Playing in the Park

We took advantage of a nice day this weekend and brought Adam and Olivia's kids to the park. There's a fantastic free park near us called Valley Gardens. It has most of the standard playground stuff, but then some awesome stuff I wish I had as a kid!

Even Dan enjoyed "monkeying" around

Aside from slides, monkey bars and jungle gyms, this playground had a zip line! How awesome is that?

I even had a couple of turns on the zip line. It's really fun.

The kids also loved the basket swing and the wading pool.

It was a bitter-sweet outing because Adam, Olivia and the kids are leaving England this week. They're moving on to bigger and better things, but I'm very sad to be losing my friends. I guess we'll just have lots of skype dates to look forward to!

Plum and Blueberry Upside-down Cake

I have a ton of plums in my fridge that I didn't think I could get through before they went bad. When we were invited to a potluck board game night this weekend, I figured it was the perfect excuse to try a new recipe.

Of course I didn't take any pictures of me making it or eating it, but trust me it was easy and delicious! Try it for yourself and see :)

Recipe slightly adapted from here

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup milk
• 4 black plums, pitted and thinly sliced
• 3/4 cup blueberries

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 inch spring-form cake pan. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into small bowl.
2. Melt 3 tablespoons butter and brown sugar in microwave. Spread mixture on bottom of pan.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the 1/3 cup butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing just until incorporated.
4. Arrange plums around the edges of the prepared pan, overlapping slightly. Distribute the blueberries in the center. Pour batter into prepared pan, covering fruit completely. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Invert onto a cake stand and allow to cool 15 minutes before serving.

Homemade Rhubarb Jam

A few days ago Adam, Olivia and their kids came to dinner. While we were hanging out inside, the kids were playing amongst themselves in our garden. After a while, the kids ran in and exclaimed that they found rhubarb in the back. I had no idea, but apparently we've got several enormous rhubarb plants.

Rhubarb umbrella

Olivia told me that rhubarb makes great jam. Since I had a few extra jars leftover from the party (more like 40 extra!), I thought I'd give it a go.

I separated the stalks from the leaves since the leaves are inedible. Apparently they contain oxalic acid, a poisonous chemical.

Garden-fresh rhubarb

I sterilized my jars by boiling the lids and baking the jars. It's what Jamie Oliver says to do, and I trust him. I washed them first, then boiled the lids and baked the jars at 350˚ for ten minutes each. I let them dry on a clean tea towel.

Meanwhile, I chopped up my rhubarb, squeezed and zested an orange and measured out the sugar and water. I meant to make half of the original recipe but apparently forgot that halfway through the ingredient list. As I'm typing it up now, I realize my mistake and why my jam was much more orange-flavored than I intended. Oops!

Rhubarb Jam (half of original recipe from here)

• 1 1/4 pounds fresh rhubarb, chopped
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest (I used two small oranges)
• 1/6 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup water

Put everything into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook over medium-low heat for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle into jars and store in the fridge.

The jam 5 minutes in

The jam 30 minutes in

Wax paper funnel

This recipe makes a lot. Even halved, it made almost three full jars worth (each jar is 280 ml or 9.85 ounces). I gave two away as gifts and selfishly kept one for myself. So far I've eaten it on toast, in oatmeal, on a scone, and by the spoonful :)

The jam was really easy to make and tastes delicious (even with the extra orange flavor)! I think this would be a fun base to experiment with. I might try and make another batch now and use strawberries instead of orange. I'll let you know how it works out.

Rhubarb-orange jam

See my other jam-making exploits here:

Raspberry
Strawberry-rhubarb 1(still my favorite)
Strawberry-rhubarb 2

Harrogate House Crawl

Last weekend a few of my friends put together a fun night called the Harrogate House Crawl. It's in its 4th year, but this is the first time I've been here for it. It's similar to the 12 Pubs of Christmas that I attended in December, but instead of going to 12 pubs, we went to 8 houses.

We were given our house crawl kit at the first house. It consisted of a red Solo cup to be used at each house; a toothbrush; a mint; a piece of candy; antacid medicine; our official House Crawl button; and a condom. Apparently the first two annual house crawls ended with two house crawl babies, so now condoms are part of the kit. You can't be too prepared.

Here was the line-up:
House 1: Pacific Rim
House 2: Home-brew (made by Master Brewer Alisha)
House 3: Mimosas
House 4: Mojitos
House 5: Pimms and Lemonade
House 6: Sangria
House 7: Szarlotka (apple juice and bison vodka)
House 8: Bloody Marys

The beers were cold?

We had thirty minutes at each house, except house 5 where we had a one hour dinner. Sarah did a great job keeping us on time!

Sarah with her kitchen timer

All the houses were only a few minutes walk from each other. We saw some pretty sights along the way.

From what I remember, it was a really fun night :)

Did I Mention We Had a Moon Bounce?

Going with the adult-only kids's-themed party, my friend Karen suggested we rent a moon bounce. Once I found out they rent them for pretty cheap on base, it was a done deal. I mean, who doesn't love a moon bounce?

Deflated moon bounce

Setting up the moon bounce

The thing with moon bounces is that you're not supposed to use them when it's wet outside. Well, I live in England. It's always wet outside! We just did the best we could to grab the few dry moments as they came. Unfortunately, since the moon bounce didn't have a roof, the inside was completely wet (even when it wasn't actively raining). It made it very, very slippery inside.

Running in the rain

It was really fun, but not good for my cute party clothes.

Just a little wet after the moon bounce

Dan had a great idea to hand out our workout clothes to party guests so they don't have to ruin their clothes. It was a big hit. I think it added to the fun of the night because it was just so silly!

There was a lot of slipping and falling, but it just added to the fun.

I am so thankful that everyone had a great time and no one got hurt!

We had a couple other odds and ends to keep us occupied during the night. I bought mini-bottles of bubbles to play with, and our friends brought a paper lantern for Dan to set off. I was kind of nervous that the lantern would catch our huge trees on fire, but it didn't. It was beautiful.

Playing with bubbles

Paper lantern

All in all, it was a fantastic party (if I do say so myself--ha!), and Dan really enjoyed himself. Here's to a happy and healthy 30th!

P.S. You can see the other parts of the party here: DIY pinata; DIY bunting; party food and drinks