You know the way they (whoever ‘they’ are) say staying in is the new going out? Well those of us a bit strapped for cash do. But we’re broke, we’re not dead, so what to do for entertainment?
I was listening to Moncrieff on his Newstalk show talking to Ross Golden of Food & Wine magazine about dinner parties. ‘Dinner party’ sounds ever so posh but having your mates round for some grub and a few drinks sounds right up most people’s street! Ross says the key to a successful dinner for friends is to keep it very simple and gave a few pointers-I might have added some of my own too.
Eats: a big pot of – Irish stew, curry, spaghetti bolognese. Take your pick. And make it the day before if you can. Or a few days before and freeze it, it’ll mean a lot less hassle and stress on the day.
Servings: let people serve themselves, they usually take less when serving themselves in someone else’s house and you can bulk it up with lots of bread and salad.
Desserts: ask one or two friends to bring dessert with them, they’ll more than likely be happy to contribute to the evening.
Drinks: tell everyone it’s BYOB (bring your own bottle) and/or buy some cheap sparkling wine and try out these Budget Tipples for Christmas. Mmmm.
Entertainment: well these days lots of people are into reality tv, X Factor or I’m A Celebrity. Failing that you always have the option of sports, a movie night, a karaoke-off if someone has SingStar or a battle of the bands with Guitar Hero or something similar.
Result: a relatively inexpensive and fun night for everyone. And lots of cleaning up for you in the morning :)
We are organising a blogger,twitter, techy & OPEN food and drinks evening in late November or early December.
We do not have exact details yet. I will update this post as soon as we get a few numbers.
You can come to just the food or just the drinks or both!
Date :: Thursday the 3rd of December 2009 Food Time :: 7pm Food location ::Fenns Quay Restaurant Cork City Food cost :: €25 for 3 course meal (Not including wine/drinks!)
While it’s a little early in the academic year to be broke and starving, make no mistake: poverty is just around the corner. Such is the lot of students (or, come to think of it, the unemployed, under employed, laid off and just plain skint.)
Enter the wonder of Pot Noodle. Even with 10 flavours (and seriously, Doner Kebab does not count – nobody can eat that) you’ll eventually get bored and want to posh-up your Pot.
Pot Noodle Fu Yung: Empty veggie packet into cup and add boiling water. Do not add spice packet. Immediately crack in one egg; stir rapidly with a pencil. Let rest. Drain. (Drain carefully, ya pillock.) Add spice packet. Mix, eat.
Pot Noodle Stir Fry: Save some very thinly sliced carrots and spring onions from your quarter crisply duck with pancakes from the night before. Open the Pot Noodle and slide out the noodles. Shove veggies into bottom of cup, add noodles back and prepare as normal.
Revolting Pot Noodle: Prepare Pot Noodle as normal. Break up a handful of Doritos and toss them in just before the final stir. Also works with bacon crisps or Hula Hoops. Gross but nice.
Posh Noodle: Add a few freeze-dried wild or Shitake mushrooms from the supermarket and a sprinkle a few unsalted cashew nuts or peanuts to the pot before dumping in the other packets and adding water.
There are nutritional bonuses to most of these recipes (protein, vegetables) except obviously the Doritos one, but basically they just break up the Pot Noodle monotony and make more cheap yum.
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Everybody likes popcorn, which explains the popularity of those microwave popcorn packs you can get at Tesco and even Xtravision. But you can make your own popcorn for way, way less than store bought and have tasty, tasty goodness that also happens to be a healthy snack. Or, you know, lunch.
Here’s the boring math:
The cheapest store-brand microwave popcorn will run you €1.80 for six bags. That’s a very reasonable 30 cents per serving. But a bag of natural popping corn costs the very same €1.80 for 500 grams, and you can get at least 15 servings out of it, for about 12 cents a serving.
lf you do not have a microwave, don’t despair. It takes six minutes and costs even less to make traditional, stove-top popcorn. (Directions after the break)
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