It is the time of year for village shows again. A few weekend ago I had the honour of judging the confectionery class at Sharnbrook Show - lovely cakes, jams, quiches, breads - I was much better prepared this year and had no breakfast before judging and didn't leave the chocolate brownies until last (unlike last year when the brownies nearly finished me off!) Lots of fun!

This weekend was my Mum's show at her allotment - best dressed scarecrow competition, lots of wonderful vegetables grown on the allotment, bunting, BBQ food - Mum won 1st prize for her vase of fresh flowers - well done Mum!

Mr Pheasant being spotted eating grass seed!

Squash and Pistachio Orrichetti

Butternut squash is one of my favourite vegetables - right up there with parsnips. I think I like them because they are so sweet and as you may have noticed from most of the recipes on this blog, I have a sweet tooth. With salty feta, crunchy pistachios and a chilli kick, this is a perfect supper dish for cold autumn nights

Serves 4

400g orrichetti cooked according to packet instructions and drained
1 large butternut squash, seeds and skin removed and cut into small cubes
2 large cloves garlic
3 - 4 small dried chillies
2 tbsp olive oil
handful of finely chopped Greek basil
100g pistachios
3 tbsp double cream
200g feta cheese, cut into cubes
salt and pepper to season

In a pestle and mortar, crush the chillies with the garlic and some salt and pepper to a smooth paste. Add the olive oil and stir. Toss the butternut squash cubes in the garlic oil, place on a baking tray and roast in a hot oven (Gas Mark 5/375/190) for 30 minutes until soft and tender and just starting to caramalise. Sprinkle over half the basil and the pistachios and bake for a further 10 minutes to allow the nuts to release their oil. Place the drained pasta, butternut squash and nuts in an oven proof baking dish, stir through the cream and add the feta cheese. Return to the oven to bake for 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle over the remaining basil to serve. This is also nice cold as a pasta salad.

Whilst I am busy adding cup measurements to my book so that you lovely peeps in Australia and America might be able to use the book, my mum is busy proof reading for me! These are two little presents I bought her to say thank you - the cakes on the napkins are so pretty - almost too good to use and would be lovely for a Servietten Technik door stop in the kitchen (paint a large flat stone white and allow to dry - remove the very top layer of the printed napkin and smooth over the stone and then varnish in place - the doorstop in our kitchen was made this way as it has lasted for 7 years - people are always asking where it came from and are amazed at how simple it is to do yourself). The bath bags for harrassed cooks made me chuckle - I have turned everyone in my life into harrassed cooks over the last few months will all the testing so these will definitely come in handy!

What lovely weather we had at the weekend - a final swing in the hammock (with laptop writing my introduction to the book - perfect) and a picnic supper with Josh and Rosie. I was so pleased to find these lovely rice paper butterflies (www.janeasher.com) - although not cheap, there are hundreds in the pack and they transform a very ordinary cupcake into something quite special. We were paid a visit by Superman, who approved of the cupcakes wholeheartedly and used the cupcakes to improve his flying prowess!

You would be forgiven for not being as excited as I am at the faint green hue that has appeared in our woodland (is it even there or is it my eye sight???) - the grass is growing! I am sure that in a few weeks from now it will look as though grass was always there. There have been so many pheasants in the garden this week - no doubt feasting on the grass seed - but at least they haven't managed to gobble it all!

I love this picture of Muffy trying to pursuade me to let her in through my office window - how could I possibly resist. I had a work meeting here yesterday and she was snoring so loud that we could hear if in the dinning room all the way from the lounge. I duly apologised on her behalf! I am busy writing up the book and am now on Chapter 3 (nearly half way) - the first three chapters are due in by the end of Sept so I am ahead of schedule - a near miracle!

We have returned from the show - completely exhausted but very, very proud of ourselves!!! Given this was our first ever show, it was a miracle how well we did. We arrived on Wednesday to be surrounded by very professional looking stalls - we were petrified! We decorated our tent with bunting and pretty tablecloths and looked like a WI stand - not very central London! Luckily our "Floral Fancies" stall was very popular - we sold 1,000 floral cupcakes, 1,000 brownies, 250 almond croissants, 675 mini foccacia, 300 loaves of bread and lots of tray bakes, ice cream and prosecco with violet liquor. By the end of Saturday we only had a few tray bakes left - everything else had been sold! My favourite were the marigold petal and sunflower petal breads, which looked so pretty and were very unusual. It will be a while before we have the energy to do another show but we were definitely glad to have taken part. The Inner Temple Gardens were stunning and on Thursday we were invited to the RHS Gala Dinner which was lovely (and even had edible flowers in the dessert).

The process of writing the book has been interesting and I keep saying to people that I could write a book about the writing of a cook book...The large groups of people from our village standing outside our cottage on a sunday morning waiting to taste samples...late night dashes to friends with comparison samples to test..and so many people helping out. The nicest thing has been photos from the testers of themselves with their cakes! Here are a few for you to enjoy. Madly packing the car for the show as we are about to leave. Will post all about it on my return!

With all this rain, hot chocolate is called for! For extra luxurious hot chocolate simmer enough milk to fill two mugs with a cinnamon stick and 75g of grated milk or plain chocolate over a gentle heat until the chocolate has melted and the cinnamon has infused. Bring to the boil, remove the cinnamon and pour into your mugs. Top with whipped cream, marshmallows and a generous grating of chocolate. See, the rain isn't so bad afterall!!!

The week of the RHS show has arrived and we are busying ourselves with last minute preparations. I have to admit I am feeling very nervous!!! We have no idea whether we will have too much or not enough cakes to sell - it is going to be a steep learning curve! Kathy and I had a lovely trip to Borough Market in London last week to visit the breadmaker who will be making our petal breads. If you haven't been to Borough it is a Foodie Mecca and definitely worth a visit. We then spent the afternoon with Kitty - a lovely baker (the sister of a friend of ours) who has a warehouse kitchen just near the show and who will be baking up our cupcake recipes (whilst I can bake for 100, baking for 15,000 on my Aga was never really realistic!) It was fun introducing Kitty and her assistant to lavender, violet and rose - even if they did think we were a little crazy! If you are near Inner Temple on Thursday or Friday, do come and say hello at our stand. And keep your fingers crossed that it will not rain (unlikely I know) otherwise there will not be a very high demand for our floral ice cream (gin and lavender, rose, raspberry and elderflower sorbet - yum yum!)

Spiced Pumpkin Soup

The latest edition of Hannah's Kitchen in Country House is out - a spicy pumpkin soup! We were very pleased with the photo that my friend Jess took on our patio and I am still amazed at the elegance of the cream swirl I managed on my soup - my presentation is never normally that refined!

Spiced Pumpkin Soup

Serves 4, preparation 10 minutes, simmering 30 minutes

1 medium pumpkin, skin and seeds removed and chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

2 or 3 dried red chillies

2 tsp brown sugar

750ml chicken stock

200ml coconut cream

salt and pepper to season

Single cream and chives to serve (optional)

Heat the olive oil in a heavy based saucepan, add the chopped pumpkin and onion and fry for 5 minutes until the pumpkin starts to soften. Crush the fennel, coriander seeds and dried chillies in a pestle and mortar, add to the pan and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the chicken stock and brown sugar to the pumpkin and simmer for 30 minutes until the pumpkin is soft. Puree the soup with a hand blender and return to the stove on a gentle heat. Add the coconut cream and season with salt and pepper and heat through for 5 minutes. Do not boil the soup as this will cause the coconut cream to split. Serve in warm bowls with swirls of cream and chives and fresh baked bread.

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!!