And the winner (surprise surprise) is @helen_kara! Congratulations on your re-rockstaration. ;)

The next challenge was set by @LevParikian (I gave him the chance after he threw his toys out of his pram over something else) and it is Eggs - absolutely anything eggy, even cakes etc. I expect some great ones.

Right, I'm off to Kippure for the weekend on the @inkwellHQ Pure Fiction course - yes, really this time. Have a good one everyone, keep the recipes rolling in and I'll talk to you all on Monday. :)

A Poultry Excuse

2010-05-27T16:20:00.000+01:00

Howdy all,

Today's challenge was set by @CountryLets, and it was for poultry recipes. I've already received quite a few, so I was pleasantly surprised to get still more.

The competition between recipe tweeters is heating up these days, and certain people keep excelling themselves by producing more and more great #tweettreats. It's also great to see a few new faces (avatars?) even if their recipes aren't quite as sophisticated... ;)

Still, with a big E for Effort, here is today's rockstar:

"Put chicken, sweetcorn, celery, pineapple, olive oil, lemon juice and a few pinches sugar in bowl. Mix up and eat with bread."

And today's rockstar is @ukegnome! Absolutely no groupies for him. ;) (In case any of you are wondering why I'm being mean to him, it's cos he's my husband. So there.)

Tomorrow's challenge has once again been set by a guest, in this case @helen_kara. She says: "for next challenge, how about veggie main courses? No meat, no fish, no by-products (gelatine, rennet, Worcestershire sauce etc)"

So there you have it, a completely veggie challenge for tomorrow! I know that'll please a lot of you. Feel free to include Vegan dishes in that, if you feel so inclined. :)

The Fruits of Your Labours

2010-05-26T19:44:00.000+01:00

Happy Wednesday everyone. :)

Today's challenge was for recipes relating to fruit. One of the great troopers of #tweettreat, and a former rockstar, promptly complained that she'd already given me most of her fruit recipes, then proceeded to churn out ten more! For that reason alone she should be today's rockstar; thankfully, her recipes are also brilliant, so it was a no-brainer (useful when it's me we're talking about).

So, today's winning recipe is this:

"A refreshing summer mocktail: half apple juice, half tonic water, big slice lime, big sprig fresh mint, lots of ice."

And once again, today's rockstar is @helen_kara! I will never listen to her again when she says she's out of ideas. ;)

Tomorrow's challenge is one that has been suggested by another regular #tweettreat trooper, @CountryLets. She says "How about recipes for poultry? I always end up doing the same boring things, nice to have new ideas."

Poultry is therefore your challenge for tomorrow! Remember I'm still taking all recipes, of all sorts, all the time. Our total is now 720!

See you all tomorrow. :)

BBQ - Men Make Fire, Burn Things

2010-05-25T20:23:00.000+01:00

Well, as regular followers of mine on Twitter and readers of this blog will know, I goofed. I thought I was going here last weekend, but actually it's the weekend coming. Sigh. Anyway, we're supposed to be having a BBQ on Friday night when we arrive - I only hope the food there is half as yummy as some of the suggestions I got today for #tweettreat!

25 new recipes came in last night and today, giving me a new total of 706 recipes! It's great to break the 700 mark. Well done everyone, and thanks again. :)

As ever, I'm awarding rockstar to the recipe that made me drool the most, and today it's this one:

"Ribs/cup of apple juice/4tbsp maple syrup/bit of olive oil/2 tbsp soy sauce/garlic/star anise or5 spice, woosh together.leave overnight, BBQ"

And today's rockstar of #tweettreat is @Tracytid! Very well done. :)

Again, twitter followers will know that I shopped in Tesco today. (Yes, I really am that fascinating.) I love this time of year for the fruit, veg and salads that are so abundant, and my fridge and fruit bowl are currently groaning. So, tomorrow's challenge is for alternative things to do with fruit. (I know what some of you are thinking - nothing kinky, please!) We've heard the strawberries with balsamic vinegar suggestion before, what else do you do with excess fruit?

As ever, the best suggestion will win rockstar for tomorrow. :) Thanks everyone and keep up the good work!

New Ways with New Potatoes

2010-05-24T16:27:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend? It was altogether too hot for me, though I did spend a few pleasant hours at the Blessington lakes exhausting my dogs. ;)

Anyway, your challenge for today was recipes for new potatoes. It's a narrow sort of area, but I got lots of recipes from you all, and I now have 681 recipes! This was one of the hardest categories to judge, since all the recipes were so good.

