The season for celebrations is upon us.  Communions and confirmations abound.  During the Celtic Tiger years many will agree that the whole thing was getting a little out of hand.  I was a guest at one or two ceremonies during that time and remember some eyebrow raising moments when the cost of the child’s dress was discussed or the amount of money the child ‘collected’ was revealed.   I reflected on my own communion and confirmation, which weren’t without celebration, but seemed to have a different set of values attached.   I certainly remember them being special and a huge amount of effort was put in, but it could never have been compared to the ‘mini weddings’ of today.  Needless to remark the kind of things I was dreaming of buying with the proceeds didn’t involve high tech gadgets like mobile phones, mp3 players, DS Nintendos or Wii game consoles that all seem to cost the bones of the average weekly industrial wage!   My dreams were smaller and, as my mother insisted, included a boring savings account!

While no one would ever have wished for the downturn perhaps it forces people to come to their senses.  I think sometimes it makes us focus on the actual event rather than the shiny packaging, but it shouldn’t make us feel that we are being deprived or that the occasion would be much better if we had an unlimited budget.  If anything we might find that having to be a little more creative with the entertaining rather than just throwing money at it, brings a much higher satisfaction rating overall.

For many the answer to the party dilemma is to have it at home.  Having any kind of celebration at home has many benefits and not all of them are budgetary.  Because you are in your own home the children and the guests’ children are free to run around as much as they want.  They have access to all their toys and have more freedom than they do in a hotel or restaurant.  We have all witnessed bored youngsters hanging around hotel foyers trying to amuse themselves.  Usually the adults will sit huddled in a nearby group and every now and again as the noise escalates and the running reaches fever pitch some says, “Hey lads, calm down”.  The miniature marauding gang will usually stop for all of thirty seconds before the din starts again.  It’s unfair to ask children to be quiet just because the environment doesn’t lend itself to their games, particularly as it is their special day.

There is also the intangible benefit of getting the family around and sharing food or a meal with them in your own home.  There is something very special about this act of breaking bread together and sharing these special moments in our children’s lives.  Jewish families have long known the benefits and regularly share long lazy days with food as the centerpiece.  In Ireland our busy lifestyles, shift work and extra curricular activities mean that many families have largely moved away from the idea of sitting down together for meals.  The clock often dictates and it is definitely damaging our sense of family and our sense of connection.  This means that occasions when the generations come together are even more special.

So how do you keep it simple but at the same time make it simply stunning within budget?  The first thing with any form of party planning is to draw up a list of guests.   This will often dictate the catering needs.   If there are elderly family members for example there may be special dietary requirements or a buffet may not suit.  If the numbers allow perhaps a sit down meal would be a better arrangement.  If you do decide on a buffet style, it’s up to you whether you want to go with all finger food or a full plate hot or cold buffet; there are a myriad of choices.

Creating the meal can often seem daunting but there are many ways around it.  Due to the sudden increase in home entertaining we spent several days putting together our outside catering menu.  It features hot, cold and finger food options all delivered to your door without any of the hassle (and you can still take the credit.  We don’t cook and tell!).  Some people rely on us entirely to do the work while others will create most of the dishes and augment their selection with just one or two things from our selection.  The full range is available to look at online at jameswhelanbutchers.com.  Of course we’re not the only ones doing take away party food and there are plenty of options all worth exploring.  One of the other benefits to having the celebrations at home is the leftovers!  You are not returning tired and hungry to a cold house in the early evening having to make do with a sandwich.  This way the party can go on all day and, if planned correctly, there’ll be little cooking to do the following day.

Probably the most important thing about a home event is that the celebrant, the child, can have a much greater involvement in the arrangements.  They can choose colours and themes for table decorations.  They can get involved in choosing the food and sometimes, even making it.  This can make for a really satisfying experience for the whole family.  If there are other children in the family, they too can get involved in the planning.  They can offer opinions, suggest ideas and sometimes even make things for the event.

I always think it’s appropriate that most confirmations and communions take place in the late spring, early summer period.  This time of year is all about renewal.  Having a party at home gives us all a chance to catch up with friends and loved ones after the long winter.  It offers an opportunity to nourish with food and embrace our family in the bosom of our own home.  It is also a great example for our children that events and celebrations are about good people, good food and plenty of love rather than expense and fancy venues.  Having a wonderfully positive experience of fun and fellowship will create memories that last a lifetime. I welcome your feedback to [email protected].

We hope you enjoyed reading this post by Pat Whelan of James Whelan Butchers. Pat is a 5th generation butcher, cook book author and the director of  James Whelan Butchers with shops in Clonmel, the Avoca Handweavers Rathcoole and Kilmacanogue, Dunnes Stores Cornelscourt, Rathmines and Swords in Dublin. Sign up to our newsletter for more updates from James Whelan Butchers

What I am about to say will probably upset some people, shock others and may even cause one or two to throw the paper down in disbelief; but I speak the truth.  Indeed as the good book says, “The truth will set you free”.  That is what I want to do this week, set you free from the fat free and taste deficient, self imposed prison that most of us have been in for decades.  Fat free is a con, we’ve all been conned and those extra lean chickens are coming home to roost so to speak.

