Well I am pleased to report that 10 minutes ago, I finished testing the final recipe. Can you hear the whoops of joy emanating from the computer! I know when I look back (and am not quite as exhausted as I am now), I will be hugely proud of the amount I have cooked and also very grateful to everyone who has helped - particularly Sacha for all the washing up. I don't think I have ever appreciated quite how much work goes into a cook book! Just amendments and an introduction and then I can submit - what an amazing day that will be!

Whilst I have been cooking, Sacha has continued with our woodland clearance project and has done an amazing job. It is clear enough now that we have a gardener coming in early September to plant woodland grass seed and lots of bulbs - I can't believe that very soon it will feel like a proper part of our garden. We have invested in two hammocks - strung on adjoining trees they make a perfect spot for relaxing and were money very well spent! With both of us lying there it feels as it we are pirates sleeping on a ship (OK sometimes my imagination runs away with me I know!). I am convinced that it would be a good idea to sleep outdoors in them although I am yet to persuade Sacha. There is a lovely view over head of trees and sky and I could happily spend hours and hours gazing up.

Rack of Treacle Glaze Pork

2kg French trimmed rack of pork
1 tbsp treacle

1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

1 tbsp honey
salt and pepper to season
1 onion, peeled and quartered
250ml ginger wine

Pour boiling water over the skin which will help the skin to crisp and then pat dry with kitchen paper. Score the skin with a sharp knife and mix together with treacle, mustard and honey to form a smooth paste. Spread the paste over the meat and season with salt and pepper. Place the pork in a roasting pan on the chopped onions and bake in a hot oven (Gas Mark 7/220C) for 20 minutes. Pour over the ginger wine then turn the heat down to Gas Mark 4/180C for a further 1 1/2 hours until caramalized. Cut the rack and serve with hot buttered sweetcorn.

It has been a while since I last wrote on my blog - recipe testing has become all consuming but I am pleased to report that there are only 41 recipes left to test! I long for the day when I get my life back and can curl up on the sofa for a whole day with my sewing and watching girlie DVD's. Sadly that day is a while off yet!!! It will be all the sweeter when it comes though. I don't know why but the lower the number remaining to be tested becomes, the more daunting it is. For some reason saying I have to do 41 recipes between now and Sunday seems far worse than saying that I need to test 365 recipes in 5 weeks! What a punishing schedule I have given myself - but it is the homeward strech now. I must say a huge thank you to all those of you who read this blog who have tested recipes for me - this would not be possible without you....my heart is too full for words - thank you xxx

I just had to post these pictures of Josh and Rosie with their magnifying glass cookies - this is one of my favourite recipes in the book! Peppermint glass that you can see through - we had great fun playing with these and they didn't break (which must be a miracle!!!) The children were licking the glass like lollipops - very cute!

This weekend I was happily baking away (nothing new there!) when the kitchen was overtaken by wasps. I have to say that it is a good job that I am not particularly scared of wasps, otherwise I would have lost valuable baking time. Most of them were attracted to the strawberry jam which reminded me of a book I loved when I was little - the Giant Jam Sandwich. You may remember it? A village was plagued by wasps and so they baked a giant loaf of bread and made lots of strawberry jam and then trapped all the wasps in an enormous sandwich. "Suddenly the sky was humming, All four million wasps were coming, they smelled the jam, they dived and struck, and they ate so much that they all got stuck" I am wondering whether I am going to have to start a similar project - the Giant Victoria Sandwich - if I am ever going to finish this recipe testing in peace!

Sharing the Love

What an honour - Lovely Julia at A Slice of Cherry Pie has awarded ‘Hannahs Country Kitchen" the Arte Y Pico award. This is so kind as Julia's site is a great source of inspiration for me. In turn, I’d like to award it to:

Operation Night Brace (OK so I know i am biased as it is my brother but Amy and Gareth's blog really makes me realise that I could spend a lot less money than I do and still be happy - their project is truly inspirational) Keep going guys and that loan will be gone before you know it

The Genius Academy - which has some lovely stories about home teaching

A Year at Oak Cottage - Marie - your recipes always inspire me and your blog plays Michael Buble loudly at me which just makes me smile everytime!

I Heart Cupcakes - whose passion for cupcakes is even greater than mine

Jam and Clotted Cream - for stunning cakes and general all round niceness

and finally (OK I know this is 6 and not 5) Rita - whose emails of support during my book writing have been invaluable

The rules of the award are:

1. Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and their contribution to the blogging community.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name of and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.

4. The award winner and the one who has given the prize has to show the link of Arte Y Pico blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. Show these rules.

