City Girl In The Burbs

So I have spent a lot of time over the past almost year (can’t believe I have been in the burbs for almost a year already!) trying to figure out why my previous blog just phased its way out of my life. I love blogging and I love having followers and I love keeping almost a daily journal of things so I can look back on it. I also loved having a convenient searchable online recipe book! So why did I stop?? Honestly?? I put way too many other things ahead of it on my priority list. That is the truth. BUT the part that goes along with that which I won’t easily admit is I have a tendency to come up with WAY too many projects and, being the person that I am, I want them done in the same day. I hate more than anything having things left hanging over my head. Sooo I typically run around like crazy, pretty much breaking my back but I get it all done and then I am so tired that I don’t have the time to cook a real meal worthy of blogging about!

Let’s take for example, my past Saturday. Please keep in mind I could possibly be crazy!

The hubs and I woke early and met his parents for breakfast. Yay! Good start to the day! I love breakfast and his cute niece was in town so we decided to go to the park/playground after breakfast and get some quality time in. We left closer to lunch time and decided to stop into the stone store we passed to see what they had for stones. I want to do a stone border around the flower beds and the back yard edge and the hubs wanted to do some scattered stones within this ground cover we planted on a hill. So that took about an hour. From there, we were SUPPPPPPOSED to go to Pike’s, a local nursery, to get some plants for what would be my big project for the weekend. The hubs decided it was too hot to do so, so we went home. I decided to take advantage of the time at home and clean out ALL the closets and cabinets in the house and pull out stuff for donations. Three hours later I decided that I would do the yard project by myself but wanted the hubs’ input on plants so decided to drag him with me. 20 plants later and we are on our way home. Mind you it is now 430 and I am about to start a HUGE project!

When we bought the house, it was a foreclosure; new construction but the builder went under and the yard needed some work. Both the hubs and I have big plans for the yard. He wants more trees and I want Better Homes and Gardens and we will meet somewhere in the middle. So my big project for the weekend was our little side hill. This is what the hill looked like when we moved in. I realize I don’t have a fabulous picture of this, but this will at least give you an idea!

See that mess next to the stairs on the hill??? That is my project! The hubs and I tore all of this out in the fall and built a tiered garden with some retaining wall stones from Home Depot! And we ended up with this:

Not bad for my first time building a retaining wall, huh? I was pretty impressed with this! Then in the early spring, I planted some plants in here for a shade garden because at the time, this was a VERY shady spot. Turns out I was wrong. The summer months this becomes a VERY sunny and hot spot so all those beautiful shade plants started to burn out. So I decided my project would be to move all the shade plants to the side of the house so they would be in the shade and then plant the 20 plants I had just purchased! And that is what I did. I moved all the plants, and then planted all the new plants and ended up with this! Granted I was out there until 9pm at night, gardening by citronella candlelight, but I got it done!

My thoughts are this will get nice and big and Better Homes & Gardens-ish in a couple years. I do have an annual plant in the planter at the moment (I can’t plant anything there due to a drainage pipe! doh!) The bottom level has all perennial plants and the tough part for the bottom level, tons of sun and very moist soil. I had to do my research so hopefully this stuff will do well! The second tier has my raspberry bush, one of my strawberry planters, a half eaten tomato plant…stupid deer. I just need to say that I am an animal lover, but quite frankly, I am about to kill the deer and the rabbits….and all the snakes… I don’t like the snakes. I had a run in with a snake today when I let the dogs out. Can’t these animals stay in the woods where they belong so I don’t have to know that they are actually out there? Sorry for the tangent… so yes, a half eaten tomato plant (golden pear shape to be exact) and a ton of perennial herbs! And the third tier has my blueberry bushes – I have three kinds of bushes all of which bloom at different times so that I have a constant stream of berries! Love the berries!! Here are some thumbnails of the individual tiers in case you want to see a closeup!

And to continue with my normal crazy self, I decided to also make all of this on Saturday night. By the time I went to bed I was exhausted and THAT is why I don’t have time to blog as much! I made peanut butter brownies, gluten free of course. I made almond butter cookies, which are also gluten free and a fave of the hubs.I made lemon blueberry spelt muffins.  I made homemade pickles and for dinner I made an awesome roast beef with some mashed sweet potatoes with apple butter and sliced heirloom tomatoes! Yummmm!! Since this post is mainly dedicated to gardening I am not going to post the recipes for these here but I will at some point in the future!!

So as you can see, I sometimes like to overextend myself and it gets me into trouble! I think that is probably a complaint of my husband. You know some people’s eyes are bigger then their stomachs…well, my ideas are much bigger then anything I should really take on by myself. My theory is it is a learning experience, and it is a great feeling when it is all done, even if my entire body hurts! ; ) I’m young, right?

