The hubs and I have a rather impressive balcony on our apartment, however it tends to turn into storage for bikes and boxes waiting to be recycled, and junk furniture that we keep forgetting to take down on trash day. The balcony is nearly the size of our living room so wasting that space is a bit of a crime, so this year I decided to turn it into a proper outdoor living space.
I started by getting rid of a lot of junk and hiding the rest. If anyone needs firewood let me know, as I got a little overenthusiastic when a fellow rang our bell two winter’s ago selling fire wood.
We already had a great grill (electric Weber), along with a nice wire table and two comfy yet bright chairs, but I decided for optimal awesomeness we needed an outdoor couch to allow me to curl up and read.
After searching I found a simple and adorable (and reasonable priced) wicker loveseat at Lowe’s, who then impressed us when they called to deliver it mere hours after it was ordered (sadly we had to push the delivery a few days to attend a picnic). Once it, along with the cushion from Amazon, arrived we were set. The wire table we already had could be pulled up to it to work or snack or read (all of which was done in the first days we had it).
Then last week at Target I found some adorable globe lights to replace the wilting strand that had been hanging since last Christmas (mostly cause I forgot to take them down and it was too much trouble to take them down, then climb to the attic to put them away).
Once the lights were in place it was time to throw a dinner party, albeit it a rather small one with my, the hubs, and a friend who had a cold bottle of prosecco that needed drinking.
Since it had been a long week I decided to go super simple, and make pork kebabs with a grilled ceasar salad. The kebabs were simply pork loin cut into 1×1 inch squares that I tossed with some spice packets that were laying around (you could substitute 2T of garlic powder, 2T of salt, 1T of pepper, and 1/2T of cayanne if you have a lack of random stuff lying about). For the salad I took three hearts of romaine lettuce and tossed them on the grill, flipping after about 2 minutes until all the outer leaves were wilted. For the dressing I had wanted to make the Anchovy Caesar that I told you fine folks about last fall, however I was out of anchovies so instead I whisked the juice of 4 lemons with half as much olive oil and then added 4-5 T of finely grated parmesan. You could also use your favorite dressing and it would be delish.
It was a simple meal that took about 10 minutes to prep and the same amount to cook, but coupled with a cold beverage and lovely company it was the perfect mid-week unwind.
