Courtyard Clean Up

We did major work on the courtyard area this weekend.  Since we don't own this place we didn't want to spend a TON of money to make it look nice, but we did want to spiff it up a little bit so that we can enjoy dinner on the patio every now and again.  We decided to buy some potted palms, herbs, vegetables (green pepper and tomato) and mulch.  Two trips to Home Depot and $100 later we had everything we needed.  It' nothing fancy, but I think a definite improvement over how it used to look.

Before:





After:

                                           We still need to get a new patio table and chairs!
 

                                                                         Basil

                                                             Tomato and Green Pepper

I'm curious to see how the veggie garden is going to turn out. I've never had much of a green thumb, so I'm keeping it simple and just starting out with two.  

And then, after our day of gardening (in 93 degree weather, did I mention that?) we decided to enjoy our new patio and try out the brand new grill we got for our wedding (thanks Reinharts and Pickards!) and make pizza on the grill!

I found this recipe via one of my favorite sites, Our Best Bites.  I was a little nervous the to try it, but it turns out that this pizza is not hard to make at all!  The key is to have all of your ingredients chopped and ready to place on the pizza before you even put the dough on the grill.  We decided to make a simple cheese pizza and it was delicious.  I highly recommend using sliced mozzarella instead of shredded for the cheese.  It adds so much more flavor.

Recipe: Lime Cream Trifle

Since it's the summer time, Derek and I have been invited to a lot of outdoor BBQs and get-togethers.  We stumbled upon this incredibly easy and extremely tasty dessert while watching the Food Network.  It cost less than $7 in ingredients and it takes about 20 mins to make (not including chill time).  The key to making this dessert is to allow the evaporated mik and condensed milk to blend for at least 5-7 minutes.  This incorporates air into the mixture and helps it become more "fluffy."  This dessert always receives a lot of compliments and it's hard not to admit how fast and easy it is to make.

Lime Cream Trifle
Recipe from Mexican Made Easy

Ingredients

• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
• 3 limes, juiced
• 1 lime, zested
• 1 (5.5-ounce) package Maria crackers, or 1 (4.8-ounce) package graham crackers
• 1 lime, for garnish, optional

Directions

Blend the condensed milk, evaporated milk and lime juice in a blender until smooth.

Spoon 1 cup of the lime cream into the bottom of a 6-cup glass trifle dish. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the lime zest. Then arrange 1/3 of the crackers over the cream, breaking them as needed to form a single layer. Repeat to make 2 more layers, ending with a layer of cream and a sprinkle of lime zest. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and chill until set, at least 2 hours, or overnight.

One Month

Now that the dust has cleared from the wedding, it's time to get down to business and dive in to this "married life" thing. It's hard to believe that we will have been married for one whole month as of tomorrow.  I know how cliche this sounds, but time has gone by so fast.  Between the wedding, the honeymoon, moving, and work those 30 days have zipped by. 

We have finally started to get a handle on organizing this new house.  I wish that I had taken some before and after pictures, but of course I forgot! I did remember to snap a picture of the old place all cleaned out and empty.  It was so weird to hear myself echo in it once all the furniture was moved out.

 It was a shoebox, but I'm still goting to miss it.

Our new place is coming a long slowly, but surely. We started hanging up pictures and most of the furniture is organized.  It's amazing how much bigger this place is compared to our last apartment.  I've have soo much space in the living room area.  Our last apartment could barely fit a couch and two small chairs.  This new living room has a couch, coffee table, 2 chairs, 2 end tables and a parson's table in it and it isn't anywhere near crowded.  I'm still getting used to the spaciness. We just have to buy a couple of small items here and there and the place will be complete.  Thank God for Bed Bath and Beyond gift cards.  Everytime I used one I send out a little Thank You to one of my wedding guests.

Maybe after the place looks a little more "together" I will post some pictures.