Roof Deck Garden

We have lived in our condo coming up on 4 years. Whenever my husband and I discuss this, we are always amazed at this number…4 years- that is the entire duration we spent in college. Needless to say, time has certainly flown by. Since we closed on our condo in September of 2006, we have had three seasons to enjoy our roof deck. The first summer, we had our wedding and since I was pretty much tied up planning that, having the wedding, and then going on our honeymoon, I did not get a chance to do much with the deck. The past two seasons, I have attempted to plant flowers and trees to make it the perfect city oasis. Something like this roof deck we went to in Madrid should suffice:

Our deck somehow never seems to turn out like this. Each year, the plants die off one by one in the harsh conditions (full sun, constant wind from the harbor), and I sadly begin to throw out each plant that I painstakingly carried up 4 flights of stairs. Two summers ago, I eagerly planted cherry tomatoes and hot peppers. Coming home from work each day, I would race up to the deck to water and admire my beautiful vegetable plants. A most perfect tomato or pepper would start growing and I would wait for it to reach the perfect size before picking it. When that day would arrive, I would go to the plant to find that the perfectly ripe tomato was gone….nowhere in sight. Because you know what birds like, perfect little morsels for food grown for them in their airspace….grrr! All I can say, is that I hope those birds got their payback when they ate my habanero peppers.

Last summer, after a particularly hot and dry August (when I happened to be at that above roof deck in Spain and not home watering my plants), even my tough as nails pine trees bit the dust. Which leads me to this summer…a summer where I don’t even have a pine tree to start with. However, I do have my chives. I planted these chives by seed about three seasons ago and they always come back to me early each spring. They are pretty much my only redeeming gardening skill.

Well, I am going to attempt it again this year. We went to the nursery this past weekend and bought some new pine trees and plants. I’ll post pictures this weekend with the results.

Do you have any urban/container gardening tips?

-m

Emersonmade- fun flowers and flags!

Photo via emersonmade.com

I recently have been seeing the same site pop up on many of the blogs I read and decided to check out Emersonmade further.  Emerson and her business/partner husband Ryan started the shop in NYC and ended up moving to a farm in Vermont.  I just love how they market the items.  The products are mostly fabric flowers, but there are also a few other fun items as well (mini pennant flags, table linens, etc.).  I ended up ordering the green and yellow clutch above, as well as a mini-rose to pin onto a shirt and the mini flags to decorate with.  I thought this was a very cute business idea and the flower accessories would be a great idea for a wedding party.

Photo via emersonmade.com

Photo via emersonmade.com

-m

Spring in the City

It seems like all the trees and flowers have started to bloom in the past week in Boston.  It’s been so pretty walking around during my lunch hour to see all the flowers.  Tonight, husband M walked me to my photography class and we came across this beautiful cherry blossom tree:

I wish this tree was outside our condo!

-m

Curried Chicken Salad

While we were skiing a couple weekends ago, husband M’s aunt N made us a great chicken salad for lunch.  She mailed me the recipe and I combined it with another recipe I found on epicurious to make my own version this past weekend.  I also used the leftover curry powder mix I had mixed together for a chicken roti dish I made a little while back.  It turned out a bit spicier than your average chicken salad, but I love spice!

Curried Chicken Salad:

Ingredients-

-4 split chicken breasts with bone and skin still intact
-olive oil
-salt and pepper
-1/2 cup mayonnaise (I use light/low-fat)
-1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt (add more if you need to tone down the spices)
-5 tsp curry powder (see the chicken roti link above if you need a recipe for a good curry powder mix)
-1 tablespoon lime juice (approx 1 lime)
-1 tsp honey
-1/2 tsp ground ginger
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp pepper
-1 cup green grapes, halved
-1-2 celery stalks, diced
-French baguette

Directions-

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Rub the chicken breasts with olive oil and place them on a baking sheet. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.  Roast the chicken for 40-45 minutes, until just cooked.  Let cool slightly.  Separate the meat from the bones and skin and cut it into the 3/4-inch chunks.  Mix together the chicken, mayo, Greek yogurt, curry powder (add half now, and more to taste once everything is combined), lime juice, honey, ground ginger, salt, pepper, grapes, and celery.  Serve on sliced French baguette (also very good by itself without bread).

-m