When I was a child, and I know that many of you will identify with this, Irish kitchens (indeed kitchens all over the developed world) had several types of fat to hand all the time.  Lard, dripping, butter and suet were all commonplace.  My granny used to keep dripping that she rendered herself, in a white ceramic pudding bowl; the white of the silky dripping blending seamlessly with the sides of its pottery home.  Real butter was patted into small golden balls for the butter dishes several times a week and the wooden butter pats sat in a jug of water on a shelf in the scullery when not in use.  Meltingly delicious suet pastry encased warm winter pies and rotund suet dumplings sat proudly on the top of aromatic, rich stews.  Succulent roasts of creamy coloured fat marbled beef were a Sunday treat, there was often a squabble for the crackling from the pork joint and a scramble for the chicken skin; all of which today are considered taboo by the fat free gospel.  Most dinners or main meals were accompanied by a cream soup to start and a dessert, usually with a cream or milk base such as rice pudding, semolina or apple tart and whipped cream.   At teatime homemade scones or homemade shortbread provided a sweet afters treat.

This was the norm for neighbouring houses and farms and therefore I’m sure it was replicated throughout the country.  Now here is the startling information; I don’t remember any of them being particularly fat!  I will admit that they were not the modern fashion suggestion of size 0, but they could not be considered fat by any standard and certainly not obese.  They were all normal, healthy human beings.  I urge you to think of your own ancestors and take a look at the photo album for clarification.  I was having this ‘fat’ discussion with a female friend recently who would be of a similar age and country background.  She concurred completely and verified by stating that she had some vintage dresses in her possession that had belonged to her own grandmother.  They are too small for her despite having her current dress size on the labels!  We’ve been had and like sheep we have believed modern diet rubbish instead of thousands of years of actual human evidence of how to eat and how to live.

It would seem that up until the last fifty years or so people instinctively knew how to grow and cook food.  They understood the connection between food and the land and were aware of nature and the seasons.  Knowledge of rearing animals and crops, gathering and preparing food was passed from one generation to another and the skills and traditions were valued and preserved.  It still makes sense in today’s modern world, but somewhere along the way we broke the link.  It has lead to nonsense being trotted out as pseudo food science and the truth has been lost in the crossfire.  We have so much information at our fingertips and yet instead of being healthier and more informed we are in fact heavier, unhealthier and, more so than ever in the history of man, totally confused.  Some people don’t know who to believe and so cherry pick bits of advice from several doctrines; such mixture is lethal.  The end result is folly and we shouldn’t be surprised that heart disease, diabetes, obesity, certain cancers and other diet related illnesses are on the rise.

So what exactly happened when it came to fat and how did it become public enemy number one?  Sadly, as with most of the modern world’s maladies, the root is the love of money.  In the mid seventies the American government endorsed a theory (and it was just that, a theory) that fat ‘caused’ heart disease.  People were advised to reduce their fat intake for the sake of their health.  Despite the fact that for millennia people were eating and thriving on animal fats, industry and science shouted louder than anyone and, moving away from nature moved into factories and concocted ‘low fat’ and ‘non fat’ foods.  A particular boon was the discovery of how to extract oil from plants and, using the industrial process of hydrogenation, these man made fats were music to the food manufacturers’ ears because they were cheap.  Not only were they cheap but they extended the shelf life of many products; food industry gold and marketed as ‘healthy’ alternatives.

We ate it all up, literally and then as consumers started calling for ‘low fat’ and ‘lean’ everything.  Even farmers and breeders had to tow the line and start producing leaner animals; a crazy situation that would certainly cause our ancestors’ brains to tilt sideways.  You see our great grandparents knew that naturally occurring fat was an actual food group, necessary for good health and part of a healthy diet.  They also knew that naturally occurring fat is what makes our food taste good, keeps it moist and stops it sticking to the bottom of the frying pan.  I would go further and say Dr. Atkins and his infamous diet of a few years ago was actually on the right track, but again, there is a ditch on both sides of the road of life and taken to the extreme and out of balance it made no sense at all.

It’s time to stop the rot, let the crusade begin to bring back real fat, the stuff that’s good for us.  Let’s eat it and enjoy it in moderation and reclaim our health, the taste of our food and some sanity.  Finally I leave you with a quote I read recently on butter: “Butter is made by taking milk, centrifuging to separate the cream and then churning the cream. Margarine is made by taking vegetable oil, hydrogenating it in a vessel at high pressure and temperature in a hydrogen atmosphere, adding yellow colouring and some flavourings to make it look and taste something like butter”. Hmmm, I know which substance I would rather ingest into this precious, irreplaceable body of mine and, ultimately I know which tastes better too.   I welcome your feedback to [email protected].

We hope you enjoyed reading this post by Pat Whelan of James Whelan Butchers. Pat is a 5th generation butcher, cook book author and the director of  James Whelan Butchers with shops in Clonmel, the Avoca Handweavers Rathcoole and Kilmacanogue, Dunnes Stores Cornelscourt, Rathmines and Swords in Dublin. Sign up to our newsletter for more updates from James Whelan Butchers