Something a little different for today’s blog. Last night I took part in my first ever Twinnerparty – a novel idea organised by Donal Skehan of www.thegoodmoodfoodblog.com. During the week, Donal posted up the recipes for the menu on Saturday night, followed by a shopping list (very handy!) and recipes and pictures. The idea behind it is lots of people in all locations cooking this meal for friends, or simply for themselves! Then all those that took part, posted messages as they cooked and ate on Twitter.

It was a dinner party a deux Chez Sinead last night and this was the menu that I followed and tweeted about.

TwinnerParty

Starter

Beetroot, Goats Cheese, Pine Nut and Rocket Salad

Main Course

Roast Herby Chicken with Honey and Thyme Parsnips

Dessert

Sticky Crunchie Banoffie Pie

Full details of all the recipes and shopping list can be found here http://www.thegoodmoodfoodblog.com/

I started by preparing the Chicken for the main.  The recipe called for chicken legs and drumsticks, I happened to have a whole chicken in the freezer so I defrosted it and got to work. Confronted by a whole raw chicken and armed with a carving knife, I realised I had absolutely no idea how to fillet a whole chicken so I just “winged” it. I’ve no idea if I would pass the masterchef’s tests of cutting up whole chickens but it looked alright to me when it was cooked!

I realised after dissecting the poor chicken that I had forgotton to get garlic in superquinn so hubbie was dispatched to the centra across the road to get a bulb! I picked up a pack of “Italian Mix” fresh herbs in SQ and chopped them up added some dried thyme and bunged all into the pestle and mortar with the garlic, some sea salt and the olive oil and gave it a good bash.  Went searching for honey for the parsnips, realised we had none (note to self, check cupboards before shopping next time) and decided to try golden syrup instead. I put the quartered parsnips, syrup and a spoon of the herby mix in a sandwich bag, gave them a good toss about and they went on a tray (with my favourite cooking tool – the silicone mat!) The chicken I threw in the bag as well after the parsnips and poured in the rest of the herby mix and all into the oven for 40 mins.

10 mins later realised I forgot the onions so quartered 2 up and threw them into the tray. I didn’t bother with the whole heads of garlic.

While the main was roasting, I got to the salad. Made up the dressing which is absolutely fab, dunked the rocket into it and onto the plate, sliced up beetroot and crumbled the cheese. Toasted the pine nuts and drizzled more dressing over for good measure. Dressing was supposed to do 6 people but it was so nice there isn’t much left for today!!

Verdict on the Salad – DEEEELISH!!

Main course swiftly followed, perfectly timed might I add! Absolutely gorgeous flavours, loved the combination of the sweet roast parsnips and onions with the herby chicken. A lovely way to cook chicken and i’m sure we’l be having it again soon!

And for the fantastic finale – the Crunchie Banoffie Pie!

I should have said at the start – I had no digestive biscuits and as banoffie is one of my favourite desserts, I had been meaning to try making the base with Ginger Nut biscuits for a while. So I bashed them in a sandwich bag with the rolling pin, melted the butter in microwave (I divided the measurements by 3 as only 2 of us eatin) and mixed the crushed biscuits and butter together and pressed loosely into bottom of individual glass dishes.After we had finished eating the main – well, a good bit after as we were so full, I poured over Dulche De Leche chocolate toffee, topped with sliced bananas, whipped light cream (because we all know that would help lower the calorie content!!) and topped with bashed crunchie bar.

AM.AZ.ING.

Thanks to Donal for organising the Twinnerparty and I look forward to the next one!