Today is all about this book, to which I have made a very small contribution, of which more later
I’m delighted to welcome Jane Travers, the brains behind it, to tell us more about it.
SB: Hello Jane! Please tell my lovely readers a little bit about Tweet Treats and how it came about?
JT: Hi Stephanie, thanks so much for having me!
My aim for Tweet Treats was to create a really usable, accessible cookbook for people who are too harried and too hurried to read through long-winded recipes when they’re trying to figure out what to put on the table to feed the family. I wanted to use Twitter , because there is an art to being concise and still interesting when you only have 140 characters in which to convey an idea. And since I’m not a professional cook, I wanted to tap into the great community feel of Twitter to harvest recipes!
Tweet Treats came about really through one of those mad ideas that just hits you occasionally. On a dull, wet evening in April 2010 I was standing in my kitchen staring at a packet of chicken thighs and wondering what on earth I was going to do with them. It was already 6.30pm, the child and the dogs were all eyeing each other hungrily, and I needed some recipes suggestions fast. So I tweeted. Within a minute five perfectly formed little recipes came winging back to me from online friends, and an idea was born. How many such recipes could you write in 140 characters, I wondered? Could I get all sorts of recipes, like cakes and desserts as well? Could I fill a book, and give the proceeds to charity?
My first impulse was to go and lie down in a darkened room till this idea stopped swirling around in my mind, but that didn’t work, so I gave in and got to work. Within two days I had a blog up and running and had already collected over a hundred recipes. I was on my way.
SB: I can see how Twitter is suitable for a lot of things – poetry, jokes, one-liners – but recipes? Really?
JT: You’d be amazed! After all, if you can fit a poem into a tweet, why not a recipe? 140 characters averages out at about 25 words, and you can fit a lot of information into that if you’re concise. In fact, some of the recipes I received were so beautifully written that they were like little poems. For example
Haiku Food by @SanyaV
Cubes of watermelon & feta cheese, mint leaves. Allow sweet & salty to conjugate in your mouth. Pink champagne.
Or from the queen of dance @PaulaAbdul herself, the Live-To-Dance Shake
Fresh kale, lettuce, cucumber, spinach, blueberries, peaches, kiwi, almond milk, stevia. Let it pirouette in blender till smooth.
When every word, every letter counts it’s amazing how beautifully people can write, and how much of their personality still shines through. I was so impressed by the recipes I received!
SB: What’s your favourite recipe from the book?
JT: That’s a tough call. There are recipes I love that are really usable, like Banana Nut Bread by @mduffywriter (I have some in the oven right now!) There are other recipes I really love because they’re funny, such as this one from Ian Rankin aka @Beathhigh
Rebus’s Scotch Eggs
Boil 2 free range eggs. Pour yourself a malt while you wait. Discard the eggs & keep drinking.
Then again, there are recipes I cherish that I received from people I admire hugely, such as Cthulhu Crumble (aka cherry crumble) from @neilhimself Neil Gaiman. I don’t think I could pick just one!
SB: Tell us about some of your impressive contributors.
Wow, where to start? I was utterly amazed at the response I got from celebrities, who were more than happy to contribute once they knew it was for charity. They’ve all been incredibly gracious. I’ve received recipes from comedians such as Alan Carr and Dara O’Briain, actors such as Milla Jovovich and Parminder Nagra, writers such as Joanne Harris and Neil Gaiman, cooks such as Rachel Allen and Gizzi Erskine, musicians such as Boy George and The Script as well as countless television stars, musicians, politicians, journalists, cooks, etc etc etc! I couldn’t possibly list them all, but I’m grateful to every one.
SB: So what is the charity that is benefiting from Tweet Treats?
JT: I’m donating all the royalties to Medécins sans Frontières , an amazing charity who are on the ground in disaster-struck and war-torn areas such as Haiti, Pakistan and Somalia, providing essential health care to those who need it desperately. Every copy of Tweet Treats sold will benefit them directly, making it an ideal socially-conscious gift this Christmas.
And where can readers get hold of Tweet Treats?
I’ve always wanted to say this: “Tweet Treats is available in all good bookshops now!” Seriously, you can pick up a copy from Amazon,
Book Depository, Waterstones, Eason, Dubray Books, O’Brien Press and many, many more.
*
I have a unique signed copy of Tweet Treats to give away to a lucky Bah! reader – unique because both Jane and I have signed it. (My recipes for Posh Ploughmans and chocolate truffles are in there, which justifies my signature being there…) To be in with a chance to win a copy, all you have to do is leave a comment of no more than 140 characters, saying what you would have done with Jane’s packet of chicken thighs. Jane and I will pick our favourite next Tuesday.