The sheep have reappeared in the field behind our house - it is so nice to have them back. I have now found out from the farm that they are retirement sheep who just get to live out the rest of their lives grazing. Oh to be a sheep! They were looking into our kitchen window very attentively...perhaps they could smell all the baking and wanted a slice of cake!

Orchard Meringue Pie

Serves 6 – 8, preparation 20 minutes, baking 1 hour

300g/10½oz plain flour

200g/7oz salted butter

230g/8oz caster sugar

1 egg yolk

3 egg whites

1 heaped tsp ground cinnamon

3 cooking apples, cored peeled and thinly sliced

3 dessert apples, cored peeled and thinly sliced

3 pears, cored peeled and thinly sliced

A cup of blackberries

200g/7oz light brown sugar

Pre heat your oven to Gas Mark 5/180C/375F and grease a 10 inch deep loose bottomed pie tin. To make the butter pastry, rub together the flour and butter between your finger tips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add 60g of caster sugar and egg yolk and mix to form a soft dough. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Once chilled, roll out the pastry and line the pie tin. Cover with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans. Bake blind for 10 minutes until the pie crust is golden. Remove from the oven, add the thinly sliced apples, pears and blackberries in alternate layers, sprinkling the light brown sugar between each layer. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until the fruit is soft. Whilst the pie is cooking, prepare the meringue topping. Simmer a little water in a small saucepan. Place the egg whites and 170g of caster sugar in a heat proof bowl and place on top of the saucepan. It is important that the bowl does not touch the water. Using an electric whisk, beat the egg whites and sugar for about 5 minutes until they form stiff peaks. Remove the pan from the heat, add the cinnamon and whisk for a further 4 – 5 minutes. Place the meringue in a piping bag with a large star nozzle attachment and pipe stars of meringue over the fruit. If you do not have a piping bag, simply spoon the meringue over the fruit and shape into smooth peaks. Bake in the oven for a further 40 minutes until the meringue is cooked. Serve warm or cold with double cream.

The recipe testing continues...my life has become one giant pan of cake batter! Thanks to a huge team of wonderful family and friends (and friends of friends) we have now tested 214 recipes for the book. In three weeks, I make this pretty good going and it is such a relief to be over half way! Here is Alfred trying out some cupcake lollipops and a birthday cookie - sadly it was no ones birthday this week so we just ate it!!! If it was your birthday this week, then this cookie is for you!!

September's Country Kitchen is out and I thought I would share with you one of my recipes from my Cooking for One column!

Baked Gingerbread Apple

Although this apple dessert takes a while to cook, the preparation time is minimal and therefore worth the effort. It is a lovely treat for a cold autumn evening by the fireside with a mug of hot chocolate and marshmallows.

Serves 1, preparation time 5 minutes, cooking 50 – 60 minutes

1 large cooking apple, cored

1 slice of gingerbread, crumbed

½ tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp raisins or sultanas

2 tbsp golden syrup

2 tbsp water

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5/190C/375F. Using a sharp knife, score a line around the apple. This will prevent the apple skin from splitting during cooking. Place the apple in an oven proof dish, mix together the gingerbread crumbs, ground ginger and raisins and fill the centre of the apple with the mixture. Spoon the golden syrup over the apple and add the water to the dish. Bake in the oven for 50 - 60 minutes until the apple is soft. Serve with cream or custard if you wish.

Have you discovered these new Cadbury's chocolate bars - Magical Elves with popping candy!!! They are delicious and I definitely recommend them! Not really advertising but I only recently discovered them and wanted to pass on how good they are!!!

You will have to forgive the lack of new recipes on this blog at the moment - sorry! My excuse is that my life has been taken over by recipe testing. I tested 43 cake and cookie recipes at the weekend - everything from Christmas tree biscuits to Duck Pond cookies. I am thinking of renaming myself the Bionic Baker! Here are Rosie and Alfred having tested lots and lots of samples - well the icing and sweets! The testing is becoming far more systematic, with 141 recipes tested and another 30 being tested by my kind volunteers as I type. We are almost half way which is such a relief!!!

Testing recipes for the book is now in full swing. I don't think I had really anticipated quite how much work there is in cooking 365 recipes! I know I am fast in the kitchen, but certainly not fast enough to test all the recipes single handedly and I have drafted in some help. The whole village is turning cake or cookie mad! I have to say that so far there has not been a problem finding people to test the samples. I took baskets of cakes to church at the weekend and work meetings are now pleasant affairs with cakes piled high. I just hope that people don't expect this level of service after the testing has finished! I will not be baking cakes again in a while I imagine!

