Fundraising Event No.2

We spent a happy afternoon in November trying to work out what to do to fundraise for the marathon. We wanted to hit some different groups of people, while giving everyone something for their money, rather than just asking for donations.

Me, my mother and Maria from Riverford

One of the ideas we came up with was a cookery demonstration. Luckily for us neighbours of my parents had fitted out the potting shed at the end of the garden with a kitchen at one end, and the space was perfect for the demo.

And so it was last Monday that we ended up with about thirty women to be shown a main course and accompaniments by my mother and puddings by me. I was completely terrified at the thought of talking to that many people, but in the end it was almost fun, and it went by very quickly.

The basis of what we cooked was seasonal fruit and vegetables. Both my mother and I are huge advocates of the organic vegetable box, which has forced us to be more creative with vegetables than we would be otherwise. My mother cooked marinated chicken with roast vegetables, butternut squash and parsnip gratin (swoon), and sauteed cabbage. I followed with an upside down rhubarb and ginger cake, and Nigella's Forgotten Pudding, with blood orange compote. We ran out of time to make the custard!

We then gave the room a quick change and everyone sat down to eat what we had cooked. It was a lot of work, more than I think we realised, but worth it in the end.

A huge thank you to:

• Riverford, who supplied the beautiful ingredients
• Berry Bros & Rudd, who did a deal on the wine (and supplied a fab prize - details to follow)
• The Windsor-Aubreys, for their lovely Potting Shed
• Felicity, for sterling work with a washing-up brush
• my family, who helped set up on Sunday and clear away

and most of all to my mother, without whom nothing would have happened.

Best run: track session with Serpentine running club. A ladder type thing - 600m, 2 x 500m, 3 x 400m, 4 x 200m, at 3k pace with 90 sec recoveries. God it was hard, but it felt good when it was finished!

Worst run: long run, Hammersmith to Kew Bridge, then to Putney Bridge and back to Hammersmith - 13.5m. I had two glasses of red wine on Friday night and felt rough on Saturday morning (I have become a lightweight!). It took about 4 miles to get into a rhythm, but after that it was OK.