Local food for local people

Why, oh why, when I'm cooking do I forget to blip. Last Friday I forgot to record the feeding of the 82 people, and this week I almost forgot to do the same for my birthday indulgence with Kate, Mark, Heather, Sandy, Pat, Andrea and Sophie.

My lovely friends came early to help cook a meal using as many local ingredients as possible - beetroot from Hogacre common, apples from my garden, blackberries from the bushes near the Perch, Oxfordshire pheasant, Abingdon wine, bread from the bakery at Steventon.... Everyone pitched in with ingredient ideas, sourcing them and helping to cook.

The blackberry ripple ice cream turned out much better than I'd hoped and the local beetroot roast with thyme and topped with goats cheese was delicious, but the star was the roast squash with wild mushrooms and parmesan cream - the sauce so delicious that the dish was mopped clean. The pheasant was hard to get, though, apparently not many are shot whilst the leaves are on the trees!

Everyone went home with a package of leftovers as tomorrow I'm leaving on a jet plane....