As the credit crunch deepens, the trend of recent years for people to eat out more often is definitely in high-speed reverse as consumers tighten their purse strings and switch to the more affordable option of staying in and entertaining at home. But home entertaining is better fun anyway, says Kathy Jensen.

While current economic conditions may well be one the primary drivers behind consumers staying in more, along with, say many commentators, a growing interest in cooking that has been driven by the plethora of TV cookery programmes and celebrity recipe books, I have always been a home entertaining sort of person.
Just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, for me, there’s no place like home and, going back to when my grandparents lived here and then my parents, Ballybay Mill has always had a reputation for hosting a great night’s craic!

People laugh at me when I tell them the last film I saw in a cinema was Mad Max II, that was back in the early ’80s! But why on earth would I go and sit upright amongst a load of strangers sniffing, coughing, crunching their way through a noisy bag of popcorn or poking me in the back with their knees when I can slouch in my own comfy armchair in front of a coal fire (if needed), stuff my face with crisps and sweets, glass of wine at my elbow and, most important of all, indulge to my heart’s content in my nasty smoking habit?

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