A Year In Redwood

This past weekend I got caught up in a discussion about dining with friends!

This is something I love to do, there is nothing nicer than cooking up something and sitting around the table sharing with friends.

However, this weekend I came across the new phenomenon of a ‘twinner party’.  This believe it or not is a dinner party involving Twitter.  The concept as explained on the Good Mood Food blog is that groups of friends get together, all work to the same menu, shop and cook while tweeting all through the process!

I have listened to various arguments on the subject – the main one being that the ‘Twinner Party’ will at least encourage people to cook at home.  And that’s may be, but really!

Maybe I am old-fashioned but the whole idea of people gathering around and spending the evening on mobiles or computers…. they might as well stay at home and cook for themselves, and then tweet in comfort!

To me a dinner party is about the people, yes the food is important and we will always strive to make it the best, but sometimes it doesn’t work and that’s OK.  The most important thing of all is that it is friends meeting, sharing, laughing, enjoying.  Do we not all spend enough time on computers and phones as it is, they have become a complete intrusion on our lives!

Years ago, when I was a city singleton there was a group of six of us who used to get together every second month for what we euphemistically called the ‘Gourmet Girls’ group.

The rules were very simple…. who ever was the host did the main course and got to decide on the theme (and the themes at times were interesting!), then two others did starter and dessert, and the other three did wine!  The only other rule was that you had to cook something you had never cooked before!  Yes, there were huge successes (I still remember Mary’s Cardamom Icecream – that was an Indian themed night) and there were some disasters too!  Some big challenges… I forget who decided to do Lebanese cuisine, but I was on wine and was determined to get some Lebanese wine… I eventually found a Lebanese restaurant in Ballsbridge and they very kindly sold me a couple of bottles on an ‘off-licence’ basis!  This was all pre-Celtic Tiger and pre all sorts of ethnic restaurants being in Dublin.

In the latter two years of our Gourmet evenings we even produced an end of year recipe book…. I still have those books…. I must try that icecream again!

So is it just me, or has the world gone completely crazy and obsessive with regard to twittering, facebook, etc????