Although the weather here in Richmond today isn’t exactly spring-ish, it definitely was a few days ago when it was about 75 degrees and sunny. Richmond weather likes to trick you a lot, with the temperatures climbing into the 60’s and 70’s in January and then diving back down to the 30’s the next day. But even though the weather’s shitty today I know that technically it IS spring and I have very high hopes that the warmer weather will return.
Josh and I have been quite busy with our gardening. We have a front covered porch on our apartment that faces north and a back stairway/porch that faces south, so we’ve done some container gardening with flowers and veggies for both sun and shade. Last year we grew roma tomatoes (our favorite tomatoes ever) and some green bell peppers on our back porch, and this year we planted some more baby tomato plants. They do surprisingly well in a large pot! We were able to have fresh tomatoes all last summer and we’re hoping for even more this year. We also have a little herb garden that I started from seeds and a larger one with herbs that we purchased. I can’t wait to be able to use them in our cooking!
Our apartment building isn’t exactly the prettiest, landscaping wise, but we knew we could at least do something about the porch outside our own apartment. In the back we attached some brackets to hang two window boxes and we planted tulips (my favorite flower of all time) and pansies. They make the outside of our apartment look really beautiful and springy. Our two cats Stewie and Sara love to watch birds, so we hung two bird feeders back there and we get tons of birds now. Here’s a shot of all three babies watching the birds.
My sister Ally and her boyfriend William bought us a grill for Christmas a few years ago and we’ve had many great meals with that bad boy. The other day Josh got inspired to fire it up for the first time this year, so he grilled some veggie burgers, Tofurky beer brats, and fresh corn on the cob and I made my grandma’s famous coleslaw to go with it (because you can’t have a BBQ without coleslaw).
We have many BBQ and picnic recipes that my family loves, but I thought I’d start off the season with posting my grandma’s Summer Coleslaw recipe. I’ve tried lots of different coleslaw’s and in my opinion this one is by far the best. You can use prepared coleslaw mixes (which is just shredded cabbage and usually carrots too) to make the recipe a little easier and it still comes out great. I’m so excited for summer so we can start making all these yummy barbecue foods..we’ve got some ideas swirling around our heads for a kickass barbecue sauce..it’s going to be delicious 