After much deliberation I've chosen the following rockstar recipient because it is an entire meal rather than just a side dish:

"Boil Newpots&leafy greens,saute onion/3 garlic cloves&pancetta in oliveoil.Add to crush pots/greens. Top poached egg."

And today's rockstar is.... @Candida6! Well done!

Given the weather, the only challenge I could think of was summer related. Tuesday's challenge is barbeques; I'm looking for recipes for marinades, salads, drinks - anything at all that you would serve at a BBQ. As ever, the best one earns rockstar status.

Remember, all proceeds of the #tweettreat book will go to Medecins sans Frontieres, and every individual recipe will be credited to its owner. :)

Salad Days Are Here Again

2010-05-21T15:33:00.000+01:00

Thank Crunchie it's Friday, eh?

With the weather being unseasonably warm (I live in Ireland; anything remotely warm is unseasonable) I proposed a salad challenge for #tweettreat today. I pleased to say that I got plenty of recipes for salad, fruit salad, salad dressings, etc. and exceeded today's target of 666 - I now have 670 #tweettreat recipes. :)

As ever, the best one gets lauded with plaudits and awarded rockstar status. Today's stellar offering is this:

"Mix strawbs with balsam v/gar, ev o/oil, salt & pep, fry slices of Halloumi, serve w/rocket, basil, mint leaves & parma ham."

And the winner - AGAIN - is @CountryLets! Well done - is this your third rockstar status? ;)

So come on you newbies - I know I have new followers who've yet to tweet a recipe for #tweettreat. Yesterday's winner was a newbie, how about another for Monday?

To tempt you newbies, here's a newbie challenge: new potatoes! I want the best, most imaginative recipes for new potatoes and the winner will be the rockstar.

Now, I'm away all weekend at the @inkwellHQ Pure Fiction Weekend - squee! Can't wait. :) However, it means I won't get the chance to check in much to chivvy you all on, so don't let me down!

Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts. ;)

Be self-sufficient

2010-05-20T21:59:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the late bloggage tonight tweeps, but you lot didn't get your fingers out with the self-sufficient #tweettreat recipes until well into the afternoon. That makes it your fault. Right, glad we've got that clear.

So anyway, today's challenge was for recipes of a self-sufficient nature; foods found wild, culled from the hedgerows, grown yourself, etc. I didn't get many, which probably shows you're all as supermarket-dependent as I am. I did, however, get a few for jam that sound so easy, I may even attempt it myself... one day....

There was one recipe, though, which was rather stonkingly weird. I liked it so much it beat all the jams and preserves hands down, and it is this:

"Beech Gin: Fill a bottle with young beech leaves, fill with gin, leave for 2 weeks, strain, add sugar to taste. Drink!"

I think it's the admonition to "Drink!" at the end that really appeals - it sounds as though it should be accompanied by "Feck!" and "Girls!" ;)

Anyway, today's rockstar is a newcomer to #tweettreat, @honno! Well done you, and can we have a few more weird recipes please? ;)

Right, tomorrow's challenge - since it appears to actually be summer - is salads. Warm salads, cold salads, fruit salads, salad dressings - knock yourselves out!

Bear in mind the terrific cause that we're doing this for, and that is Medecins sans Frontieres. It is for this cause that you guys have donated 642 recipes to date. Keep it up!

Oh, My Head!

2010-05-19T12:52:00.000+01:00

As a natural consequence of yesterday's party theme, today's challenge was hangover cures.

Now, a lot of you thought it acceptable to advise drinking vast quantities of water and taking aspirin. Unfortunately, I had to point out that such tweets did not recipes make!

Got some great ones in, though. If anyone wants to try these out for efficacy, please do, and report back to me! I'd love to hear how you get on. ;)

Today's winner is the most harrowing-sounding of the bunch, and it is this:

"Hangover cure: wheatgrass shot with 1000mg vitamin C added! Sit, drink and take a few deep breaths - kill or cure!"

