Springtime 2010

So we had a lot going on this year, but we had a lot of good memories. With the coming of spring, the snow depths finally gone, we were able to open up the windows and the doors. One truism we've found in life is that you more effort you put into something, generally the more you get out of it. One such something for us was the balcony. This year we went all out (for our little space) in terms of plants and also tried to make it more room with little touches like an outdoor rug. It turned out really well, and we've used it a lot more this year than in the past. Here are some pics from one spring day:

View from the corner of the balcony.

View from inside - before we got things hung up.

Our strawberries!

Unfortunately, at one point since this picture was taken we were gone for 5 days, and the strawberry plants seem to have taken in personally. While they haven't died, they refuse to bear fruit. But hope is still out that the everbrearing plant will bear fruit, but we will see. Otherwise the tomato plants and sage are still going strong, but of course the basil is dead. We're not sure what to do with sage, but we have lots of it. I need to more research on what do with it - expect posts about sage in the future.

In other news, a few weeks ago we had my immediate family over for my Mom's birthday. From hosting a few of these gatherings, we've learned to try to not be overly ambitious in trying new recipes when we have large groups over as having we normally have to clean the whole apartment too. But we did try out potato slab pie (sorry no picture), which was a hit. Everybody fit in the apartment and had a good time:

And Liz made two kinds of cupcakes. One was lemon cupcakes with lemon custard inside and pink lemonade mini-cupcakes.

We've also discovered so much about our area this year. Liz and I keep looking at each other wondering where all of our time went last year before remembering we were planning a wedding. We've been on our balcony more, we joined a gym for a bit, now we go running on trails near the house (yes, Liz runs), and we have discovered a lot of new places.

More recipe posts coming soon!