Watermelon Ribs

I recently made Watermelon marinaded ribs with a recipes from Jared Ingersoll. His book Sharing Plates is awesome and a lovely read. Penny Williams, the chef who ran the cookery school in Bali had worked with him and if her cooking was anything to go by, this book definitely had to be a winner. It is!

In the book Jared makes beef ribs with watermelon which are smoked. I am sadly not into smoking - I wish I was but have never had time to investigate this process properly. It is on my list of things to learn! Instead I adapted the recipe and made pork ribs roasted in the oven. Although I am sure that by smoking the flavour of these ribs would be even better, there were nevertheless delicious and you could actually taste the watermelon! Fruity and juicy - we will definitely be making these again!

Watermelon Pork Ribs

flesh of half watermelon, seeds removed and crushed with a fork

3 dried chillies, crushed

1 tsp ground allspice

1 stick cinnamon

3 tbsp pomegraneate molasses

4 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

2 bay leaves

2 tomatoes, seeds removed and finely chopped

2 tbsp brown sugar

16 pork ribs

1 inch piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

Place all the ingredients except the ribs into a large bowl and mix well. Add the ribs and leave to marinade over night. Remove the ribs from the marinade and place with a roasting tin with a drizzle of olive oil and bake in a hot oven for 2 hours, the turn the heat down and cook for a further 30 minutes until the ribs are cooked through. Baste often with the marinade whilst cooking. These would be equally good on the BBQ.

Over a year ago we bought some woodland next to our house so that we could create a woodland garden. We have finally made a start on clearing it (I say we in the loosest possible sense - I was responsible for making drinks and cakes and I sawed a few logs!) and after a few days it is transformed. Where we couldn't walk before because of piles of dead wood and nettles, there is now clear soil. After a bit of rotivating and compost over the next few months, it will be ready to plant bulbs (snowdrops, bluebells, crocus and daffodils) and woodland grass seed. Hopefully by the spring it will be a lovely spot to sit and unwind. The bonfire was at times a little wild/ferocious - it burnt for over 24 hours as we carried on stoking it the following day. Luckily no damage was done!

Clotted Cream Lemon Curd Ice Cream

In this glorious sumer weather, ice cream is a must in our house hold. I am very lucky to have been given a super dooper "instantly ready to freeze" ice cream machine by my husband earlier this year - no longer are we restrained by having to wait 8 hours for the bowl to freeze! One of our favourites is a tub of greek yoghurt frozen with some honey and chopped nuts. It is ready in 20 minutes! We all loved this lemon curd ice cream so much that it had all gone before we had a chance to take a picture!

225g clotted cream

200ml double cream

300ml greek yoghurt

2 tbsp caster sugar

1 jar good quality lemon curd

Place all the ingredients (but only half the lemon curd) into a bowl and mix to a smooth cream. Freeze in an ice cream maker until just set then stir through the remaining lemon curd to make lemon ribbon swirls through the ice cream. Transfer to a tub in the freezer to set. If you do not have an icecream maker, place the mixture in a tub in the freezer and whisk every 20 minutes until the ice cream is almost set and then fold in the remaining lemon curd.

This edible flower movement is catching - imagine my surprise when I was in Waitrose and their lovely staff came and asked whether I had tried their new floral cupcakes - Rose Geranium and Lavender and Lemon? I nearly fell over in shock! We of course immediately had to buy some to try. Not bad at all (I would say I prefer mine...but then I am biased) but good on Waitrose for getting a bit experimental in their bakery!

Thanks to the lovely anonymous poster for the hints on making the strawberry tree! I will definitely be making a Ferrero Roche or Quality Street one at Christmas! To make one yourself all you need it a 15cm wide flower pot, some strong tape and newspaper, some quick drying cement, a 40/50cm length, 2/3 cm wide wooden dowel, a 20cm diameter oasis sphere, some silver foil, ribbons to decorate, 5 punnets of strawberries and lots of cocktail sticks.

Cover any hole in the bottom of the flowerpot with thick tape, place on a sheet of newspaper, mix up the cement or plaster of paris and fill the pot three quarters full. Insert the dowel rod into the centre and hold upright until the cement sets (quick drying cement is essential otherwise you will be holding it for a long time!). When the cement has set, press the oasis onto the top of the dowel. Cover the oasis with silverfoil and decorate the pot and dowel with ribbons. Place a cocktail stick into each strawberry and press into the oasis as close together as possible. Although the strawberries need to be added at the last minute, make sure you allow yourself 30 minutes for doing this - it takes longer than you think as I found out!!!