And today's rockstar is @CafeFresh! @CafeFresh is one of the few professionals who've contributed regularly to #tweettreat. Run by my friend Mary, Cafe Fresh is on the top floor of the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre in Dublin, and they do absolutely delicious food for vegetarians, vegans, coeliacs, etc. :)

Now for tomorrow's challenge; self-sufficiency! Do you make elderflower cordial from flowers by the side of the road, or grow your own veg? Do you hunt for wild mushrooms, or make jam from fruit in the hedgerows? Whatever it is, if you get free food from anywhere (or grow your own) I want recipes relating to it! Best one, as ever, will be tomorrow's rockstar and fame and fortune will surely follow. ;)

And another thing, if any of you try any of the #tweettreat recipes, please let me know how you get on, either by tweeting or in the comments here!

It's Party Time!

2010-05-18T12:52:00.000+01:00

Afternoon all and a happy Tuesday to you!

Today's challenge was for party food, for either children or adults, and some very yummy recipes came in. The one that had me sitting up and taking notice - and got a big response from the rest of you, as well - was this one:

"The Frozen Monkey: banana, slice and fill with peanut butter, dip in melted chocolate, then freeze."

I have to say, the thought of that was haunting me even this morning as I tried to walk off some of the pounds. ;) So, without further ado, today's rockstar of #tweettreat is @ElizabethBastos! Well done Elizabeth. :)

I've now collected 611 recipes, which is phenomenal, but there's still a long road ahead and I can't do it without you all. Remember, every single recipe will be individually credited to the person who tweets it, and all royalties from the book will go straight to the coffers of Medecins sans Frontieres - none of it will "rest in my account", promise!

I really appreciate all the work people have done so far, in spreading the word and condensing recipes into 140 characters. Do please, please keep it up!

Now, tomorrow's challenge: for the morning after the party before, hangover cures! Got any truly horrible hangover cures that you swear by? Please let me know!

As ever, I'm still collecting recipes from all other categories as well. :)

Time for a Quickie

2010-05-17T15:51:00.000+01:00

Happy Monday all! Hope you all had a great weekend.

I met with Medecins sans Frontieres this morning and they're very excited about this project - and impressed, too, at the incredible recipes that people have managed to get into 140 characters!

Today saw another milestone too; I've now gathered 602 recipes, which puts me just past the half-way mark to my goal of 1,200! W00t!

Now, onto today's rockstar. If you remember, the challenge I set on Friday was for quick recipes for time-poor people; meals that could be prepared in 20 mins or less. I got some lovely ones, and the winner is this:

"Combine creme fraiche, mustard, tarragon, stir into cooked gnocchi with sauted chestnut mushroom, asparagus. Add grated parmesan."

And Monday's rockstar is - @christinemosler! Well done Christine, it sounds delicious. :)

Now for tomorrow's challenge. Since I feel rather like celebrating today, your challenge for tomorrow is party food - for kids or grown-ups. As ever, the best one earns its owner rockstar status for the day. Get your silly party hats on.... ;)

Meat Tweet Treats

2010-05-14T16:38:00.000+01:00

Happy Friday, everyone!

Well, apparently there aren't too many carnivorous tweeple out there, cos I didn't get many recipes for red meat. Sometimes, though, it's quality that counts rather than quantity, and the recipes I did get were lovely and sound really tasty.

As ever, it's a difficult call, but this is my favourite recipe for today:

"Beef in Guinness:Fry 2lb beef cubes & 2 onions.Add tsp flr.Stir in pnt guinness 2 carrots,thyme,parsley.Place in casserole & cook 140 2 hrs."

And today's rockstar - for the second time - is @mduffywriter! Well done again, Maria. :)

Now, your challenge for Monday! You've a whole weekend to think about this, so I want some good ones. Since there currently aren't enough hours in the day for me - and for many of you, too - I would like some recipes that can be fully prepared and cooked in under 20 mins. They can be breakfasts, lunches, dinners, desserts, snacks - I don't care, but they must be very quick to prepare.

Ok? Off you go everyone, have a great weekend and ponder some new #tweettreat recipes for me!

Look on the Light Side

2010-05-13T16:41:00.000+01:00

Greetings all,

Today's challenge was to tweet the tastiest-sounding low-fat recipe for #tweettreat, and I got some lovely ones in. I now have a total of 440 recipes gathered!

Today's winner I chose for the fact that I love this recipe's name, as well as the fact that it sounds yummy. It is this:

"Rainbow coleslaw: grate carrots, red cabbage, add small can drained crushed pineapple, leftover dill pickle juice."

