Tweet treats for medical charity

Ever get fed up of complicated and long cooking recipes?

Well, Jane Travers, formerly from Kilcullen, is doing something about that.

She's using Twitter to gather a thousand recipes, all no longer than the 140-character limit used by the social networking system.

She has almost achieved her goal, thanks to a wide and growing global network of fellow Twitterers. She calls them her 'tweettreat tweeple'.

This example is from one contributor, Tracytwid in York: 'Tin kidney beans/70ml sour cream/2tbs tom puree/2 garlic cloves/half tps chilli/1tsp cumin/2oz grated cheese. Whizz'.

Or from Rosamundi in London: 'tortilla: slice onion garlic new potatoes cook in oil low heat 30min add beaten eggs cook low heat 30min top w/cheese 1/2'.

Jane, who lives these days in Newbridge with her OH (other half), dd (dear daughter) and a pair of dogs, describes herself as being (on most days) a mild-mannered writer with a David Tennant fixation. "On Fridays I am possessed by random Jane Austen characters," she adds.

Jane recently finished the first draft of a novel, but the tweettreats have rather taken over her time, as a book project which she hopes to compile as a fundraiser for Medicins Sans Frontiers.

She already maintains a blog about her Jane Austen interest, 'Jane obsessed with Jane' (janetravers.blogspot.com). But the tweettreats have developed a blog of their own: tweet-treats.blogspot.com. On that she is compiling the various recipes, and awarding 'rockstar' status to best contributors of the day.

Our final example, which requires no cooking, is this exceptionally simple tweettreat from mduffywriter from Dublin: 'Take a Wispa bar & carefully peel paper. Tantalize taste buds-smell, touch, lick. When time's right, wrap mouth round. Mmm heaven'.

Brian Byrne.

(This piece originally appeared in The Kildare Nationalist.)