Blue Peter eat your heart out!

Kathy Brown and I have very kindly been asked to attend the new RHS Flower Show at the Inner Temple in London in September to promote using edible flowers in cooking. From 1866, the RHS held a flower show at Inner Temple until 1912 when it transferred to Chelsea. It used to be a very grand affair with high teas and beautiful plants. Kathy and I are using this as an opportunity to launch our range of floral cakes, petal breads, floral ice creams (lets hope the weather is good!) and floral cocktails. We are having lots of meetings at the moment planning what to sell and designing recipes. I have no doubt it is going to be lots of fun (and hard work) and we are really looking forward to taking part. We are coming up with ideas for names for our brand - any suggestions gratefully received!

Today was Gareth and Amy's engagement tea party - how very English! Amy today learned how to make a cucumber sandwich - perhaps this will now catch on in the States!
The strawberry tree was a success and managed to stay upright despite the wind.
My Aunt (pictured below) made a lovely sunflower flower arrangement which made a stunning centrepiece and decorated the tent with icy swags and pink and green lanterns. It all looked so pretty! Mum had made delicious strawberry scones and I had made enough cake to feed an army! All the cakes were test recipes for the book and they all have the seal of approval - even the chocolate chilli cake! Washed down with glasses of strawberry punch, we all had a lovely afternoon, despite the English weather! Gareth and Amy were given matching T Shirts from one of their friends which said "Help, I'm in debt" "and Engaged" - a very apt present if you are followers of their blog

"Here comes the bride, All dressed in white"! We have received wonderful news from my brother's holiday in Morocco that he has proposed to Amy and she has said yes! She must be mad (only joking Gareth). I am very happy for them both. In true Gareth quirky style, he did not buy her a ring but gave here a bag of metal and a stone and some lessons with a silversmith to design her own ring. I hope Amy liked this off the wall idea! We all knew that Gareth was planning on proposing and there is an engagement party planned at our house on Sunday to celebrate. Not wanting to tempt fate, I have not really started planning it yet until we knew she had said yes! Now I have no excuse and had better get organised. The centrepiece is going to be a strawberry topiary tree - it is something I saw when we were driving past a wedding in France and I spied it from the car window - I have no idea how they did it but am going to try my best to recreate it in place of an engagement cake! I will post a photo and instructions if we get it to work! Congratulations again Gareth and Amy xxx

Yesterday we made Cherryade - this drink always reminds me of Christmas as a child when the milkman would deliver a crate of fizzy pop a few days before Christmas eve - cherryade, limeade, cream soda, dandelion and burdock! We would go mad with excitement! This is a more summery version - made with fresh fruit, rather than E numbers!

Real Cherryade

juice of 4 lemons and zest of 1 lemon
3 heaped tbsp caster sugar
12 cherries, halved and stones removed

Place the lemon juice, zest, sugar and cherries in a heat proof jug and cover with 500ml boiling water. Allow to cool, stirring occasionally, so that the sugar dissolves. When cold, fill the jug with still or sparkling water and ice to serve. A perfect summer drink!

It has been a bit hectic this week. On Wednesday I gave talk to 60 lovely ladies from the WI - cooking for John and Gregg was easy in comparison with cooking for the WI! I was petrified! Still they ate every last crumb I had prepared so I can't have done too badly. I even got to sing Jerusalem - which I had always thought was a WI myth - clearly not! Another lady also spoke at the meeting and talked about the WI being the "Keeper of Crafts" now that needlework and cooking weren't being taught as much in schools and how some members of the WI are spending time in schools teaching these skills. This is such a wonderful idea.

Last night I was invited to Freddie and Charlotte's book launch in London of the Great Big Veg Challenge book. It is such a lovely book and filled with wonderful vegetable recipes and photographs. Two of my recipes have made it into the book - I didn't realise this until I saw the book yesterday and was so thrilled



Thank you Charlotte for your lovely words!







I wanted to take Freddie and Charlotte a present to celebrate their achievements so baked a batch of cinnamon and apple cupcakes, decorated with vegetables. All packaged up in a trug they looked quite pretty and Freddie had soon tucked in!

Thank you Freddie and Charlotte for a memorable evening!

I love sweet peas and just adore this picture of my mum picking sweet peas in her allotment. A small pot will fill the house with delicious scents of summer. Sadly their pretty petals are poisonous and cannot be used in cooking - although you can use garden pea flowers which are lovely in salads. Such a shame as they would look beautiful crystallised with sugar!