Today is all about this book, to which I have made a very small contribution, of which more later
I’m delighted to welcome Jane Travers, the brains behind it, to tell us more about it.
SB: Hello Jane! Please tell my lovely readers a little bit about Tweet Treats and how it came about?
JT: Hi Stephanie, thanks so much for having me!
My aim for Tweet Treats was to create a really usable, accessible cookbook for people who are too harried and too hurried to read through long-winded recipes when they’re trying to figure out what to put on the table to feed the family. I wanted to use Twitter , because there is an art to being concise and still interesting when you only have 140 characters in which to convey an idea. And since I’m not a professional cook, I wanted to tap into the great community feel of Twitter to harvest recipes!
Tweet Treats came about really through one of those mad ideas that just hits you occasionally. On a dull, wet evening in April 2010 I was standing in my kitchen staring at a packet of chicken thighs and wondering what on earth I was going to do with them. It was already 6.30pm, the child and the dogs were all eyeing each other hungrily, and I needed some recipes suggestions fast. So I tweeted. Within a minute five perfectly formed little recipes came winging back to me from online friends, and an idea was born. How many such recipes could you write in 140 characters, I wondered? Could I get all sorts of recipes, like cakes and desserts as well? Could I fill a book, and give the proceeds to charity?
My first impulse was to go and lie down in a darkened room till this idea stopped swirling around in my mind, but that didn’t work, so I gave in and got to work. Within two days I had a blog up and running and had already collected over a hundred recipes. I was on my way.
SB: I can see how Twitter is suitable for a lot of things – poetry, jokes, one-liners – but recipes? Really?
JT: You’d be amazed! After all, if you can fit a poem into a tweet, why not a recipe? 140 characters averages out at about 25 words, and you can fit a lot of information into that if you’re concise. In fact, some of the recipes I received were so beautifully written that they were like little poems. For example Haiku Food by @SanyaV
Cubes of watermelon & feta cheese, mint leaves. Allow sweet & salty to conjugate in your mouth. Pink champagne.
Or from the queen of dance @PaulaAbdul herself, the Live-To-Dance Shake Fresh kale, lettuce, cucumber, spinach, blueberries, peaches, kiwi, almond milk, stevia. Let it pirouette in blender till smooth.
When every word, every letter counts it’s amazing how beautifully people can write, and how much of their personality still shines through. I was so impressed by the recipes I received!
SB: What’s your favourite recipe from the book?
JT: That’s a tough call. There are recipes I love that are really usable, like Banana Nut Bread by @mduffywriter (I have some in the oven right now!) There are other recipes I really love because they’re funny, such as this one from Ian Rankin aka @Beathhigh Rebus’s Scotch Eggs
Boil 2 free range eggs. Pour yourself a malt while you wait. Discard the eggs & keep drinking.
Then again, there are recipes I cherish that I received from people I admire hugely, such as Cthulhu Crumble (aka cherry crumble) from @neilhimself Neil Gaiman. I don’t think I could pick just one!
SB: Tell us about some of your impressive contributors.
Wow, where to start? I was utterly amazed at the response I got from celebrities, who were more than happy to contribute once they knew it was for charity. They’ve all been incredibly gracious. I’ve received recipes from comedians such as Alan Carr and Dara O’Briain, actors such as Milla Jovovich and Parminder Nagra, writers such as Joanne Harris and Neil Gaiman, cooks such as Rachel Allen and Gizzi Erskine, musicians such as Boy George and The Script as well as countless television stars, musicians, politicians, journalists, cooks, etc etc etc! I couldn’t possibly list them all, but I’m grateful to every one.
SB: So what is the charity that is benefiting from Tweet Treats?
JT: I’m donating all the royalties to Medécins sans Frontières , an amazing charity who are on the ground in disaster-struck and war-torn areas such as Haiti, Pakistan and Somalia, providing essential health care to those who need it desperately. Every copy of Tweet Treats sold will benefit them directly, making it an ideal socially-conscious gift this Christmas.
And where can readers get hold of Tweet Treats?
I’ve always wanted to say this: “Tweet Treats is available in all good bookshops now!” Seriously, you can pick up a copy from Amazon,
Book Depository, Waterstones, Eason, Dubray Books, O’Brien Press and many, many more.
*
I have a unique signed copy of Tweet Treats to give away to a lucky Bah! reader – unique because both Jane and I have signed it. (My recipes for Posh Ploughmans and chocolate truffles are in there, which justifies my signature being there…) To be in with a chance to win a copy, all you have to do is leave a comment of no more than 140 characters, saying what you would have done with Jane’s packet of chicken thighs. Jane and I will pick our favourite next Tuesday.