And today's rockstar is: @gardenfix! Congratulations, fame and adulation are yours. ;)

Now, for some very important news regarding #tweettreat. Unfortunately, UNICEF contacted me a couple of days ago to tell me that they'd discovered a conflict regarding this project - apparently there is another recipe book in the works and they feel that they can't endorse both, which is a shame.

However, I do have some extremely good news. I immediately contacted Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) as another excellent and worthy cause, and have just received confirmation from them that they have no similar conflicts, and would be thrilled and delighted to have #tweettreat raise money for them!

I'm really excited about this and I'm meeting with the head of fundraising in Ireland for MSF on Monday. However, it begs one question for all you lovely people who've so kindly tweeted your recipes; Are you still happy to have your recipes used for a different charity? I hope you all are, but if not, please contact me in confidence.

Ok, now for tomorrow's challenge; I haven't received many recipes for red meat yet, so here's a chance for all you carnivores out there! As ever, the tastiest-sounding recipe earns rockstar status for its tweeter.

Don't forget, I'm still collecting recipes of all sorts, so keep them coming. :)

The Dippiest of the Dips

2010-05-12T12:36:00.000+01:00

I'm delighted to announce that I now have 420 #tweettreat recipes. It's a really respectable number, and we're getting to our goal number slowly but surely.

In case anyone is wondering, the goal number for #tweettreat recipes is 1,200 - that will leave room for editing/duplication etc. I'd hope to have 1,001 recipes in the finished book.

Today's challenge was to tweet the tastiest dip recipe for #tweettreat, and some really great ones came in - including about five versions of hummous! However I chose today's winner because this recipe sounds not only tasty, but really unusual:

"Dip: 250g cooked beetroot(not pickled), 2 tbsp hot horseradish sauce, 100ml creme fraiche, blend until smooth, season, serve"

And today's rockstar is @CountryLets! @CountryLets was also the person who tweeted recipe no. 420, which makes her doubly great. Congratulations!

And now for tomorrow's challenge; I'm struggling a bit diet-wise at the moment, thanks in no small part to the number of #tweettreat recipes I have to read, so tomorrow's rockstar will be the one who tweets the best-sounding low fat recipe. Chefs hats on!

Remember, I'm collecting all recipes, all the time, not just the category for the rockstar challenge. Keep them coming!

You know, for kids!

2010-05-11T12:48:00.000+01:00

Afternoon, all! Thanks to some broadband "drama" earlier I'm only getting the chance to blog now. But the good news is that I now have 404 #tweettreat recipes!

I put the call out yesterday for some good #tweettreat recipes for kids, and I was inundated! Prolly cos you're all still big kids at heart.

Anyway, the winning #tweettreat recipe for the day was easy to pick. Not only did this one jump out at me, it seemed to strike a chord with a lot of you as well, judging by the comments.

So, here's today's winning #tweettreat:

"Marshmallow Icecream. Heat qtr pint cream & 6 oz m'mallows till melted. Cool. Whip hlf pnt dbl cream & fold into mix. Freeze."

The creator of this piece of sugary genius is @mduffywriter, who is today's rockstar of #tweettreat! Well done Maria. :)

Now for tomorrow, your task is dip recipes. I have received a few, but not many. As ever, the creator of the best #tweettreat recipe will be crowned rockstar. ;) Remember, I'm still collecting any and all other recipes as well!

Till tomorrow, happy tweeting.

Fish #tweettreat recipes

2010-05-10T12:07:00.000+01:00

Morning all and happy Monday!

Hope you all had a good weekend? Plenty of #tweettreat recipes came in over the weekend and as promised, today's rockstar will be the person who tweeted the best-sounding fish recipe.

Without further ado, here is the winning #tweettreat recipe:

"Fish cakes: mashed potato, flaked tuna, finely chopped onion + parsley, fresh lemon juice, black pepper. Shape into cakes + fry."

And the winner is - once again - @helen_kara! Well done, you are a double rockstar. :)

The next challenge is food for kids - I've received very few so far, so it would be nice to get some #tweettreat recipes, you know, for kids. The best kids recipe will earn rockstar status for tomorrow. :)

I'm still collecting all other types of recipes tweeple, so don't be shy. The current total of recipes received is: 371! Not bad, but not there yet. Keep them coming!