Yeah, this pic pretty much sums up the essence of my holiday weekend! Lots of people wearing goofy hats and having fun!

So the Wednesday before the fourth, we (being the hubs and I) decided to throw a 4th of July party along with a surprise 40th birthday party for my brother-in-law. For those of you that know me, you realize that this is a HUGE undertaking. You see, I am a planner and by planner we mean an OCD, control-freak, plan months-in-advance planner. I, unfortunately or maybe fortunately, am my mother’s daughter and I can’t do anything just simple. It needs to be perfect!! Lots of yummy food for all to enjoy and lots of beautiful decorations to suit the affair. Needless to say, I turned into a shopping, decorating, cooking, baking, and also snapping hurricane! BUT it all came together nicely and everyone had a wonderful time! The hubs probably wanted to divorce me through it (hence the snapping) because, as I said, I do become quite a little control freak but once the party came and went all was happy in the world!

Nothing is more fun to me then menu planning! I am a geek; I plan my weekly menu on Friday so I can do my grocery shopping on Saturday and that is how I roll! I love finding new recipes and try not to make the same thing too many times! I have tons of food blogs that I love and follow regularly! I must say a lot of them came in handy for this  event!

To start, we have the appetizers!

Luckily, I did not have to make all the food myself! I had the help of my mother-in-law and my husband’s aunts bringing several dishes so that is good!! But I also had a ton of recipes that I wanted to try! I don’t throw get togethers too often and I have lots of recipes that feed way more than just me and the hubs! So for apps, I made Blue Cheese Bacon Dip served with green apple slices, red grapes and toasted baguette slices with fresh black pepper. I found the recipe over at Tasty Kitchen. I also made a Spicy Sausage Dip which I found over at Annie’s Eats. I substituted regular sausage for Turkey sausage but it was quite delish! I don’t think anyone could tell the difference! I served the dip with Fritos because I thought that would be a fun combination! My mother-in-law made her famous sausage stuffed mushrooms and one of the aunts made a black bean & avocado dip which was quite tastie!

For the main course, we had grilled both sirloin burgers and chicken breasts. We had a bunch of sides too! We had grilled corn on the cob and the other aunt in attendance brought some wonderful cole slaw and her very yummy deviled eggs. One of these days I need to get the recipe because they are really good! When I do get that I will have to share the recipe! I made two sides, the first was an orzo pasta salad which I kinda made up. Here is my best idea of what the recipe is, mind you this feeds a lot!

1 box orzo pasta, cooked to package instructions

1 pint grape tomatoes sliced in half

1/2 large red onion, chopped fine

1 large green bell pepper, chopped

4 ears of corn, cooked and kernels sliced off the cob

Balsamic Vinaigrette of your choice

Fresh basil and parsley minced

Salt, Pepper (I use Crazy Jane’s as it has other spices too)

Combine orzo through corn in a large bowl. Add dressing and seasonings to your liking. I find that I like to make it the night before and let the flavors marinate and then do a taste test the next day and adjust seasoning as needed.

I also made a Loaded Baked Potato Salad which I found over at Tasty Kitchen as well! It was really naughty and really tastie! I would definitely make again! The hubs didn’t really like it but I would still try it for yourself as he is not a big potato salad kinda guy!

I almost forgot my cute drink station! I served sweet tea (a southern fave,) unsweet tea (yep I am a still yankee,) coke, diet coke, wine, beer and my most fave of all Lemon-Limeade in the cutest little drink dispenser! I had 4th of July straws to go with too! Isn’t this cute??

Seriously – I just love Pottery Barn! I couldn’t resist this!

Yeah remember how I said I am a geek? I made labels, labels and more labels! The hubs made fun of me for it, but it was a good idea that I did! That way everyone knew what they were eating without me having to be there to explain it! I had fun with the labels too! For instance, my dessert table had this on it:

So, now that I have shown you the menu! Here are the recipes and let me tell you, none of these desserts disappointed! I would make all of them again! Thanks to Annie’s Eats, I had fabulous S’mores Cupcakes and Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes! The hardest part was torching the S’mores cupcakes in my paper liners…I kept having small fires! Oops!

I also made Key Lime Pie ice cream, which I found over at My Recipes and I made this really simple PB&J Muddy Mix thanks to Picky Palate! And as I said before, it was a great time had by all! Here are just a few more pics of the event!

Happy Fourth Everyone!

The bday boy!

A cute niece

And lastly, a tuckered out doggie