The Manchester England Area & Christine's Rhubarb Crumble Recipe

Note: We recently returned from three MARVELOUS weeks in Europe! Over the next little while, I'll be sharing our adventures with you {as well as some of the things we learned}. We chose to plan our own trip because we couldn't picture ourselves on a tour bus with a bunch of other tourists. Whenever possible, I'll explore the myths & stereotypes that I've always heard & if they are true or not. I'm going to be honest about our opinions & experiences - in doing so, I hope I don't offend anyone.

After days of staying in hotels, it was such fun to stay in Oldham with friends. My son got to know The Smiths {not their real name} when he served a mission for our church in that area. They were so kind to welcome us into their darling English home. 

John - in his gardening hat & Christine. Yes - the fuschia flowers hanging by their door ARE real!

And I loved this pretty fireplace in their home . . .

Best of all, they have a "Harry Potter cupboard" under their stairs!

Christine fed us such delicious food & even made one of Jeff's favorites on request - her Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble. {I'll share the recipe at the end of this post!}

While in the area, we tried to visit a lot of the places Jeff lived during his time spent serving a church mission in England. Chester was a very pretty city with lots of tudor style architecture.

We had fun walking around the city center.

We also enjoyed driving around in Knutsford {"Very posh" as Jeff would say} & seeing the temple in Preston. So beautiful.

Are there any Pride and Prejudice fans out there?  I adore the BBC movie version so it was a big thrill to visit Lyme Hall where the outdoor scenes for Pemberley were filmed.

Here are Chris & I are pretending to be rich on the very staircase that Mr. Darcy descends after cleaning up from his swim in the pond. 

I found Christian's "rich guy" face very effective & amusing!

{You can't imagine my disappointment when I heard that - had we arrived earlier in the day, we could have dressed & posed in period costumes. I would have LOVED that!} And, by the way, did you know there's a huge "Colin Firth emerging from the water" statue in London's Serpentine River? We missed it!

In Manchester, we went shopping at the HUGE Trafford Centre mall. {Which reminded me more of Las Vegas than England}. The shopping was great. I love a store called Fatface.

I was surprised to find a display of American junk food for sale in a department store. The prices were very high. For instance, the Trix cereal would have cost an equivalent of $11.36 for a box.

I was also amused by this awesome "Jerky Deli" .  . .

And speaking of food, as promised - here is Christine's recipe:

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

• Coat a 9x13 pan with a non-stick spray
• Cut up some rhubarb into 1" pieces & put in bottom of pan
• Add some strawberries {frozen works fine}
• Add 2 Tbsp water {if strawberries are frozen, make it 1 Tbsp.}
• Mix in about 1/2 cup of granulated sugar

To make the crumble topping:

• Cut 3/4 cup of butter into about 1 1/2 flour. Sprinkle onto rhubarb mixture.
• Sprinkle another 1/2 cup sugar on top

Bake at 350 degrees until rhubarb is tender. Serve with ice cream or custard.

Thank you, John & Christine for your wonderful hospitality. And thank you, to my dear son Jeff for showing us around your mission. I love you BIG!

Want to read more about our adventures? See the links below:

• To read about our visit to Scotland {CLICK HERE}
• Our Stay in Paris {And a Safety Warning}
• {CLICK HERE} to read about our London adventures
• To see what we did in Wales {CLICK HERE}
• {CLICK HERE} for a chuckle about the unusual signs we saw on our trip
• We LOVED Bath! {CLICK HERE} to find out why
• {CLICK HERE} for The Lake District in England
• For our visit to Ireland {CLICK HERE}