Or, How my husband made crisp sandwiches and learned to love social media.

As an author, I’ve spent years now trying to find something to set myself apart on social media. That niche that is something that is unique to me, memorable, exciting, interesting that will help me to be noticed, amongst the hundreds of other writers out there. Seems I’ve been missing a trick, and that trick is … crisp sandwiches!

Since the beginning of February, my husband has been making, photographing and then eating crisp sandwiches on Twitter. He has gone so far as to declare it to be #CrispFebruary. He’s @BenTaylorson if you like bizarre food combinations like the above Teesside parmo crisp sandwich. (You don’t know what a parmo is? Look it up, it’s Teesside’s only claim to culinary fame!) He’s been encouraged and supported by lots of friends on social media, and his idea of #CrispFebruary has started to spread. It has caught people’s imagination to the point that he’s been invited onto the our lovely local radio station, BBC Tees to talk about Crisp February. Now he’s making videos of crisp-sandwich making. At this rate, he’ll be next week’s Jackie Weaver, only with more crisps.

Our house is becoming a temple to the crisp. We dissect the success (or otherwise) of each day’s experiments at lunchtime. At dinner he considers what the next day’s culinary masterpiece might consist of. In the evening, over a glass of wine, we discuss the difference (and relative merits) of potato crisps vs. maize-based snacks. And best of all, at suppertime, I get to raid the stash of leftover crisps!

It’s fun and it’s given us a lot to laugh about, when, to be honest, there isn’t much else to lift the mood. We joke about him producing a cook-book and appearing on daytime TV as a crisp-sandwich-chef. In the week that the baked beans and Weetabix combination seems to be overwhelming social media, suddenly anything seems possible!

All it took was an idea that sparked the imagination. So I’m off to think of one, a food-lovers niche of my own. Only problem is that, other than eating fruit pie filling with a spoon out of the tin from time-to-time, I don’t really have any quirky food tips. Pie-filling Wednesday, anyone?