summer cooking!

We came home from Michigan with a couple loops of homemade sausage. Nick wanted to cook it up on the grill and it turned out perfect. The seasoning was so good and the sausage was so juicy, it made your mouth water just walking out onto the balcony.

They made a wonderful dinner and equally great left overs for the week. Here is my 'garden' growing bigger and bigger by the day. Even our neighbor stopped by and asked Nick about it one day. I'm anxiously awaiting the first strawberry of the summer!

Easter

We decided to celebrate Easter with our friends Matt and Jen. They were making ham, but Nick decided we wanted to bring a little Polish to our holiday. He called his grandma and got her recipe for Glumpkis and City Chicken. I decided to take the dogs for a walk while Nick got started on the food....this is what I came home to....

Nick was making a homemade sauce, in MY apron! After we softened the cabbage leaves enough, we were able to wrap all the filling into the yummy packages! And pour over Nick's wonderful sauce.... They turned out amazing!! We'll be making these again for sure! They we quickly put together the City Chicken, which was pork and veal breaded, fried then thrown in the over to finish. They turned out wonderful as well.

We had a wonderful dinner with friends to celebrate Easter 2011!

This is Bella giving us the accusing look whenever Audie is around. I think there are many times she's upset at us for getting another dog. However, when they play, they seem to have a good time. I think that eventually they'll be best buds :) Audie is close to 10 lbs now....in contrast, Bella is just over 7lbs. Doesn't she just look mischievous??

And then here she is watching me get ready for work, looking all sweet and innocent, like a good little puppy!

Spring is in the air....

Since I had such great success with my topsy-turvy tomato planter last year, I decided to replant it again this year. The thing is a beast and takes up a good portion of our tiny balcony.

I decided to buy 3 tomato plants (grape, regular and one specifically bred for a planter) and we'll see how it goes. I also planted a yellow pepper and strawberry plant. Last year I had one red pepper but it rotted before it was ripe enough to pick. Big bummer. Hopefully we'll have better luck this year!

I also planted a basil and cilantro plant. Randomly a parsley plant survived the winter and is hanging on by a thread....we'll see if I can get more than 2 leaves to grow off of it!Spring is here! Nick bought me my first (two) bunches of tulips!!! Yay!

the girls

Audie has been desperately trying to snuggle with Bella, but Bella has made sure the little one keeps her distance. So, Audie has been inching closer and closer....they can almost share a pillow now but Bella has still not let Audie actually touch her. Probably has something to do with Audie biting her butt whenever she has the chance :)

Here's Audie in one of her many sleeping positions. She's a funny one......

New Addition....

We got a little Yorkie/ maltese mix on Sunday. Since I named Bella, Nick picked out the name 'Audie' (as in Audie Murphy) even though she's a girl. It seems to fit as she is a tiny but mighty little fighter. She's just starting to respond to her name and sorta comes when called. Potty training is in full force.

Nick made a little sweater for her out of his sock :) She's very sweet but I think she may have a little devil in her ;)

Crepes

This morning I decided to make an old favorite. Crepes! We had some strawberries, blueberries, bananas for the insides and yogurt for the sauce. They were really yummy!

Nick decided he didn't want his crepes rolled up, so we made a layered crepe. Each layer had yogurt and then either strawberries or bananas....he had 5 layers!

They were huge and needless to say, neither of us finished our entire breakfast :)