World Food Night

I am so excited to be taking part in - wait for the hashtags - #WorldFoodNight. It's ran by Refugee Action and the beautiful part is that ANYONE can take part from ANYWHERE, on Saturday 1st March. I, for example, will be taking part from my humble kitchen and questionably sized dining table.

The idea is, you hold a dinner, ideally using a recipe from the World Food Night website or recipe pack, and the people who come round and eat your offerings pay, however much or little as they want. All these service charges then get donated to Refugee Action, who help to prevent starvation for refugees in countries all over the world.

The tricky part is obviously choosing what to cook. I was prepared to have to de-tomato and vegetarianise a lot of the recipes but a lot of them actually come fully prepped to my fussy needs. At the moment, I'm torn between the Sichuan Hotpot from China or a more traditional Cheese and Onion Pie from good old Blighty... both completely different, but equal amounts of temptation. Even though I've just consumed a pretty large piece of cake, I'm now hungry again just writing this... oops!

Can I just point out how completely overjoyed I was to receive my fundraising pack? I was in a bad mood and it really cheered me up. My name was handwritten onto it (correctly spelled too!), and as well as all the bits you need for your dinner - recipe cards, place settings, STICKERS etc - it also had two teabags from Lancashire Tea and a trial membership card for Gourmet Society! I honestly felt sliiightly birthdayish (hey - it's my fake birthday. I'm allowed to make up words). This is not, it seems, a charity event in which the organisers expect you to do all the hard work. The team are clearly as enthused and dedicated as they need us 'chefs' to be. Sign up here.

I will let you know after March 1st, what I chose, how I cooked it, and how it turned out!